‘So we have that in common too: we’re both really busy trying to keep our mums from marrying us off.’ Kam was flustered, he hadn’t meant it like that. ‘Um… not to each other obviously, that’s not what I meant. It sounds like we both have a lot of pressure from our mums to settle down, even though we’ve reached an age when they should have backed off by now! Mine just doesn’t listen. It drives me mad but I’m not prepared to be forced onto a path I don’t want to go down. I have to balance the love and the respect I have for my mum with my need to do my own thing in my own time.’
‘Okay, I admit it. I admit defeat.’ Pippa rolled over again, onto her side this time. She had a string of daisies in her hand, and was looking him fully in the eye. ‘We’re twins.’
‘Hahaha, maybe.’
‘You know, joking aside, I do understand. My mum did exactly what you’re describing, last week. I was trying to talk to her about why I don’t want a serious relationship right now and that, when I find the person I want to settle down with, I have to know for sure because I want what her and dad have, that in-it-for-life thing. I know she loves me, accepts me but it doesn’t feel like she listens to me.’
‘Truth. Tell me about it. What was she saying?’
‘She was saying, in her coded way, that I need to stop looking for Mr or Ms Right and settle for Mr Right Now.’
‘Really?’ Kam was shocked. Surely that wasn’t advice anyone should give? He wondered if her mother was referring to the blonde guy he has seen her out with, but decided against asking. He didn’t want to spoil the intimacy of the moment, plus he figured that if Pippa wanted to give more detail than she would.
‘I think her point was that I’m looking for perfection and I suppose, in a way, I am. I’ve never been prescriptive when it comes to who I’m looking for, I think I’m a relatively open-minded person and if I’m attracted to someone then I’m attracted tothem. Gender, background, that’s not important to me. The way someone thinks, the way they behave, that’s what makes me like them. Mum is fine with that but she wants me to hurry up with it all, preferably with someone she chooses. She seems to agree with my friends that I have some kind of commitment issue, which I don’t by the way. And it’s not so much that I’m looking for perfection, but Iamlooking for someone I can throw all my eggs into one basket with. Someone I can settle down with, and yes, have kids with, but that someone has to be of my own choosing and in my own time, and that’s not right now. I don’t really understand why the timeframe seems more important to her than getting it right.’
‘This could be – it is – a conversation that I have my mother all the bloody time. I know it’s not about control, it is about love, but wow! They do want you to do what they want you to do. I sometimes think maybe parents can’t accept we’re adults, and mine will still be treating me like I’m twelve when I’m fifty.’
‘So why don’t you want to do what your mother says?’ Pippa laid her daisy chain onto the grass, more caught up in the conversation they were having. A conversation he was enjoying; it felt like they were talking honest truths about their lives, rather than the surface giggling they did every day in the classroom.
‘I think it’s as simple as her not trusting me to choose my own partner. She thinks me being single is because I don’t know what I want. But I do. I want a woman who gets me, who shares my views and with whom I can carve out a life. Before that can happen, I want to be settled, secure in myself, in a steady job, doing what I love and knowing that I have something to offer.’
‘Oh Kam, you have so much to offer!’
He felt a warmth flush up his neck and across his face as he tried to answer that in any way that didn’t make him look insecure or arrogant. Nothing came to him so he turned the spotlight back on her.
‘So basically, you won’t settle. You have a smorgasbord of humanity to choose from and you’re scared of making the wrong choice. I would have never thought of you as scared of anything.’
‘You are focusing on me to detract from you! That’s my trick so you won’t get it past me. But yup, that’s about right. And you’re saying you need a job, security and status before you’re prepared to fall in love.’
‘Ha, yep. Sounds like we’re both being a bit daft.’
‘True and yet we’re both utterly right, and should be allowed to find the right partner in the right time.’
‘True again. You are a positive fount of wisdom today, Miss Parkin.’
Pippa lent over and his heart sped up. She picked up the daisy chain and closed its final link, placing her handiwork on his head. He felt his breathing slow down as her face came so close to his he was sure she could feel his breath on her. Thoughts of job security and self-knowledge went straight from his head. Thoughts of him and Pippa being together flooded his mind and he found himself holding his breath. She relaxed back onto the grass and his breathing returned to normal. He felt relieved that he had been too shy to pull her towards him; she hadjusttold him she didn’t want a relationship yet.
Thank goodness he hadn’t made a complete fool of himself, surrounded by all the pupils and parents. Their friendship had changed here tonight, had become deeper, more open, more honest. They smiled at each other, and he really hoped she felt the shift too, rather than thinking that either or both of them had overshared.
‘Well, you two look very comfortable. Could I have the takings please?’ Jenny, Marion’s number two and monster-in-training appeared, hovering over them, a smug, judgemental look all over her features. Marion had trained her well.
‘Here you go.’ Kam sat up and handed her the box they had used to collect the money they had taken.
‘Excellent. Marion is getting ready to wind things up and asked that everyone gather in the Hall. Thank you. Chop chop!’
Chapter Twenty-five
Jenny was right; the fayre was drawing to a close with cakes and plants sold out early on and everyone packing up ready to come together for the raffle draw that took place in the school hall at the very end of the evening. With the space hoppers let down and the ponies securely tied up, Kam and Pippa walked to the hall to see how their mothers had got on.
Kam stood by his remark about his mum and Jan having an awful lot in common. It would be nice if she had made a friend down here as it would make future visits much easier. He just worried a bit that they could team up and take their meddling to even higher levels.
It had been great to see so many of the children wandering around the school with intricate henna tattoos on their arms; his sisters had obviously done a roaring trade and, as Pippa had pointed out, it was a whole brand-new thing for the Penmenna School Fayre. The parents would be over the moon to offer something to their offspring that didn’t involve scrubbing green or red face paint off for the next three days.
Kam and Pippa made it through the packed school hall just in time to hear Marion tap the microphone as she stood on the small stage built out of wooden blocks kept specially for the purpose in the resources’ cupboard.
‘Hello, everybody, thank you once again for coming and making Penmenna’s May Fayre extra special. Every year we seem to pull it out of the bag and make it spectacular, and what can I say? Penmenna, you’ve done it again.’ She held her hands high and to the side and clapped them, waiting for the others to follow in obedient applause. Which obviously they all did.
Pippa stood at the back of the hall, next to Kam, in some kind of mother sandwich. Both women stood either side of their offspring and had bonded far too well for Kam’s taste. He was having trouble enough reining in his crush on Pippa this evening, and now he was pressed up against her in this crowd. The last thing he needed was his mother deciding that she wanted to be friends with the Parkin family and making everything else even more complicated.
