Charlotte was already head down in the menu.
‘Shall we do it the Greek way and just order some dishes to share?’
Sofia and Maddie nodded.
‘I could read it out and we could all pick a starter and a main course?’
Only Sofia replied.
‘Fine. I really don’t mind. Surprise us.’
Maddie’s attention was focussed on a couple with a baby sitting a few feet away, as a toddler played around the parents’ feet.
The baby reminded her so much of Elsie that it squeezed Maddie’s heart. Just the Greek baby’s little face laughing as her dad played peekaboo with her was enough to make herstomach knot into a ball. When was she going to hold her precious granddaughter in her arms again?
‘Mads? Thoughts?’
Sofia’s eyes were on Maddie again as she watched the baby like a hawk.
Maddie’s appetite had disappeared, along with her sense of ease.
‘Anything’s fine with me.’
Charlotte put the menu down on the table with a bang, which made Sofia look up.
‘OK, I’ll just make the decisions then. Any allergies?’
‘Not that we’ve developed over the past year, Char. Calm down. You sound like the flight attendant on the way over.’
Charlotte turned to summon a waiter.
‘OK, don’t blame me if there’s something that makes you ill.’
‘We won’t.’
While Charlotte talked to the waiter and tried out some fairly tortuous Greek, Sofia laid her hand on Maddie’s shoulder and pulled her gaze away from the little family a few feet away.
‘Have you got any more pictures of your gorgeous granddaughter to show us?’
‘What?’
Why was Sofia asking her this now? Had she somehow worked it out? Maddie dismissed this as impossible. She hadn’t told a living soul about what had happened, and she’d made sure not to mention it to Tony either in their occasional, one-sided chats.
‘Well, I’m no expert, but Elsie will have grown so much since the last shots you showed us. It must be at least three months ago.’
Maddie returned from somewhere that looked very far away to Sofia and scrabbled for her phone.
‘Yeah, here she is.’
Several up-to-date photos of Elsie smiling in the arms of Maddie’s daughter, Becca, were exclaimed over.
‘Becca looks like a very happy aunty. She’ll want one soon.’
‘Mmmm, probably.’
In fact, her daughter had been trying for a while, but Maddie didn’t think it was her place to reveal Becca’s secret sadness each month when she failed to conceive.
Sofia tried to make her voice sound as calm as possible.
