Page 78 of Broken Heart Syndrome
‘I know,’ he said smugly, and I rolled my eyes. ‘You told me when you were pissed, ages ago,’ he explained. ‘Although that was when I was still acting like a tosser. Now that you know the real wonderful me in all my glory, I expect you’ve got a little shrine to me hidden somewhere around here.’
‘Loser.’
‘Loser that you love.’
‘Whatever.’
As I was drifting off to sleep something occurred to me that I’d wanted to ask for the last ten years.
‘What does the G stand for?’ I asked.
‘What?’ he rumbled sleepily.
‘The G in your name; what does it stand for?’
‘Sleeping now,’ he grumbled, patting my face to encourage me to do the same.
‘No, please, just tell me.’
He sighed.
‘If you must know, Mum thought I looked like such an angel when I was born that she called me Gabriel,’ he finally said, and I burst out laughing into his chest.
‘That’s almost worse than Gankface,’ I told him through my laughter.
Epilogue
A beautiful life
‘Gabby,’ Frankie said in a low, warning tone.
That tone of voice was one of the many changes Tom had noticed in her over the last two years. Gone was any trace of hesitancy or any fearful looks over his reactions. Gone was the underlying tension in her that he hadn’t even noticed was there before. But now that it was gone, and he had all of her with no holding back, the difference was huge.
It had taken a while, but once she saw that he wasn’t going anywhere, she had gradually relaxed. Even last night, when their door was hammered on at two in the morning, and they had to get a fairly steaming Marco into the spare room without waking the baby, she hadn’t flinched. In the early days an incident like that would have sent her into a tailspin, but now she just shrugged it off.
Even now, with Marco still hung-over upstairs, she didn’t seem to give it a second thought, and was more focused on the fact they were late. Tom had only realized the full extent of Frankie’s support of Marco once he had convinced her to move in with him. She gave him a regular allowance and he would turn up at her flat at all hours if he needed a place to crash.
Frankie, Tom, Gio and Gabriella, and Tom’s parents had all tried to convince him to sober up and get his life back, to no avail. But since the arrival of Lucy, Tom had noticed a change in him. This week Marco had even announced his intention to go to an AA meeting. It could all come to nothing, of course; Tom knew that the stats were against Marco. But maybe, just maybe having his first grandchild around had given him some inspiration.
‘Youare notgoing like that.’ She was standing in front of him, blocking the door, glowering at his shirt, and then down at his flip-flops. Sometimes, Tom thought, it would be nice to have the old, more amenable, nervous Frankie back. Lucy started waving her chubby arms and blowing raspberries, and Frankie smiled at her on Tom’s hip, and then frowned. ‘Did you give her that chocolate cake?’
‘Um …’ Tom looked Lucy over and realized she might be a tad bit covered in chocolate icing. ‘… No?’ Frankie rolled her eyes and snatched Lucy out of his arms.
‘You’re lucky your sister is a maniac and boughtthreechristening outfits for her,’ she mumbled as she grabbed the baby wipes and started swiping at a less-than-impressed Lucy, who was frantically trying to twist away.
In Tom’s opinion his daughter was the most beautiful nine-month-old he’d ever seen. She had thick dark hair and eyelashes like her mother, and his blue eyes. Despite the fact that Frankie’s foo-foo was lemon juice-free when they conceived (the conception being somewhat of an accident) she still managed to give birth to a long-awaited Longley girl, to everybody’s unbridled delight.
‘You,’ Frankie pointed at him, ‘upstairs: shirt, tie, actual shoes. And you,’ she pointed at Lucy who was now secured to her hip. Frankie’s stern expression melted into a smile, ‘Kisses –’ Lucy obediently leaned into her and planted a big kiss on Frankie’s lips (her new trick) ‘– and change. Then we’ve got to go, Lou is going tokillus.’ Her stern expression was slightly ruined by the copious amounts of icing Lucy had transferred onto her face.
‘But it’s sunny,’ Tom whined.
‘Even if it was forty degrees and the christening was actually being held in Hawaii, a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops would still be pushing it. In a Welsh village church in spring, no chance.’
Tom sighed and scuffed his shoe on the floor grumpily. ‘I don’t even have to wear a stupid tie at work, why does it –’
‘Tom,’ Frankie said firmly, ‘there aren’t any infection-control issues at All Saints Church that I know of. Everyone else will be wearing a tie and your mum will –’
‘Okay,’ Tom cut her off. He knew exactly what his mum would do if he turned up like this. ‘I’ll change, but first … kisses?’
