The next day, she wasn’t sure if she had dreamed it or whether there really had been someone listening at the door.
21
Annabelle’s birthday was coming upand Jake suggested they took his parents out for a slap-up lunch in a good London restaurant, and treat them to a night in a posh hotel.
‘She loves that kind of stuff,’ he said when he outlined the plan to Kate. ‘And that way, she doesn’t have to stay with us.’
‘She couldn’t, anyway, not with Marisa.’
‘I know. But this way we can dress it up as a present and she won’t feel hard done by.’
It was a Sunday morning and he was heating up croissants in the oven while rain lashed down outside, turning briefly to hail which hurled itself against the glass doors, the sound of it clattering like marbles spilled on the floor.
‘Sure, it’s a great idea,’ Kate said. ‘Can we afford it?’
‘I mean, not really, but I’d like to do something to mark her birthday. And then we’ll have a chance to tell her about the surrogacy in a neutral setting.’
‘OK.’
Kate resented the way they had to ‘handle’ Annabelle, as though she were an overly sensitive child. She’d been matter-of-fact when she told her own parents, who were supportive once she’d explained to them what surrogacy actually was and why they were doing it. Her mother’s main concern had been what they were thinking of calling the baby and whether the child would have Jake’s surname or Kate’s, given that they weren’t married.
‘Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,’ Kate had said. ‘There’s a long way to go yet.’
‘Don’t leave it too late, love,’ her mother replied and then she had put the kettle on. ‘Cup of tea?’
But Annabelle was a different business, and Jake had been worried about telling her ever since they’d started looking for a surrogate. Kate found it difficult to understand why he cared so much what his mother thought of him, given that he was a thirty-nine-year-old man and capable of making his own decisions about life. She wondered if it was that having been sent to boarding school at a young age, he subconsciously always felt that his mother didn’t approve of him, and he had been trying to compensate for this lack ever since. Kate had mentioned this theory to Jake shortly after they met, but he had brushed it aside and told her to please spare him ‘the psychoanalytic bullshit about boarding school’, and that had been that.
The call was made to Annabelle, who was delighted with the birthday plan and when the allotted Saturday arrived, Jake got dressed in a linen suit, Kate in a floral tea-dress and low heels. They walked downstairs and picked up the keys from the bowl on the hallway table. As they gathered up their coats, they heard Marisa behind them.
‘Where are you two going?’ she asked. She was holding a paintbrush in one hand and a jar of cloudy water in the other.
‘Taking my mother out for her birthday lunch,’ Jake said.
‘Oh. Well, have fun, won’t you?’
‘I very much doubt we will,’ Kate said.
‘Kate,’ Jake said, mild admonishment in his tone. ‘We will, thank you.’
Marisa stood there as Jake opened the front door, holding it for Kate to pass under his arm into the street.
‘I’d love to meet her one day,’ Marisa said.
On the doorstep, Kate looked at her quizzically. It was an odd thing to say, wasn’t it? Or was it perfectly normal for a surrogate to want to meet the mother of the soon-to-be-legal parent?
‘Be careful what you wish for,’ Jake said, drily.
Kate shrugged her arms into the sleeves of her trench coat.
‘See you later, Marisa,’ she said, keeping her voice breezy but marking the definite end of the exchange.
‘Yes, see you! What time will you be back, do you think?’
‘Not sure. We’ll be a few hours, I imagine. Bye,’ Jake said, closing the door. ‘Have fun,’ he shouted through the letterbox.
‘Have fun?’ Kate laughed as they walked through Vauxhall Park. There were workmen planting lavender bushes and creating a new tarmac path through the grass. ‘What did you say that for? She’s not a child.’
‘I don’t know. I just felt like I’d done something wrong by not asking her along. Did you get that?’
