“I was going to call you, but you always put me off,” she said. “Guess you’re a big reality TV star now, and you don’t have time for your baby sister.”
She was always incredibly confident in herself and her opinions, but this was something else. She was well pissed off as she walked toward me with her asymmetric gait tilting to the left, her hand curled inward, and clapped me on the shins with her cane.
“Who’s a big TV star? Where?” Mum said.
I stiffened.
“Glad to see your fame has yet to impress Mum,” Amy said.
To Amy, that might seem as if Mum was giving me a hard time, not letting me get too big for my boots.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Lovely to see you too, arsehole. I’m here because of Fitzy.” I still couldn’t believe my sister had ended up with my best friend, and he’d followed her down to London. “He had a practice with his London team on your pitch so they can kick your bum in a few weeks, and I thought I’d come up and see Mum—and my loving brother.”
My body felt like one internal sigh of relief. She didn’t appear to know.
“Sorry, Ames, that was rude. I am pleased to see you, but I’m surprised. I just wanted you to feel I’ve got it all under control, and that you feel comfortable to do what you need down in London.”
“I just want you to feel…comfortable to do what you need,” she said, mimicking my deep voice. “Who is this thinking, feeling creature, and what have you done with my brother?”
“Shut up.” I narrowed my eyes.
“Yeah. That’s more like it.”
My throat went tight, and my heart rammed against my ribs. How was this going to go? I hadn’t prepared Mum for Amy’s visit like I normally did, and she was looking a bit dazed already. This was what I’d been working so hard to keep from Amy.
“Look, Mum. It’s Amy, your daughter,” I said.
“Yes, sweetheart, she’s been my daughter for twenty-eight years.” Mum blinked patiently. “And she’ll probably be my daughter for a few more years too.”
I gave a laugh of relief.
Amy gave me a strange look for the odd introduction, but I didn’t care. My heart was bursting. Mum was good. She was having a good day. Or a good hour.
I sat Amy down and served the salad and lasagna Macy had made us.
“Mum, where have you been lately with your group?” Amy was clearly asking Mum about her wild swimming.
“Nowhere.” Mum nodded to me. “This one won’t let me go.”
There had been a dangerous incident on the Welsh coast months ago, when she’d gotten out of the ocean without telling anyone and wandered up a cliff, looking for her flat. The grouphad called the lifeguard, and they’d spent an hour in the water and on the beach searching for her before one of them found her at the top of the cliff.
When the group leader had dropped her off, he’d told me this had to be her last trip with them.
“But I take you to the pool, Mum,” I said.
Amy looked confused, but she didn’t push.
I was on tenterhooks as we ate dinner and Amy continued to ask Mum questions. I barely ate, which got me a few funny looks from Amy. With all the hard physical labor during the day, two hours at the gym most days, and rugby practices, I always had an enormous appetite.
Amy started doing one of her humorous imitations, and I pushed aside all my worries about Mum and remembered to ask her about her acting career. “Amy, did you get any word on that police procedural you were up for?” I asked.
“Oh yes! Yes. That’s what I was going to tell you. I got it. That’s another reason I wanted to come up. I wanted to tell you in person—just heard last night.”
“Oh, Ames. Well done, you.” I rose quickly, chair scraping back, rounded the table, and hugged her from behind. Fuck, she was incredible. “Congrats. I’m so proud of you.” I caught Mum’s eyes across the table. “Mum, Ames got that police procedural role on TV.”
I knew I was doing way too much explaining, but Mum got up and hugged her too.
