Enya laughed and went into the larder to fetch the bread.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Enya lay back in her bath and let the bubble-filled water warm her limbs. There was something about a hot bath on a cold night that felt extremely indulgent and the most luxurious thing. It had been quite a day. Aiden and Iris had left shortly before midday, heading home via the hospital so they could see Amelia.
She had worried about what the presence of Iris at the hospital might mean, concerned that the love and camaraderie that had wrapped them all that morning might only have been a hiatus as they were all swept up in the moment, and that in the cold light of calmness, Aiden’s welcoming back into the fold, and certainly his wife’s appearance, might have been a little less convivial.
The photographs that pinged repeatedly as they arrived on her phone allayed all of her fears. There was Holly, holding her baby. She looked tired, but her expression was close to rapture; then another of Holly and Amelia with Aiden and Iris on either side. One picture of Aiden holding his baby girl, gazing into her eyes, was the first she decided to have framed, and then another of Iris with her stepdaughter and a wide smile on her face, and finally one of Holly, staring at her daughter as if she had won the greatest prize.
The photos were lovely, more than she could ever have hoped for; they were in fact everything. She couldn’t wait for tomorrow when she got to meet Amelia for herself.
Jenny had arrived, walking slowly into the house, before the two women stood in the hallway wrapped in a warm and lingering embrace. Each holding tightly on to the other, as if relieved to have found their anchor, something to hold on to when for the longest time they had been adrift. It was only when they let each other go that Jenny smiled up at her. ‘Hello Nan.’
‘Hello Nan!’ she echoed.
Her phone, now resting on the sink, buzzed. It was no doubt Aiden, Phil or Jenny with a tiny update, not that she minded, any detail could feed her thoughts for hours. Stretching her arm, she managed to reach the phone. Without her glasses on, it was hard to make out the number.
‘Hello?’ she said as she lay back beneath the water, smiling, waiting to hear another breathless account of the little girl’s perfection, and her heart sang!
‘Enya, Enya, hi. It’s Dominic.’
She felt her body shudder at the sound of his voice, sending goose bumps across her skin. She sat up and leaned on the back of the bath. This the first contact they had had since their kids’ wedding day, when they had, after baring their souls, studiously kept out of each other’s way.
‘Oh, hello!’
‘It’s been a while.’ He kept his voice low, and she wondered where he was and if he was wary of being overheard, instantly wondering if he, like Trish, had found someone. The bile of envy tasted sour.
‘Yes, it has.’ She moved in the bath and the water sloshed around her.
‘Ah, forgive me, it seems I’ve interrupted you again as you’re making pasta!’ He laughed gently.
‘You have, actually.’ She smiled, delighted, and perturbed by how easily his words, his manner and any shared recollection pulled her into his thrall. How effortlessly they slipped into conversation.
‘I spoke to Iris; she tells me that congratulations are in order.’
‘Yes, a little girl, Amelia.’
‘Well, that’s all good. Have you seen her yet?’
‘No, tomorrow. Can’t wait.’ She felt her muscles tense in excitement at the prospect.
‘I bet. And Aiden and Iris seem to be handling it well, taking it in their stride.’ His words a reminder that they were joined together by these kids and would always be on the lookout for them.
‘I think they’re remarkable.’
‘Me too.’
‘And Holly, all three of them. It’s not an easy thing to navigate.’
There was a pause, as if both aware that when there were three with a vested interest, three people with a heart connection, it was often far, far from easy. It was as if now the pleasantries were out of the way, the conversation could turn to matters of a more personal nature.
‘How have you been?’ he asked softly.
They were four simple enough words and yet the answer was anything but. How had she been? She had been thoughtful, determined, proactive, busy, and happy!
‘I’ve been good, actually, better. No more panic attacks.’ She updated the one person she had confided in.
‘That’s good! Really, really good...’ He faltered. ‘You sound settled.’
