They haven’t told me what I should do, discussed damage limitation or how my misdemeanours will reflect on them. They simply accept me as I am. The one thing I’ve craved my entire life.
‘Thank you, Mrs Jackson. That’s the best laugh I’ve had in a long time.’
‘Call me Penny, please.’ She steers me towards the kitchen like a mother hen.
By the time we’re sitting around the opulent oval table, we’re on our second glass of Malbecand I feel as if I’ve known Frank and Penny for years. They’re such easy company. Unafraid to laugh at themselves. And there is no such thing as too much information.
‘So, when we finally got checked into the hotel yesterday, I ran us a bath.’ Penny wiggles her eyebrows at Frank. Nate grips my thigh beneath the table. ‘When Frank unpacked his wash bag, he realised he’d forgotten to pack the Viagra,’ Penny sniggers. ‘I mean, what man in his late sixties brings his wife for a dirty weekend away and forgets the very ingredient that makes it dirty?’
Nate takes a huge glug of wine and looks everywhere but at his parents.
Penny pokes Nate in the torso across the table. ‘Don’t worry though, son. I worked it in the end.’
A satisfied smirk tears across Frank’s lips and he pauses mid-chew. ‘She certainly did.’
Nate tuts and mouths a silent ‘sorry’ across the table. I giggle.
‘Don’t you dare apologise for me, son,’ Penny mock scolds. ‘Especially not when it comes to my sex life. I was a midwife for twenty years. Sex is what makes the world go round.’
Penny turns her attention to me, her fork suspended in mid-air, a huge slice of medium rare steak hanging from it. ‘It’s what we were put on this earth to do, Holly. Ask me what the secret is to a long and happy marriage. Go on.’
They are hilarious.
So open.
So unabashed.
So freaking normal. More like friends than parents. ‘Go on, Penny. Tell me, what is the secret to a long and happy marriage?’ I raise my wine glass to my lips and take a sip.
‘Do not encourage them,’ Nate mutters under his breath.
Penny is positively beaming. Is it the wine, or is she always like this? I suspect the latter.
‘The secret, my dear, is copious amounts of sex. The more adventurous, the better.’ She raises her glass in a toast, and I clink mine against hers.
‘To copious amounts of sex,’ Penny, Frank, and I chant in unison.
‘Come on, Nate. Don’t pretend you’re shy,’ Frank teases. ‘Not now we know you’ve been holed up here with Holly hammering out your own happy ever afters for weeks. Isn’t that right, Penny?’
‘I knew you had a girl on the go. I just knew it. A mother knows these things.’ Penny arches an eyebrow at Nate and finally he surrenders a snigger.
‘So, Holly, you’re an art teacher, is that right?’ Penny asks before popping another piece of meat into her mouth.
‘She’s an artist,’ Nate answers for me, squeezing my thigh again.
‘Oh, lovely. What do you paint?’ Frank’s grey head tilts to the side.
‘Anything and everything, but portraits are my favourites.’ I place my glass down on the table and pick up my fork. Nate did an amazing job with the steaks. They melt in the mouth.
‘Oooh, ever do nudes?’ Frank wriggles his eyebrows humorously. ‘I could pose for you, if you’d like.’
‘Ha!’ Penny slaps her thigh. ‘Yeah, bet you wouldn’t forget the Viagra that weekend, would you, love?’
Laughter explodes around the table. A deep sense of belonging swells in my sternum. By some mad Christmas miracle, everything is going to be okay. I don’t know how exactly. For the first time in years, I don’t have a plan, but it’s okay.
The opening bars of the song recorded for Nate’s debut movieBlazing Firepierce the air. My head whips round to his in question.
‘Oh, don’t mind me, pet.’ The legs of Penny’s chair scrape against the floor as she pushes it back and stands. ‘Proud mam, you know how it is.’
