They all smiled and nodded.
‘I like being part of your shop,’ Etta said. ‘And I like you being part of our home.’
Immy smiled at that. ‘I like being part of your home too.’
‘Will you stay over tonight?’ Etta asked.
Immy glanced at Xander to see what he thought. She hadn’t stayed over the night before although she had stayed for dinner with Xander and Etta. They’d made it clear to Etta that Immy would be staying over one or two nights a week, and sometimes they might stay a night with Immy too as she had a spare room, and Etta had seemed happy with that. They were going to tread really slowly for now, break her in gently so it wasn’t such a massive change for her. Later on they would make it a more permanent thing.
‘If that’s what you want, Immy can stay over,’ Xander said to Etta.
Etta nodded. ‘It feels happier when you’re there.’
‘Well, I’m happier being there too,’ Immy said, beyond touched by that simple statement.
‘We should go,’ Logan said.
‘We should go too,’ Xander said, leaning over and giving her a kiss on the cheek. ‘I love you.’
She was just about to reply when Etta threw her arms around Immy’s legs. ‘And I love you too.’
Immy crouched down and hugged her. ‘I love you too, very much.’
She stood back up. ‘All of you should go.’ She needed them gone before she broke down in tears, happy ones this time. ‘Have fun and I’ll see you back here in a bit, I’ll have lots of chocolate eggs waiting for you.’
Alex gave her hand a squeeze, knowing how important it was for Immy to hear those words from Etta, and then they all left, talking excitedly about the hunt and where to find the first egg.
Immy watched her perfect little family with a big smile on her face. Everything was going to be OK. While she might not be able to move back in for a few months, she knew they were her home. She’d found exactly what she’d been looking for and it had been right across the street the whole time.
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
Immy flopped down on the sofa next to Etta who was reading her brother Jax a story as he was cradled in her arms. Jax stared up at his sister with wide eyes as she read about dragons and dinosaurs; it was clear he loved her and the feeling was very mutual.
Immy and Xander had been worried how Etta would take to the new arrival, especially as he was a boy and not someone who might necessarily share Etta’s love of glitter and sparkly clothes. But from the second Etta had held the tiny bundle in her arms, it had been love at first sight. She’d wanted to help with the feeds, the baths, always wanted to cuddle him and she loved reading to him. She’d spend hours talking to him or including him in her games, even if he wasn’t that active right now, although he was showing signs of wanting to crawl. While they had tried to involve her in every step, theyhad worried there might be tears over how much time they were spending with the baby, but Etta wasn’t fazed at all.
It couldn’t have been more perfect.
Of course, once Jax started moving around and chewing on Etta’s toys or, as he got older, stealing them, things might be very different between them. But for now Immy would enjoy the quiet camaraderie.
It had been just over a month after Etta had run away that Immy had moved in with Xander and Etta permanently. She had been spending Monday and Tuesday nights with them and they would spend Thursday and Friday nights at Immy’s flat and weekends tended to be a bit more ad hoc, depending on what they were doing. But one night, when they were packing to go to Immy’s, Etta had got really frustrated about all the back and forth and had made it very clear what she thought about this silly arrangement.
‘I don’t want to keep taking my stuff over there and then bringing it back, why can’t we all just live together if we all love each other?’
And that had been enough for Immy and Xander. Immy had moved in the next day and somehow it had just worked. Immy would pick Etta up from school sometimes and she would come into their bed for cuddles every morning before school. Xander said she’d never had that with him and Brook so it was a lovely novelty for her.
But when Jax arrived, a name Etta had chosen, it was evident fairly quickly that they needed more space, soafter Christmas they’d started looking for a bigger place and found a four-bedroom house on the outskirts of Lovegrove Bay. It had a massive garden and overlooked fields and woods. They’d already seen a fox, badger and hedgehogs in their garden and several deer just over the fence. It was a fixer-upper and, ever since they had finally moved in a few weeks before, they’d been painting, putting in new kitchen units and installing a new bathroom, with the help of Xander’s brothers and Alex and Quinn of course. They’d also built a secret room into the eaves of Etta’s loft room and a treehouse in the towering oak in the garden. Xander was out there now adding the finishing touches to it, while Immy was painting the lounge and keeping a watchful eye over Etta and Jax.
‘Shall we get pizza tonight?’ Immy said, when there was a pause in the story.
‘Yes! I love pizza, I had pizza on Saturday when I was at Nanny and Grandad’s.’
‘Oh, shall we get something different then?’
‘No, I could eat pizza every night.’
‘I definitely agree with that.’
