‘If we’re out on the boat it needs to be all of us together. As a family.’ She said the last part forcefully, as if it was some kind of solemn vow, and Eve would have sworn she could actually feel her heart sinking. ‘It will be lovely though and so good for us. All that sunshine and time outside is conducive to good mental health. We might even be able to use the boat for the wedding eventually. I saw a bride and groom here last year, arriving for their wedding at the church on the harbour, with a flotilla of other boats behind them carrying all the guests.’
‘Well, we don’t want Evie having to copy anyone else. When she gets married, it’s going to be the unique and special day she deserves.’ Nigel looked at Eve then, their eyes locking, and she knew without doubt that he understood. He wasn’t talking about the fictional day that she and Max would get married andeverything would go back to how it had been before. He was talking about a real event, something he wanted for her, and something he knew would never involve his son.
‘Thank you.’ She stepped towards him, allowing herself to be folded into his arms and he whispered words meant just for her.
‘It’ll all be okay. I promise.’
‘God, this is so boring.’ Max had adopted the petulant teenager tone he frequently used and he looked like one, too, as Eve turned around to face him. She might not be ready to put a stop to the full pretence yet, but Nigel’s words had given her more hope than she could remember having in a very long time. She didn’t want Max’s mood to spoil that, so she decided to handle him the only way she knew how, by doing her best to give him what he wanted.
‘It’s your birthday. So you should get to pick what you do, Max.’
As he opened his mouth to respond, Max suddenly stopped and pointed in front of him. ‘It’s Felix.’
Eve spun round with much more haste than she probably should have done, to see Felix, Eden and Drew walking together side by side, with Teddie in his pushchair. She didn’t want to acknowledge the quickening of her heart rate. If it had sped up it was just because she was nervous about Eden and Drew seeing her with Max and his family, and uncovering the parts of her life she’d worked so hard to keep separate. It couldn’t be about Felix, that was a complication she wasn’t going to allow herself to have.
‘Fancy bumping into you guys.’ Felix gave Max a fist bump, before hugging Annie and shaking hands with Nigel. He didn’t make physical contact with Eve, something she was grateful for and yet somehow bereft all at the same time. After a quick round of introductions, where Felix tactfully left out the bit about Eve being Max’s fiancée, he turned to look at Annie and Max. ‘How are the birthday celebrations going?’
‘It’s so nice of you to remember.’ Annie smiled, before being cut off again, this time by her son.
‘Boring as shit.’ Max shrugged and for a second Eve held her breath, wondering how everyone was going to react, but then Felix started to laugh and suddenly everyone else was joining in.
‘I know the feeling, mate, I mean imagine being dragged along for a Sunday afternoon walk by your sister and her boyfriend, when you could be spending it getting to the next level onBorderlands 4.’ Felix gave Annie an almost imperceptible nod, but Eve spotted it. He knew exactly how to handle Max, who was already laughing again.
‘I just wish I’d blown the candles out on my cake so I could have made a wish to be back in my room playing that. What’s the point of getting a new video game for your birthday and then having to wait all day doing other stuff before you can play it?’
‘We’ll take you back now, son, don’t worry and before you ask the next bit, yes, you’ll still get your cake.’ Nigel put an arm around Max, who for once seemed genuinely happy at the show of affection.
‘Eve deserves the biggest slice, she bought the cake and it looks gorgeous.’ Annie beamed at her and Eve’s heart dropped again. The thought of going back to Oakwood Park and carrying on the ‘party’, while Max was sitting with his headphones on gaming, filled her with dread.
‘We can save her a big slice.’ Nigel’s tone was insistent, and he looked directly at Annie, clearly trying to cut off any protest she might make before she even had the chance. ‘Evie’s been working long shifts all week and she needs a bit of down time. Max just wants to get on with his game, so aside from the cake, I think we can safely say the celebrations are over.’
Annie opened her mouth and gulped a couple of times, like a fish out of water, but then Nigel took hold of her hand. ‘Come on, we can FaceTime Lily when Max does the cake and we can singthe birthday song. It’ll be just the four of us, like when the kids were little.’
Eve knew all about ‘the birthday song’, it was something Annie had made up to the tune of ‘Happy Birthday to You’, and the words were ingrained in her mind from all the times Max’s family had sung it.
‘We really love you, and you love us too. It’s your birthday darling Maxie, you’re the best son, it’s true!’
The words were tweaked each time for Lily and eventually for Eve, which was how she first became known as Evie, so that it would fit the rhyme. Max had called her Evie most of the time before the assault, and his family had also used the pet name a lot. Nigel still did, but Max never called her Evie now and Annie seemed to have stopped as well. Eve suspected Annie was trying not to acknowledge that Max had changed in yet another way. If he’d been the only one not to use the pet name any more it would have marked him out from the rest of them.
In the past, Eve would undoubtedly have felt sad at Nigel’s words about it being ‘just the four of them, like the old days’, but instead she was incredibly grateful to him, because Annie was nodding.
‘Okay, if you’re sure, Eve?’ Annie turned to look at her.
‘Absolutely.’ She squeezed the older woman’s hand.
‘All right then, darling, but I’ll save you the slice with the most icing on.’ Annie folded her into another hug. Then, in a flurry of hasty goodbyes, with Max tugging at his mother’s arm like an impatient toddler, they were gone. Leaving Eve standing with Felix and the others.
‘I know you’re probably exhausted from work.’ Eden gave her a warm smile. ‘But we’re going back to Drew’s place and we’d love you to come over for a bit if you’ve got time. We barely seem to get five minutes to catch up properly when we’re on shift. No pressure at all. Although you would save my brother frombeing forced into spending the afternoon with just us. Which apparently is just about unbearable.’
‘Don’t come the wounded party with me, Eden Grainger, you know I was only playing along with Max.’ Felix nudged his sister and she laughed.
‘My feelings are deeply hurt, I’ll have you know. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.’
‘Yeah, I can tell.’ Felix looked directly at Eve, still smiling, and she should have made her excuses, because the attraction she felt towards him seemed to be getting stronger all the time, but she didn’t. The truth was, even though shewasreally tired, she wanted to hang out with them all. The fact that Eden hadn’t led with a string of questions about Eve’s relationship to Max and his family just made her like Felix’s sister even more. She trusted Felix when he’d said he hadn’t told Eden about Max, so she must have been curious about the set up. Maybe she’d worked it out for herself, or maybe she was holding back on a string of burning questions because she’d sensed that Eve wouldn’t want to answer them. Either way, Eden was respecting her privacy and ironically that was exactly what made Eve far more willing to let down the barrier she’d spent so long building up.
‘I’d love to come over, thank you.’ It was her turn to grin. ‘Anything to help dilute Felix’s presence, I know how tricky that must be to put up with!’
11
