“You proposed twice?” I hadn’t heard this story before.
He looked shy about it. “She didn’t answer the first time. I didn’t think she was going to say yes, because why would she? We’d had a fling in New York where she lived and had a nice apartment and a career. I had a career but I had four kids with no mother and a whole ton of baggage, so I thought she must be insane for even considering it.”
“So where did you propose?”
“In the elevator on the way to the private observation deck of the Empire State Building. I convinced one of the workers there to pause the lift to give me a bit longer to make the pitch. She told me to ask her again when we climbed to the top and said yes.” His face brightened as he remembered. “That was the last night in New York. I caught my flight early that morning and nearly didn’t get on it because I didn’t want to leave Marie behind. I did get on the plane and she was there waiting for me.”
I suspected the grin on his face was the same as it had been when he’d seen her there. “And you brought her back to us.”
He nodded. “You were all in a state. I don’t think any of you’d bathed for days and the house looked like the lost boys from Peter Pan had lived there before Wendy sorted them out.”
“That’s pretty much how it felt. Callum’s said to me before that Marie was his Wendy.”
He looked into the distance at nothing in particular. “She did change everything.” He grinned. “She didn’t let me get away with anything. I remember when we were in London one evening and you and Jacks had rugby practice. I had an urgent thing to do on a file – I can’t remember what it was – and Marie was going out with friends for a meal. I remember trying to get her to cancel so she could take you and the roasting she gave me. I think she nearly brained me with a stiletto.”
“You took us though, didn’t you?” I couldn’t remember this, but there had been a lot of rugby practices when we moved to London.
“I did. I went over the file when you’d gone to bed – I think Jackson had a black eye after that practice – and Marie got home very giddy from drinking red wine. I realised the next day that I was pretty good at remembering things and didn’t need to give files a second and third read every time.”
“You were a perfectionist.”
He nodded. “With work. You inherited that trait and I’m sorry about that. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Laughing, I checked my phone. There were a couple of texts from Vic about ordering food and could I pick up some orange juice on the way back for the boys.
“I’m not as obsessed as I used to be with work.” I knew that was true. I’d made sure it was true.
“I agree. Meeting Victoria was the best thing I could’ve hoped for you. When you stupidly ended it, I wanted to shake you.” He finished his pint. “And you’ve been a much better dad than I ever was.”
“Thank you. You did get better when Marie started telling you what to do.” I finished the rest of my pint and stood up. “We did too. She was very bossy.”
“She had to be.” He slid off his stool too, saying thank you to the bar staff. “Let’s get back before they send out the dogs to find us.”
Jackson, Van and their kids were there already when we arrived back, the house full of noise, most of it laughter along with the occasional whinge from a child.
We ate, the Chinese arriving just after Dad and I got back, and then the kids disappeared to the cellar for a movie night, most of which would be spent arguing about what they watched.
“Max said something about a holiday before Christmas,” Jackson said, swirling wine around in his glass. He fancied himself as something of a wine connoisseur at the moment which was great for ripping the piss out of him.
Marie topped up her own glass. “We want to take you all to Lapland with the kids. Do the sleigh rides and see the northern lights, stay in an ice hotel for a night. We were thinking four nights, getting home on Christmas Eve.”
“I’d get back the day before Christmas Eve. The kids will be nuts on Christmas Eve and if we get back the night before we can do the usual breakfasts and pyjama day. They’d miss that if we didn’t get back until mid-afternoon or something and be too tired.” That was Jackson’s opinion which I was inclined to agree with.
Vic pinched a piece of prawn toast from my plate. “I think getting home the day before is better. I’d say to do three nights away too. They finish school on the Thursday, so Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, home Monday, Christmas Eve Tuesday – that’d be perfect.”
“Are they all finishing the same day?” Marie looked at her phone.
“I think Rose, Teddy and Eliza are a day earlier.” Vanessa sat back in her chair. “We’ll need to get the Christmas presents over to Oxford and pack for Christmas away in advance. That means being organised.”
Jackson glared over at her. “We don’t have any problem with being organised.”
“No, but Seph and Georgia aren’t the most organised.” Van patted his arm. “And they’re going to have a lot going on.”
“All being well, Rose will be absolutely fine by October.” Marie put her phone down. “I spoke to a specialist I know. He’s based in New York, so he doesn’t know Rose specifically, but Georgia sent me some of the notes over and I asked him what his thoughts were. It really is a standard procedure now to prevent her from having problems in the future. A few years ago and they wouldn’t even know what was the matter with her.”
“I think Seph’s worried about complications with the operation,” I said. I’d spent more time than usual with him this week, away from work and photocopiers.
“I’ve told him not to bother trouble. We can think like that about anything and getting all stressed beforehand isn’t going to be helpful to anyone, especially Rose.” Marie sipped at her wine. “You think the Lapland trip’s a good idea?”
