“Are we celebrating?” Ava, my littlest sister who could do no wrong apart from having married my friend and one of the other partners in the firm, asked.
Seph almost toppled off his seat. “If we’re celebrating whatever you’re telling us, I need to give my news else it’s going to put a dampener on it.”
Some insight from the boy. A rare thing.
I gave him a slight nod when he looked at me. This was the right thing to do for everyone’s sake, especially him.
Everyone quietened. They already knew this wasn’t good news.
“The first thing you need to know is that everything’s going to be okay. This is a thing we have to fix, but after that, there are no predicted issues. Please don’t bombard me with questions after I’ve told you or ask why I didn’t tell you straight away. I just want to tell you this and then have a good day with everyone being together.” He looked like he was trying to relax and doing a bad job of it.
“Get to the point, Joseph.” Marie tapped him on the shoulder. “The anticipation’s going to make it worse.”
“It’s Rose. She needs heart surgery.”
For the next five minutes he explained what he’d told me, Callum the only other person speaking, explaining terms we weren't familiar with and assuring us that this was a pretty common malady, mainly because he was a vet and had a better grasp of anything medical than the rest of put together, and even then it was usually to do with big cats and farm animals.
“I know two children who’ve had this done,” Claire said, when Seph had finished. “And both are doing brilliantly now. They have a check-up every year or so, but one of them’s just hit the top of her age group in the county for long distance running.”
Seph laughed and it didn’t sound forced. “I think Rose is hoping this gets her out of any form of running.”
“Unless it’s to a bookshop. She was messaging Owen last night about getting a certain author into one of the stores and there was some serious emotional and financial blackmail going on.” Payton was a bookworm and she’d happened to meet her husband, Owen, in a bookstore which he actually owned. Owen was the only human on earth with enough patience to manage Payts’ neuroticism.
Seph smiled at his twin. They’d never lived in each other’s pockets but they’d had something different than the rest of us. “Tell him to book that author.”
“I will.” Payton left her seat and jumped on Seph, pulling him into a huge hug.
Seph buried his head in her shoulder, obviously upset, wanting to hide some of it although none of us needed him to hide it. He was the most emotional of all of us to start with and rarely kept his feelings hidden, never understanding why he should keep them buried, which was healthier than the stiff upper lip I used to practice.
Someone had the sense to go and get some beers and the champagne and bring them upstairs, a few questions floating round and I explained why he hadn’t told us until now, because Marie had ushered him away into his old bedroom for a moment.
“I think we should open that champagne now.” Claire reached for the bottle, the corkscrew next to her.
Dad grabbed it before she did. “I’ll do it. You’re mum’s coming back now and I think we need to get this over and done with.” He shot Marie a look that worried me.
“This really isn’t bad news about your health, is it?” Unless they’d lied to us, it wasn’t. All of us had ended up messaging Marie separately, seeking reassurance that they were both okay.
She’d gotten pissed off and sent a group message asking if we wanted evidence and would Dad’s latest letter about his prostate help.
We’d all stayed quiet.
“No. We’re both well and Rosie will be too.” He sounded so confident about this even I felt better. “Come on, Marie. Claire’s about to open the champagne.”
We were mainly stood up when Marie got there, Seph with her and looking brighter. She viewed us all, assessing thesituation and what was going to be a bomb dropped, which felt obvious now.
“We’re selling this house. We have a buyer who wants a quick move – he wants to move in here in a few weeks.” Marie was still intently watching us, gauging our reactions. “So the champagne’s to celebrate new beginnings.”
There was a pop and our dad opened the champagne, passing the bottle to me to pour before opening a second. One bottle wouldn’t be enough.
The seven of us were quiet. Seph caught my eye, a quick glance reminding me that he was right.
In this case.
“Why didn’t you ask one of us if we wanted to buy it?” Callum accepted a glass and sat down on Marie’s chair. “We grew up here. Maybe one of us would’ve wanted to stay in it.”
Marie smiled, sipping the fizz. “What if two or three of you wanted it? There'd have been fallings out and we’d have had to choose and the place would’ve ended up with bad memories. You all have your own families and houses, and I’m sure none of you want the same bedroom as where we made three of you. Would you like more details about the memories that were created in that room?”
“And the lounge,” Dad gave Marie a wink.
