“Damn, you’re a natural,” Sadie observes.
“Just a case of the right speed and sway,” I shrug, letting Ezra clutch my finger. “Have you figured out telling them apart?”
“Definitely. They’re fraternal, not identical.” Leo turns to show off Toren’s face; now that I can see them both, I can see Toren’s isa little rounder than his brother’s, and he also has a little more hair than Ezra.
The heat haze from the grill sends everything wobbly, so I look away and concentrate on the deliciousness of frying onions and sizzling beefburgers mixing with salty halloumi, and the comforting warmth of potatoes barbecued in foil. I’m getting hungrier by the second.
“DADDY!” Rhiannon sounds outraged, and stomps up to Leo while holding my mother’s hand. “Granny has been here EIGHT WHOLE MINUTES and she STILL hasn’t been given a burger!” She screws up her sweet face into a ferocious frown.
“Eightwhole minutes?” Leo looks comically horrified. “Granny, I couldn’t be more sorry. Double rations coming up.” He winks at Mum, who snorts and kisses him hello.
Once Mum has greeted everyone and added enough fried onions to her burger to sink a battleship, she gives me a one armed hug, careful not to squash her other grandson. “Hallo, love. How was California? Ezra being a good boy for you?”
“Fine, and yes, respectively.” I decide not to mention Dad’s text message. Mum has been so much happier over the past five years since separating from him. Although he still refuses to grant her a divorce, she’s optimistic about her future. There’s no sense in dragging her down with remnants of her past when it could stay where it belongs.
“AUNT TIPPI!!!” Rhiannon screams joyfully, suddenly running full pelt towards the most astonishingly, unreasonably, soul snatchingly beautiful creature in the known universe.
“Heyyyyyyy, bestie,” she says to Rhiannon in a musical American voice and swinging her around even more exuberantly than my earlier effort, “How’s my favourite girl?”
I can’t believe my eyes. I have never, not once, in all my thirty five years, seen anyone as luminous as ‘Aunt Tippi’. She’s the picture of carefree Bohemian confidence in frayed denim shorts, worn cowboy boots, and a loose white t-shirt, lots of hippie leather and bead jewellery around her wrists and neck. Her long, chaotic blonde curls frame delicate, impish features, and when she smiles, my knees tremble. I thought that was a figure of speech.
It is not.
I saw a war film once where a bomb exploded, and the world went silent for the main character except for a sharp, dizzying ringing noise. It’s a similar feeling to watchingher, seeing her laugh with my niece -ourniece - and throw her arms around my sister.
“Hot damn, Tip, you made it!” Leo also hugs her hard, clearly very close with his sister.
“You didn’t think flight delays and a thunderstorm in Alberta would keep me from RhiRhi’sfifthbirthday party?” Her accent is more pronounced than Leo’s, which is only slight by comparison. I wonder how they got to be so different? “My suitcase stinks of wet tarmac, but here I am.”
I wish I could have the easy confidence of the rest of my family so I could go and say hello. Instead, I hold on to Ezra and give him my undivided attention once again, pretending to be enthralled by his wriggles and soft noises. If I can excuse my actions as those of a doting uncle, I’m not being rude.
Tippi gasps as she looks at the baby on Leo’s shoulder. “Who’s this little guy?”
“This? He’s your nephew,” Leo replies flippantly.
Oh, right - teasing. I think I get that one. I don’t always getobtuseness as humour, but that was funny.
She rolls her eyes. “No sh… sugar, bro,” she says, giggling sheepishly at her near-slip with profanity around children, “you know very well I meantwhich one.”
Leo grins. “This right here is Toren,” he says, gently placing the baby in her arms.
“Aww, hey there, buddy,” she whispers, deft and comfortable and beaming at the little one in a way that abruptly makes me ache in the centre of my chest. Rhiannon grumbles and folds her arms, muttering about ‘stupid cute babies’, but there’s no real heat to it; she must be getting somewhat used to sharing the attention with her little brothers.
“And Ezra is over there, with Sadie’s brother.” Leo gestures to me. “Jacob, could you bring him over, please?”
Oh,god.
My gut churns with nerves as I walk towards them all. I go slowly, like I don’t want to jostle Ezra, but the truth is I’m walking into my worst nightmare of a social situation: an unfamiliar woman, so arrestingly gorgeous it’s like a punch in the stomach to look at her face, and my family there to witness my ineptitude when talking to her. I don’t stand a chance.
“Oh, hey!” Tippi beams at me, the soul of friendliness. “I remember you, from the wedding!”
Oh.Surely we haven’t met before? I’d have remembered her.“R-really?”
“Well.” She shrugs. “We only met briefly in passing. And itwasa few years ago now.”
I remember being thoroughly overwhelmed at Sadie’s wedding,and trying to blend into the background as much as possible. I probably came across as highly impolite, but the sheer amount of people, the volume of the music, that parrot of theirs that absolutely would not shut up… It took me a whole week to regain any normal equilibrium.
“R-right.” I have not got a single clue what to say, so I once again use my little nephew as a human shield, holding him towards her so she can see him better.
