Evie gave another soft shrug and then nodded. “I suppose.” She settled a fairy cake into the plastic box Tom had given her and then looked at him with a troubled expression. “Do you think Mum and Martin will always be together once they get married?”
“I do,” Tom said, truthfully. “They love each other and I know they’re happy together.”
“But you and Mum loved each other too, and you didn’t stay together.”
It stood to reason that with her mother’s wedding so close now, Evie would be thinking of such things and trying to make sense of them. Tom wanted to reassure her, even though they’d had this conversation before.
“Your mum and I did love each other, and we still do,” he said. “But there are all different kinds of love. The way your mum and I loved each other wasn’t enough for a commitment as big as marriage. But what she feels for Martin, and what he feels for her, well, that’s incredibly special, and it’s exactly the right sort of love that two people need in order to get married.”
Evie nodded, her expression lifting. “They’re always kissing and cuddling each other. It’s sort of disgusting.”
Tom laughed and was pleased when Evie joined him.
“Do you think you’ll ever get married, Tom?”
The kid really knew how to land a zinger of a question when she put her mind to it.
“I hope so, one day.”
“Maybe you’ll meet someone at Mum’s wedding?” Evie said, looking hopeful.
“Maybe I will,” he agreed, happy to play along.
He doubted he would meet anyone at Lucy and Martin’s wedding, though. He knew most of the guests Lucy was inviting, and none of the single women amongst them held any attraction for him, not least because it would be downright creepy to start dating a friend of his ex-girlfriend’s.
“I heard Mum and Martin talking last night, and she said her friend from work, Claire, is excited that you’re coming to the wedding by yourself because she likes you and wants Mum to make sure you’re both sitting together at the meal.”
Tom’s head snapped up in alarm at this revelation.
He remembered meeting Lucy’s friend, Claire, on several occasions when they’d still been together. The woman had had more men than he’d had hot dinners, if the lurid stories she’d told him—entirely unprompted—were to be believed. She had also flirted shamelessly with him each time they’d met, despite knowing he was in a relationship with her so-called friend.
Not wanting to cause trouble, Tom hadn’t said anything about it to Lucy, and had instead avoided being in the woman’s presence, which wasn’t hard as she was no more than a long-standing work colleague to Lucy and not someone he would be expected to socialise with.
He hadn’t thought of her at all in the two years that had passed since he and Lucy had separated, but the icy shivers he felt now at the mention of her name made him realise he absolutely did not want to end up sitting next to her at the wedding meal.
Wasn’t there a table set aside for sad single men who’d be happy passing the time together talking about football? Or perhaps a table filled with a couple of elderly aunts and some stray cousins he could keep company?
“Did your mum mention who she’s sat me beside for the wedding meal?” Tom asked, not keen on quizzing Evie like this but driven by necessity to find out.
But Evie only shrugged. “I don’t know.” She gave him a huge smile, and added, “Maybe you could sit next to me, Tom?”
“Kiddo, there’s nothing I’d love more, but you’re a bridesmaid in the wedding party, which means you’ll be at the top table with your mum and Martin and the others.”
“That’s right. I forgot Mum already told me that.” She frowned for a moment before a smile lit up her face. “But we’ll still get to dance together afterwards, won’t we Tom?”
“Absolutely. That will be the best part of the whole day for me.”
This only made Evie smile even wider.
The doorbell rang just then and Evie leapt up from the table. “That’ll be Mum here to pick me up. I can’t wait to show her the fairy cakes we made!”
Evie sprinted through to the front door carrying the plastic box filled with cakes. Tom followed in her wake.
“Mum, look at the cakes I made with Tom!” Evie shouted when Tom opened the door, before thrusting the box of fairy cakes towards her mother.
“Those look terrific, Evie,” Lucy said, admiring the cakes. “I hope you didn’t make too much of a mess in Tom’s kitchen?”
“Only a little bit,” Evie said.
