I kissed him back and got out of the car with no promises of when I’d see him again. My heart was conflicted as I walked away. I already missed him, but those precious hours I’d spent with him would stay with me forever.
* * *
Charlie was waiting for me in the hallway, half dressed in outdoor clothes, one wellie boot on his foot. Mae was a little ahead of him, charging for the front door.
I caught her, swinging her up to one hip and collecting Charlie to sit on the other. “Where’s the fire?”
Charlie slow blinked as if he’d just woken up—he’d inherited my dislike of early mornings.
Mae poked me in the ribs with the magic wand she was carrying. “Uncle Fen’s here. Let me down.”
Oh.“He’s not here anymore, bug. He just left.”
Mae’s face fell. “Why?”
“He had to work.”
Mae stuck her bottom lip out. With any other child I’d have been worried they were about to unleash a serious dose of the waterworks, but Mae McCade was my sister’s child and I was fairly sure her main emotions were mischief and rage.
She wriggled free of my hold and darted to the front door, hurling it open hard enough to smash against the wall. The rumble of Fen’s car engine could still be heard, but he was nowhere in sight and this kid legitgrowled, turning on me with a face of thunder. “He’s gone!”
I didn’t point out that I’d already told her that. If she’d really been my sister, she’d have kicked me in the balls. Instead, I pointed at the kitchen. “Do you want chocolate on toast for breakfast?”
Just call me Super Nanny. Mae forgot Fen and ran like a hurricane to the kitchen. I followed with Charlie and dug Safia’s secret stash of Nutella out of the top cupboard.
She made bread every day. I cut child-sized slices from yesterday’s loaf and threw them on the Aga wondering, for the thousandth time, how my life had morphed into a scene from a Hallmark film.
“I don’t want bananas.” Mae thwacked the back of my legs with her wand. “They’re yucky.”
“I didn’t say anything about bananas.”
“Mummo makes us eat them.”
“I’m not your mum.”
“You’re too hairy,” Addie supplied from behind me. He wandered into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. “But she said to tell you you’re looking after us this morning while she has a bath and shaves her legs.”
“Nice. Where’s your baby sister?”
“With Mummo. She’s asleep.”
Addie slid into a chair at the table. I made extra toast for him, slathered the lot in sugary chocolatey crap without a single piece of fruit in sight. Yep. Definitely Super Nanny.
We made it through breakfast without any tears, not even mine. Addie cleaned up while I dressed Charlie and failed in every attempt to convince Mae that her wizard costume wasn’t the best outfit for feeding the pigs.
“They like Mrs Wizard. I cast spells to make them fatter.”
Okay. Whatever. She won. I lost. But I couldn’t deny that a morning in the company of three small humans who didn’t give a tiny fuck about things that were supposedly important was refreshing. We fed pigs, painted pictures, and rinsed our way through the household DVD collection. Maybe I should’ve taken them outside more, but they had Paddy for that. I was the fun uncle who let them eat shit and nap on the couch.
I was halfway to a snooze myself when Safia and Paddy came downstairs from what was clearly a morning well spent.
Safia took over the childcare. I made my escape and Paddy walked with me back to the log cabin.
“It’s nice having another adult around.” He cast me a sideways glance I chose to ignore on principle that he’d just had the time of his life banging my sister. “Gives Safia a break.”
“From you?”
“Very funny. No, I mean from running around after Addie and Mae. In case you haven’t noticed, they’re, uh, lively.”
