Page 39 of Amazing Grace

‘Not spoilt my night at all, Mark,’ she replied. ‘Just means that Archie can come with me, so it’s all worked out really well actually.’

Mark’s smirk disappeared. She realised that once again, this was just a little game of his and that he’d done it on purpose. She smiled sweetly and dismissed him quickly. ‘Come on, darling, say bye to Dad.’

As she shut the door, she exhaled a big sigh.

‘You OK, Mummy?’

‘OK, Arch? How can I not be OK when the most important person in my life is right here, right now?’

‘I love you, Mum.’

‘Love you more, sweetie! Now, go and see if there’s anything you want to take with you to Vinnie’s sister’s. We have about forty-five minutes before Vinnie arrives to pick us up. I’ve put some smart clothes out on your bed so if you can pop them on too, that would be great. I’m just going to put some make-up on and try and make myself look respectable.’

‘You don’t need make-up, Mum, you’re beautiful anyway!’

‘Thank you, but I’m a bit sweaty this evening. I’m really hot.’

‘Yes you are, Mum!’ He giggled.

‘You are such a smoothie, Archie.’ She smiled, secretly very proud of her beautiful boy who one day would make someone a most fabulous husband.

* * *

‘Mum, Vinnie’s here. Can I open the door?’ Archie had been waiting with his arm around Becks at the lounge window for the longest time, eager to see Vinnie again.

‘Yes, darling, you can. I’ll just be a minute.’

‘Hey dude! How you doing?’ Vinnie asked as he came in, high-fived Archie and patted Becks on the head.

‘To tell the truth, Vinnie, I think Mum is a bit nervous about tonight.’

‘Oh, is that right? There’s nothing for her to be nervous about, you know.’ Vinnie had a suspicion that Archie was using his mum as an excuse and that it was him who was the nervous one. ‘My sister and her family are some of my most favourite people in the world and now you and your mum are on that list too and I think you are all going to get along just brilliantly. The kids are going to love you, you are going to love them too and they are so looking forward to meeting you. They are really rather excited, so my sister tells me.’

‘Really? OK, cool,’ Archie replied. ‘I have to just go to the loo. Dad kept giving me Coke all afternoon and I can’t stop weeing. Sorry if that’s TMI by the way. Dad kept telling me not to be nervous but I think it’s made me worse.’

Vinnie smiled. So Mark had been trying to wind him up. Nice touch, Mark!

Grace bounded down the stairs. She’d worried about what to wear all day, but after hearing Monica’s voice in her head as she rummaged through her wardrobe, she’d finally settled on a purple-and-pink wrap dress and neutral-coloured wedges. She grabbed her black faux-fur jacket from the coat rack and popped it round her shoulders as she grabbed a warm coat and a Minions rucksack containing Archie’s pyjamas. ‘Let’s go! See you, Becks.’

They arrived at Ruth’s fifteen minutes later. Before they’d even had the chance to ring the front door bell, the door was flung open and Ruth appeared with a pinny on over the top of a lovely flowery vintage tea dress. Grace had only ever seen her in her coffee-shop uniform so it was lovely to see her look so feminine.

‘Uncle Vinnie!’ yelled three voices, and a hoard of children suddenly appeared at the door, fighting to see who could hug their uncle first.

‘Darlings, come out of the way and let these wonderful people through the door and meet Grace and Archie. You’ve probably already gathered that this is my brood,’ she said as she introduced her children one by one. You could tell by the look in her eye that they were her pride and joy.

Archie stood close to Grace, seemingly too shy to say anything, until Harry said, ‘Hey, Archie, would you like to come into the den and play FIFA with me? Uncle Vinnie says you are amazing at it and know lots of tricks and I wondered whether you’d teach me.’ Archie looked up at Grace for approval, and she bent down to his level, as she always tried to when speaking to him about something important.

‘Are you going to go and play, sweetie? I’ll be right here if you need me.’

‘OK, Mummy,’ he said as he turned and smiled at Harry, and before they’d reached the den, Grace could hear laughter.

‘Phew! That went well,’ said Ruth. ‘You look fabulous, darling! Those colours really suit you. Now, what can I get you? We have red, white or rosé wine, or do you fancy a G&T or a Pimms?’

‘Oh, a G&T would be perfect please, and I love your dress too,’ Grace replied as Ruth led the way to a large kitchen-diner where a very handsome, grey-haired, tall man was stirring something on the cooker.

‘Well, I’m in my uniform all day, and when I come home I normally change straight into my jim-jams. Mike told me I should dress up more often. Didn’t you, darling? You can stop stirring now, by the way.’ Ruth went over and put her arms around his waist and hugged him tight. Grace could see the deep love that these two people had for each other shining through. They looked adoringly at each other and she hoped that one day, she’d still feel like that about a special someone after they’d been together for years, and she hoped that special someone wasn’t too far away.

‘And this, Grace, is my gorgeous current husband, Mike.’

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