“Yes, Mia’s like your sister. Technically she’s your foster sister and I’m her foster mum, so you can explain it like that to people.” She glanced at me. “Not sure what Cassian is.”
“He’s Cassian.” Heidi summed it up perfectly.
I had thoughts that night, lying awake in Romy’s bed, enjoying the weight of her warm body pressed against mine as she slept. We’d had a bottle of champagne to celebrate, the girls having sparkling elderflower in grown up glasses which they thought was amazing and ended up being really giddy, which meant they’d been tired enough for an early night.
I wanted this permanently. Romy, Heidi, Mia, maybe more kids if Romy was up for that. I wanted this to be my life.
TWENTY-THREE
Romy
“Where do you want this to go?” I was holding a floor lamp that’d just been delivered, the sixth or seventh delivery so far this morning, because Cassian was nothing if not thorough. The house had been officially finished and ready to move into on Monday, and it was now Saturday. Today was moving in day, Cas having spent the last three weeks at the Puffin Inn as Beryl and her husband were finally back off their cruise.
It was going to be a sea-change for all of us. We’d gotten used to Cas being next door, the girls often found in Beryl’s back garden, pestering him with showing him something they’d made up or demonstrating one of Heidi’s ever lasting plays which were her latest craze. Or he was in our own little cottage, making dinner or listening to them read, or sat on the sofa with me while we binge watched a series once the girls were in bed.
While he’d been in residence at the Puffin Inn, he’d been at the cottage most evenings, not wanting to become a fixture in the pub like he had when he’d first moved into town.
Now he had his own space back, which meant it’d be harder for me to see him on tap, so there was a bittersweetness to unboxing the floor lamp which was designed to illuminate a book.
“Lounge, just next to the sofa.” He was carrying in a huge dining table with Roe, the two of them having struck up a friendship that reminded me and Freya of teenaged boys. The same sort of humour, interest in computer games and adolescent jokes. “Holy fuckness, this is heavy.”
“Man up.” Roe pushed the table quicker, almost making Cas stumble.
“Fuck you. Shit, where are the girls?” He looked around, panicking that they might’ve heard him swear.
They’d heard him swear before, which hadn’t bothered me. They knew not to repeat it and I’d agreed they could use the word ‘shit’ when they were twelve and only in certain circumstances.
“They’re outside, doing something with shells so you don’t need to worry owing the swear jar.” He hadn’t escaped paying into that.
Two minutes later and he was in the lounge with me, looking sweaty and rather mucky, which had a weirdly heat-inducing effect on me. I put my arms around him, finding him just as sweaty as he’d looked.
“I think we should pretend you’re a removal man and I’m your boss later.”
He frowned. “I don’t think we ever need to pretend who’s the boss. We both know that’s you. Are you staying here tonight?”
I nodded, enjoying the feel of his muscles that’d become more defined since the football season had fully kicked in. “Unless you want a quiet night on your own?”
“That’s the last thing I want.” He nuzzled my hair. “We’re having people round tomorrow as well. There’s the covered area at the back where we can barbecue even if it’s raining.”
“The forecast’s dry. Then one more week until half term.” Which was when we were going away on holiday with Heidi and Mia. A week in Turkey, instead of Disney which had been my first plan. It would be Mia’s first holiday abroad and first time on a plane, a week of swimming, reading, a family suite with a swim up pool and a beach where it wasn’t going to be raining and I wouldn’t bump into Mavis.
God forbid I bumped into Mavis.
“I can’t wait. But, I need to get the rest of the furniture in.” He moved away from me, just far enough so he could press a quick kiss to my lips just as Roe stuck his head in.
“Stop canoodling and get on with helping me, slacker.”
There was more banter, and I was passed another recently delivered box with cushions and throws in for the lounge, ones I’d helped Cas pick. I unpacked them, placing them where I thought best, knowing that there’d be a couple of nights at least when Cas fell asleep on the sofa for the night while he was watching TV.
It was going to be strange him being here. Weird to help him set up a house that we weren’t going to be living in or popping round to every few hours if he wasn’t at ours.
I moved upstairs to set up the spare bedrooms. It was a five bedroomed house, and at one point the previous head had lived here with his three kids. It would be a big house for Cas on his own, a thought which kept reverberating round my head.
My cottage was too small for me, Heidi and Mia. The spare room I’d cleared out was okay for Mia at the moment,but it wouldn’t be big enough for a teenaged girl and having one bathroom between us was never going to work. I was considering selling up and buying something with more space, but I’d been holding off telling Cas about it.
I sat down on the bed I’d just made, a three quarter size that suited the room nicely. The room was painted in a light green which suited the view over the farmer’s fields nearby.
“Slacking off?” Cas’ dark hair appeared round the door. “We’re going to stop for lunch – Roe’s just gone to get a load of sandwiches and Freya’s outside with the girls and the baby.”
