Page 69 of Unwanted
“Come on, love,” Heath said, lifting Sophie off the sofa and turning her upside down whilst she giggled. “Let’s not get between your auntie and cake in her delicate condition.”
“Talk about my condition again and you’ll see just how indelicate I’m capable of being,” Yaz said through her teeth at Heath, who smiled, gave her a brief kiss, which was my brother’s solution to most arguments with his wife.
“You’re a pacificist remember,” Heath said. “Peace and love and all that.”
“I can get back to peace and love when my feet aren’t killing me and I’ve had some bloody cake. Now, you two, get off your butts and let’s go!”
“Well, you lot have ruined it anyway,” Harry grumbled as he pushed up to his feet and then turned to me to pull me to mine. I was just about to toe on my stilettoes when Harry bent down and snatched them up from the ground. He looked at me then threw one, then the other, deep into the stacks of shelves.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked, my hands going to my hips. Harry ignored me, turning to Yaz who handed him a pair of flip-flops which he then thrust under my face. I looked from the flip-flops to Harry then to Yaz, the traitor (only this morning we’d both had a joint whinge about how bossy the guys were getting). “There is no universe in which I will ever wearflip-flops. You can both forget it.” Mia moved in front of Harry then and pulled a pair of delicate gold flats out of her handbag.
“See, we did bring you a choice,” she said with a smile.
“Ugh, fine,” I said, taking the shoes from Mia and giving her a reluctant smile. Harry took the shoes and bent down to help me put them on.
“Good girl,” said Jean in a brisk tone. “Right, now then let me sort you out, love.” She came over to me and opened her vast handbag. Before I knew it, powder and lipstick had been reapplied. Mascara smudges were wiped away. The make-up artist, who’d spent over an hour on me this morning, would no doubt be appalled by Harry’s mum’s botch job with Boots own-brand cosmetics, but to me the fact she cared enough to do it was everything. “Beautiful,” Jean whispered when she’d finished, her hand coming up to the side of my face and her eyes filling with tears which set me and my pregnancy-hormone-charged emotions off again. “No, no, no. None of that now, sweetheart. We can’t bowl back into the party like a pair of blubbering ninnies. That’ll never do. Come on then. Off we go. You three ladies need feeding.”
She bustled away, sweeping her grandchildren, her own kids, and even Toby, Naomi and Lanie in her wake. As I turned to leave Yaz took my hand then grabbed for Mia and dragged her over to us.
“Group hug, girls,” she said, throwing her arms around both of us. We all crowded into a tight hug, our bumps restricting somewhat how close we could get to each other. Mia’s baby kicked the side of my stomach and I smiled.
“They’re already fighting,” I said into our circle.
Yaz rolled her eyes. “Let’s hope they take after us.”
“They’re going to have the best childhood, aren’t they?” I said softly. “Together.”
“Of course, they will,” Yaz said with the assurance of someone who’d lived an idyllic childhood herself.
“We’ll make sure of it,” Mia said more softly, her keen gaze on me. “Together.”
“Together,” Yaz and I repeated. Then all three of us broke into huge smiles.
“If you ladies are quite finished?” Max’s grumpy voice filtered into our love-in.
“What are they talking about?” Heath said, his tone clearly annoyed at being left out.
“Well, everyone seems to have more of a right to be hugging my wife than me,” huffed Harry, and I rolled my eyes as the three of us broke apart.
Mia smacked Max in his chest as he approached. “Way to ruin the moment, you numpty!”
Max’s eyebrows went up as he claimed his wife and pulled her into his side. “You lot are always having ‘moments’. There’s cake to be eaten, woman.”
I caught Heath’s eye as we filed out of the library.
“This is it right here,” he said, drawing curious glances from everyone.
I nodded and we both smiled.
He was right.
This was it.
Finally.
The family we made for ourselves.
