Page 104 of One Night in Edinburgh

He and my mum continue to jostle for space in the tiny window on my phone, which amuses me.

‘I want to tell you all something – together,’ I say.

‘I see.’ My dad looks understandably puzzled. ‘And what is it that you want to tell us?’

‘You’d better not be up the duff from some one-night stand,’ Mikey jokes.

‘Mikey,enough.’ My mum is appalled, then her expression changes to one of mild panic. ‘You’re not, are you, Steph?’

I glance across at Jamie with a look of ‘shoot me, now’. He nods his understanding, but gestures for me to continue.

‘No, it’s nothing like that.’ I try to ignore the overexaggerated sighs of relief. ‘There’s someone here with me who’d like to say hello…’ I angle the camera so Jamie can join the conversation.

‘Hi, there.’ He waves at them with a tentative smile.

‘Jamie.’ My mum’s face immediately lights up. ‘It’s so wonderful to see you.’

‘Indeed it is, son.’ My dad is clearly also delighted by this turn of events. ‘Does this mean the two of you are back together?’

I pause to assess Kayleigh’s reaction before saying anything further, but her expression isn’t giving anything away, so I plough on with my big reveal.

‘Yes, we are. And this time we’re not going to stuff it up, are we, Jamie?’

‘We most certainly are not.’ Jamie grins at me adoringly.

‘Well, that’s super news,’ says my dad. ‘Shall we get that game of golf in the diary then?’

‘That would be great.’

‘And dinner at ours after,’ pitches in my mum.

‘Absolutely.’ Jamie seems chuffed by these invitations.

‘Jamie, mate. Welcome back,’ says Mikey. ‘We’ll need to get a pint in, too. You up for watching the old firm match in a couple of weeks?’

‘Sure. Sounds good.’

With all members of my family other than Kayleigh having acknowledged Jamie’s return, we naturally fall silent, waiting for her to say something. It takes her a moment to realise this, and when she does, she looks distinctly awkward.

‘Hey, Jamie. Good to see you,’ is all she can manage.

‘Is it, Kayleigh?’ I challenge her lightly and she becomes even more uneasy.

‘Steph, why are you talking to your sister like that?’ asks my dad.

‘Here we go…’ I mutter to Jamie under my breath before talking normally again. ‘The reason is, Dad, that Kayleigh knows something about Jamie that the rest of you don’t.’

‘I’m sorry. I’m not following you.’

‘Jamie doesn’t run the business he told you he does. He used to, then he owned a brewery, which he lost because of circumstances beyond his control, and, well, that meant he ended up homeless and sometimes begging on the streets.’

The collection of horrified expressions I expected appears right on cue. The up side of this is that they’re stunned into silence, so I continue.

‘Jamie didn’t tell me about his circumstances because he was too ashamed, and he thought you would all reject him if you knew the truth. We split up because I thought he was hiding something else – something far worse. He’s now got a job and a flat and he’s building his life again – with me in it.’

‘So where does Kayleigh come into this, Steph?’ Mikey’s trying to stick with fact finding, but I can tell it’s forced.

‘Kayleigh knew because she was with me when I discovered the truth. We saw Jamie sitting on the street. I’m guessing she didn’t tell you because she didn’t want it to get out and impact her precious reputation.’

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