I laughed, kind of, I was still too drowsy to be too coherent. “I think it’s Callum’s old beanbag and it’s really comfy. I might take it home with me.”
Jackson opened his mouth and then closed it again, shaking his head.
“We’ve been looking for you all day. For fuck’s sake, Seph, everyone’s been panicking. Payton’s been worried sick.”
I sat up. Making my pregnant sister worry was not on my agenda. “Is she okay?”
“I think she’ll be happier when she’s seen you.”
“Where did you think I was?”
Jackson stuffed his hands in his pockets which was a sign he was trying not to kill me.
“We phoned your neighbour at home, checked the village pub, searched every barn and stable at Callum’s twice – we were on the verge of phoning hospitals.”
“Shit.” I stood up and headed to the step ladder. “Why would I be in a hospital?”
“We didn’t know if you’d gone for a run and been hit by a car or… I don’t know. Just get your arse back down there and see your sisters.”
He almost pushed me down the steps.
“New Year’s Eve Eve. What are your resolutions?”
We were sitting in Callum’s kitchen on an unofficial stag night which involved the four of us looking through the photo albums and school reports I’d gone back into the loft for earlier. Shay had managed to get himself involved in some online gaming tournament – he really was addicted to computer games – while Payton, Claire and Ava had demanded date nights as tomorrow night would be spent toasting Callum and Wren. Van, Vic, the Green girl cousins and Wren were doing something girly and my parents had been roped into babysitting Eliza and Teddy.
It had left us at a loose end, so we’d decided to hijack Callum’s kitchen and find the most embarrassing pictures of him possible. We’d ended up finding pictures of all of us, including some of Max’s baby photos that I couldn’t wait to share around the office after the holidays.
“Listen to this, this is from Max’s English teacher when he was in Year Eight:‘Maxwell is a dedicated student but he needs to spend more time engaging with the text rather than staring at other students in the class.’” Jackson snorted. “Wasn’t that when you were obsessed with Olivia Akerman. I remember you writing her name in your maths book.”
“Possibly. Do you want me to remind you of what your science teacher had to say when you were in Year Eleven?”
Max was impossible to annoy since he and Victoria had the pregnancy confirmed. He was glowing even more than she was and I suspected it was killing him being away from her this evening.
“I’ll pass. But I’ll share this photo of Callum and Seph. This would be great in a magazine.” Jackson passed a picture to Max, who started laughing. “I hope it grew since then Seph.”
I didn’t respond. There were a lot of photos of me naked. Apparently, I had a thing as a child for taking my clothes off.
“You ever heard the termgrower not a shower?” I smiled at Jackson.
“I’d rather not hear about your dick at all, Seph. As cute as your nudity might’ve been then, I see too much of it when you parade around the changing rooms with everything hanging out.” Callum put a bottle of bourbon on the table. “We’re having a couple of shots, brothers, and then I’m going to claim my wife back.”
“It sounds strange you calling her that when we didn’t see you get married.” I looked at Callum as he poured. “I’m not surprised you did it that way though.”
Callum finished pouring and sat back down. “I know. Wren was bothered that you’d be hurt by it – especially Mum.”
“I don’t think any of us expected you to have something like mine or even Max’s, Cal. But how does it feel being married?” Jackson sat back, ignoring the pictures now. I had no doubt that he’d be going back through them tomorrow – it was kind of addictive.
Callum grinned. “Fucking amazing. I was blown away that she actually wanted to do it. I thought we’d be engaged forever. And the whole thing was perfect. I missed you guys, you know, it felt weird the night before not having you to rip the piss, but when we were on the beach saying our vows – I wouldn’t change it.”
I’d never seen him look so content. Part of me was insanely happy for him.
Another part was jealous.
“You think you’ll have kids soon?” Maxwell had spent most of the day talking about children and babies – far more than Vanessa. We’d agreed between ourselves to give him another two days and then we’d start ribbing him for it.
Callum shrugged. “It’s not off the table. We’re not planning to travel as much in the next year or two at least. We want to develop the practice here, and Wren’s been asked to do a research project at London Zoo. We’ll still go over to Marrakesh and check on the set up there when we need to, but we want to be closer to home. I guess I want to see more of Teddy and Claire’s kids and whatever spawn Max produces. There might be a chance we’ve talked about having our own.” His smile didn’t fucking go away.
Max sank back into his seat. “Marie won’t know what to do with all these grandchildren.” He looked at me. “Just got the youngest to marry off now.”
