‘You’ve caught the sun,’ Gracie said to Noms as she and Jack walked through the front door. She was painting her nails a bright red.
‘Look what Mum’s friend Lee gave me the other day.’ Jack proudly showed off his new scooter.
‘Take it through into the garden, Jack, we’ll sort out charging it once I’ve spoken to Auntie Grace.’
‘But I want to ride it now.’
‘Come on, be a good boy. Why don’t you go and get changed out of those dirty clothes. You’ve had a lovely day.’
Jack harrumphed, abandoned the scooter against the fridge, and went up to his room.
Noms groaned. ‘It beats me why schools you pay for have the longest holidays! I’ve got weeks more of amusing him. But at least I have the time to do it.’
‘Lee, eh?’ Gracie smiled.
‘It’s near enough.’
‘Can’t believe I haven’t had the chance to talk to you about it. How did it go?’
‘Better than I thought it would, actually. He is a decent bloke, isn’t he? Jack loves him, helped by the material bribe, obviously.’
Gracie laughed. ‘I’m really pleased you agreed to let him meet him.’
‘I’ve said that he can come and see him whenever he’s around and then, I guess, we just see how things pan out.’ Noms put the kettle on.
‘Maybe he can take the school holiday pressure off, give you a break.’
‘Hmm. He did say he was thinking of buying a place here, so maybe.’ Noms was thoughtful for a second. ‘He thinks the world of you, you know, Grace.’
‘Really?’
‘You know he does. His exact words were that you make his heart happy.’
‘How sweet is that?’
‘I know. He really is just a normal bloke under his famous face.’
Gracie laughed. ‘A normal bloke, recognised by half the world, who’s a multi-millionaire with women dropping at his feet and who is never in one country for more than ten minutes. Yeah, really normal.’
‘He’s got to settle down one day.’
Gracie frowned. ‘Noms, you’re the realist here. What’s going on. Settle down? With plain old thirty-eight-year-old Gracie Davies, demonstrating a curvy figure and no womb? I don’t think so.’
‘Oh, Grace. Listen to you. You’ve got to stop this low-self-esteem rubbish. You are an amazing person. You are beautiful inside and out. Any man would be a fool not to see that. You makemyheart happy, too, little sister. In fact, you make my world a better place to live in.’
‘Stop it, you. Going all sentimental on me. Well, I’m seeing him tonight. You know how last minute he is. His driver is picking me up at seven thirty.’
Noms smiled. ‘Hence the nail painting. I get it.’
‘He’s told me to pack an overnight bag but I’m not going to sleep with him. I can’t put myself into that predicament. And it feels a bit weird because of you, too.’
‘Don’t be so silly. Enjoy the now, Grace, I told you I have no interest in him romantically anymore. In fact, I’m seeing Ali tomorrow night. I really like her. It’s mad. I can’t stop thinking about her.’
‘Who’s having Jack? Do you want me to?’
‘No, he’s having a sleepover at Mali’s. He’ll take his scooter, he’ll be fine. And you might be too tired.’ Noms winked and put two steaming mugs of tea in front of them. ‘Have you heard from Lewis, by the way?’
‘Thank you and erm... He texted earlier saying that he’d still had no word from her. Part of me feels like asking him to drop it. She obviously doesn’t want him to know if he is the father. Maybe opening a new can of worms is not the way forward. What good will knowing do for either of us?’
