‘I’ve spent the last few months living inside an elaborate false memory of something that never happened without any of you realising it wasn’tmy pastI was seeing at all. It wasLexi’s future.’
*
‘Okay. Just for the record, I would like to make it perfectly clear that insanity does not – to the best of my knowledge – run in my family.’
Nick stopped drying the plate in his hands. Mum’s good crockery was too delicate for the dishwasher, so we’d volunteered to wash up. It was a good opportunity for a debrief of the Sunday lunch that had started perfectly normal but ended up inThe Twilight Zone.
‘You don’t think there could be anything in Amelia’s theory, do you?’ I asked with a nervous laugh, because those words really had no business being spoken out loud.
To his credit, Nick didn’t throw back his head and laugh at the very strange women in the Edwards family – which Jeff most definitely would have done in his place.
‘I’m a vet, Lexi, which means I’m a man of science. I spent years studying things that can be proved and explained. I look for answers in reality and in the everyday world. And I always find them there. So, in answer to your question, no, I don’t think Amelia had a prophecy about your future.’
He was so pragmatic, it made me feel foolish for even giving the idea air to breathe. ‘Wemade Amelia’s visions come true, you and me, by doing the things she believed she’d “seen” in her past.’ He air-quoted the word, making it clear that his viewpoint was immovable on this one. I smiled weakly. Nick was a scientist by profession, and it was natural for him to deal in cold hard facts that were either black or white. But I worked in a world of fabrication and make-believe. I saw far more grey than he did in Amelia’s words.
Had Amelia found me the perfect soulmate because I’d done such a poor job of doing that myself?
34
‘Are you awake?’ Something in Nick’s voice made me think it might not be the first time he’d asked me this.
‘I am now,’ I mumbled sleepily, stretching out an arm to lift my phone from the bedside table. ‘It’s so early,’ I said, squinting at the numbers on the screen, feeling sure I must have misread them.
Nick was propped up on one elbow, looking down at me with an excited smile and eight hours of stubble on his face. ‘I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been waiting ages for you to wake up.’
I arched my back, bringing me close enough to kiss him. ‘Just for future reference, are you always like this on Christmas morning?’
‘Like what?’ he asked, his hand slipping behind my back and keeping our naked bodies skin to skin.
‘Like you’re six years old,’ I said, my laughter cutting off as he suddenly moved and slid between my legs. All at once, being woken before the sun had even risen didn’t seem that bad after all.
A little later, when we were still a tangle of limbs, Nick pushed the damp hair from my forehead and said tenderly, ‘Happy first Christmas together, Lexi.’
‘Was that my present?’ I teased, tasting the salty tang of sweat as I kissed his shoulder.
His eyes twinkled in the way that still made me feel like a lovestruck teenager. ‘I wanted to give you something you couldn’t return,’ he joked.
I smiled, thinking of the pile of glossy beribboned gifts already stacked beneath the Christmas tree in Nick’s lounge.Ourlounge, I mentally corrected.
So much had changed in the last seven months, it was hardly surprising my brain had trouble keeping up with the pronouns. And moving in with Nick was still a relatively recent development.
After Amelia’s diagnosis, I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to leave her beachside fisherman’s cottage. When your time together is finite, you don’t want to squander a single second of it.But everything is finite, Lexi, Amelia had said with a calm acceptance that had astounded me.Every relationship has an end date – but people are like ostriches, they choose not to think about that. Something like this knocks all that crap to the kerb and forces you to focus on the things that really matter: family, friendship and love. Which is why, she said with a wry smile,I’m formally giving you notice that I’m evicting you.
‘You’re what?’ I said, turning away from the mirror where I was styling my hair before my date with Nick.
‘You heard me. I’m done with having you and Nick here for half the week and Mum here for the rest of it. You people are treating my home like a bloody hotel.’
I set down the curling wand before I burnt myself. ‘Mimi, I don’t think—’
‘That I can cope without help?’ she completed with a hint of the old feistiness I hadn’t seen for a while. ‘You’re right. Idoneed help. Which is why I asked Mum to get in touch with some home care companies.’
I shook my head. ‘Those places charge a fortune, hon, and you don’t need them when you’ve got family right here.’
‘I know how much they cost, and we don’t need to worry about that. I’d have been a pretty rubbish accountant if I hadn’t been investing my money wisely for all these years,’ she said. ‘And as much as I love that you both want to look after me, I truly don’t want that.Anyonecan be my carer but onlyyoucan be my sister, and that’s why you no longer have the job.’
‘Evicted and fired on the same day? That’s got to be some sort of record,’ I said, attempting a laugh that fell short by a country mile.
‘Come here,’ she said, holding out her arms for a hug I think we both needed.
