She nodded, but didn’t tear off, walking off casually, chatting to Lucy about something or other.
“Just draw the line, Seph,” Max said, still standing with his back to the wall which for some reason was fascinating Bear and Tomas.
“I’m enjoying the view. It’s really obvious now how much taller I am than you.” My line was significantly higher.
Well, a centimetre.
Noise started, footsteps came through the larder and more adults and kids arrived, cramming into the room.
“What’s happening?” Payton looked puzzled. “Are we going to throw rotten veg at Max or something?”
“Good idea.” I was enjoying Max’s glare. “No, we’re doing heights. Let’s get everyone lined up.”
There was moaning and bickering, the adults and the kids lining up in height order, now on the opposite wall to where we’d had our growth chart, Georgia having appeared with Luke and helping the kids to work out who went in which order.
“I don’t think Seph’s actually much taller than Max.” Ava pointed at us both. “Sorry, Joseph.”
“That’s because he’s wearing trainers with thick soles and I’m in socks.” Which was absolutely true. “Shoes off, everyone.”
That took an extra five minutes of faffing and a lot of complaining from Max.
Then we were ready. Killian drew the lines, making sure backs were straight and hands were out of pockets, probably reminding him of when he’d been in the marines.
Each name was written neatly next to the line, as well as our age which was harder for some to admit than others. Then we stepped back and looked at our well-intentioned graffiti.
“We should do this again in Oxford. The kids won’t see this again.” Georgia whispered into my ear, her arms around me,watching where Rose was. Rose had been the fourth biggest, even though she was the oldest.
“We can do it in the room we used to use as a playroom.” I thought of the house at Oxford. We had many memories of it there because that’s where we’d been freer, at least for me, Payton and Ava. When we’d been there school had been a spot on the horizon behind us as we ran into the holidays or a long weekend. We’d had the fields to run around in and trees to climb, the endless summer days that became warm nights when we’d been left to live a little bit wild.
“What’s that?” Max hovered nearby.
“We should do this in Oxford.” I said, my arms wrapped around Georgia. “The heights. Then repeat it every year.”
“Good idea. Vic’s suggested ordering pizza. You in?”
Pizza was always a good idea.
It was after the kids went to bed that I finally got some alone time with Georgia. Our days were busy; we both worked full time, picked the kids up, had dinner, tried to keep them alive and then flaked out on the sofa after exchanging about a dozen words in total between us, usually something to do with the kids. Meals out could happen – we took turns in babysitting each other’s kids, having Friday or Saturday night sleepovers so someone could have a date night or a lie in, or in most cases, takeaway in front of the TV without someone shouting for their arse to be wiped, or that their sibling was hurting them, or why was the sky blue and why couldn’t it be neon pink and it wasn’t fair.
I had asked why I couldn’t watch fifteen minutes of a programme without being interrupted and that wasn’t fair, but my offspring weren’t concerned with that because their entertainment needs came first.
Always.
I’d once laughed at Killian for saying he was absolutely last in the pecking order in his house. We’d taken the piss out of him for being under the thumb of five women.
Now I understood.
So lying on the sofa, with Georgia’s head on my stomach, her hair everywhere and her eyes half closed, with no noise from anywhere because the rest of the house was asleep, was utter bliss.
Quiet.
It was underrated.
“Are you okay with your parents selling the house?” She fractured the silence. “I thought you’d have been more upset than you are.”
I thought for a moment. The whirlwind with Rose had been such that everything, including the house, was inconsequential and I hadn’t been absorbing it like I might’ve done.
“It’s been strange being back there the last few days.” It’d felt like a dream, a really odd dream.
