There were two. The test was positive.
8
An experience day racing supercars – Claire to Killian
Seph
I was goingto be an uncle.
I already was an uncle; Claire had Eliza, and Jackson had Teddy, but Payton being pregnant was different. She was my twin; we’d started school on the same day, graduated on the same day, shared birthdays – but we wouldn’t be sharing this.
I’d be a fantastic uncle to her baby. And at some point, I would threaten Owen about what would happen if he didn’t take care of them, I just couldn’t do it at the moment because he didn’t know yet. Plus, he had about two inches on me. I’d probably have to find a reason to sue him instead.
“You in?” Jackson nudged me. “You’re away in dolly-daydream land.”
I nodded and pushed a twenty-pound note into the middle. I’d lost the last hand without any grace, being utterly slaughtered by the stag himself. “I’m in.”
“That’s a nice gift there, Seph,” Max commented on my stake. “I’ll enjoy putting that towards a decent bottle of whisky.”
At the very least, I should have had some sort of come back, but the motivation wasn’t there.
“As long as you let me have a glass.”
Max eyed me but didn’t respond, meaning he knew something wasn’t right but he wasn’t pressing.
I had to get myself out of this funk, else I’d have Max worrying that I was going to go on a bender or something and he had better things to be concerned about, given he was getting married in a couple of days.
“Actually, I’m going to get some fresh air. Consider that a token, because when I’m back, I’ll be bankrupting you all.” I pushed my chair away and headed out of the room towards the external door.
Snow had been falling all day. There were weather warnings for black ice on the roads and some areas of England were reporting record snowfalls for the decade so far. There were only a couple of people left to arrive: Eli and Shay. Shay was the only Green male, a doctor now based at a London hospital, specialising in paediatrics. He pretty much lived at work, a fact to which I could testify as he was technically living at my apartment, apart from that I rarely saw him. It was mainly his unpacked luggage that was a reminder of him owing me rent.
I yanked on a pair of wellies that I’d left near the door and borrowed a waterproof, deciding to take a walk to the cabin where I’d been stuffed. I didn’t mind giving my room up for Maven, and I got that everyone else was a couple, or sharing a room, like Lainey and Catrin, or my siblings and their partners, but it had already become a joke.
The cold zinged at my skin, nipping at my face instantly. The lights from the house and the outside lamps made the snow glimmer, looking like a sea of diamonds beneath my feet. An owl hooted and there was a shudder in the bushes. I heard a cheer from inside the house, probably someone folding at the game.
I breathed.
Seeing the two blue lines on Payton’s pregnancy test had underlined the fact that I was no longer a child. Yes, I was thirty. I hadn’t been a kid for a bit, but I hadn’t quite made it to adulthood either. Now I felt like it was time.
And that scared me.
The idea of Payton holding a tiny baby – my twin, who I still remembered running round on a beach with her hair in pigtails and yelling because her ice cream had melted – was making me feel as if I suddenly had panoramic vision, that gifted me a bigger picture, one that I wasn’t sure how to be part of.
I walked to the cabin, hearing the crunch of snow, now oblivious to the flakes that were falling on my shoulders. Fresh footprints were at the doorway.
Large ones.
What. The. Very. Fuck?
I pushed open the door and saw luggage that I definitely recognised, mainly because I’d fallen over it several times before.
“Shay?”
I closed the door and looked around. The cabin had three rooms; a sitting room that could be used as a second bedroom with its pull-out sofa bed, a bedroom and a toilet with a sink.
I heard a toilet flush and knew exactly where Shay was. There was running water, a good thirty seconds because Shay was a stickler for hygiene more than anyone I knew, and then the door opened.
“Holy fuck!”
