Page 54 of Could It Be Magic?
‘Glad to hear it, little brother. Now let’s get this food to the table before Mum throttles Gladys with the holly wreath!’
‘I’ll be there in a sec,’ Nick said. He checked his phone again. He was hoping for another message from Thea, but he also knew she’d be busy with her own family Christmas, so he wasn’t going to be too surprised if he didn’t hear from her until later. He wondered if she’d opened his present yet. Hopefully, he’d been right in his choice to give it to her. Smiling when he saw she’d sent him a photo of herself and the unwrapped gift, he paused before joining his family in the dining room. He texted a quick, ‘It looks great on you. Wish you were here with me,’ to her, along with a goofy gif of Bugs Bunny blowing kisses.
47
Thea leaned back on Lorelai’s sofa and groaned. ‘That was amazing, Gran. I honestly don’t know how you do it.’
‘Years of practise, dear,’ Lorelai replied. Tristan and Charlotte were finishing up the washing up in the utility room, ably aided by Cora and Dylan, who were loading the dishwasher and squabbling about whose turn it was to bring the last plates through.
‘Well, I hope you don’t intend to hang up your apron any time soon,’ Thea joked. ‘I’ll need all of the recipes and tips if you do decide that one of us needs to take over next year.’
‘I’ll keep you posted, but I’m probably good for a year or two yet.’ Lorelai smiled indulgently. Taking advantage of the fact that the rest of the family was occupied doing the clearing, she added, ‘Have you given any more thought to what you’re going to do about Ben, and his father?’
Thea hesitated. She needed to talk things through with someone, but she didn’t want to burden her grandmother with it all, especially not on Christmas Day. ‘Not really,’ she admitted. ‘But I suppose I can’t hide from it forever.’ She sighed. ‘At least Dylan seems reasonably OK with the development – Cora and I sat down with him and told him about Ben, and all he said was, “Does he play football?” I suppose that’s a good start!’
‘Could have been worse,’ Lorelai agreed. ‘And it might be better to be the one who takes control of the situation, rather than allowing Ed to dictate things, as he surely will once he’s got wind of Ben contacting Cora.’
‘You know, I honestly don’t know if he does know or not,’ Thea’s brow wrinkled. ‘I mean, I’ve kind of been assuming that he must know, but what if he’s still in the dark? That could add a whole new layer of complications.’ Just thinking about what might and might not be happening was enough to give Thea a headache. ‘But that’s for another day,’ she added. ‘Not Christmas.’
‘I’m here if you need me,’ Lorelai said gently. ‘You know that.’
‘I know.’ Thea smiled at her grandmother. Then, turning to the bag of board games she’d brought over with her, she grinned. ‘So will it be Monopoly, Cluedo or Twister this year?’
Lorelai gave a laugh. ‘I think my days of playing Twister are well and truly over, but I’m sure you’ve got a few left in you!’
‘Maybe if I hadn’t had so much wine with dinner,’ Thea replied. She loved days like this, just hanging out with her grandmother, waiting for the rest of the family to join them. She was well aware of the passing of time, these days, and how, now Lorelai was approaching eighty years old, they had more of those days behind them than in front of them, so she was determined to make the most of the time they had.
That got her thinking, reluctantly, of the situation with Ben and Ed. Surely, she owed it to her own children to allow them to make contact with their half-brother? She needed to take control of things and resolved, after the Christmas holiday was over, to do just that.
‘Right’ – Charlotte entered the living room – ‘now all that’s out of the way, who’s for Twister?’
Tristan, following behind her, rolled his eyes good naturally. ‘I don’t intend on exerting myself any more than to reach for my glass of wine this afternoon, so count me out.’
‘Spoilsport,’ Charlotte chided him. ‘Come on… I know how flexible you are!’
‘TMI, future sister-in-law!’ Thea laughed. ‘Didn’t you get the memo about not discussing that sort of thing in front of the other twin?’
Charlotte grinned. ‘Don’t get me started on you, or I’ll demand all sorts of gory details about why you disappeared so suddenly from the Midwinter’s Eve Ball!’
It was Thea’s turn to roll her eyes. ‘That can wait for another day.’ Thankfully, the children came into the room just as she said it, so Charlotte didn’t probe any further.
A riotous game of Twister ensued, with Dylan victorious, after a close-run contest with Tristan. As Tristan collapsed across the mat trying to make an impossible reach to a red spot, Dylan jumped on top of him before doing a victory lap of the living room.
Thea, on the fuel of another glass of champagne, couldn’t stop giggling. There was nothing better than being with the family on Christmas Day.
‘Rematch!’ Dylan shouted.
Tristan groaned. ‘Not right now.’ He heaved himself up off the floor and flopped onto the sofa beside Charlotte. ‘Your go, I think.’
Charlotte shook her head. ‘Co-ordination is definitely not my strong point!’ She glanced at Thea. ‘How about you, Thea?’
Thea shook her head. ‘Nope. All I’m good for is the monarch’s speech and a snooze right now.’
The afternoon carried on much the same way until, finally, feeling laughed-out and replete, Thea rounded up Cora and Dylan and made her way back to Orion Close. Tristan and Charlotte were spending the night in Lorelai’s spare room and would probably be up for a hangover-curing woodland walk at some point on Boxing Day. Thea looked forward to it. She never took having family around for granted; it was the most valuable privilege she had. Even allowing for the sentimentality that an extra glass of wine enflamed, she felt as though she’d really filled up her emotional wells this Christmas. She laughed at the self-reflection; she’d talked about the same thing with her class before they broke up for the Christmas holiday, encouraging them to try to think as much about the gifts of spending time with loved ones as they did about the gifts under the Christmas tree. Perhaps it was just a festive, hazy glow she was feeling, but she felt as though she’d got a lot of things into perspective lately. She fingered the lapel of her winter coat, where she’d pinned the pretty, silver and pearl pin badge in the shape of mistletoe and berries that had been inside the box Nick had given her the night before. His handwritten note, which she’d tucked back into the box, had simply read:
So you can use this to kiss me whenever you want… not that you need an excuse!
With that in mind, Thea fumbled in her pocket for the house keys. Just as she was about to open the front door, determined only for a cup of tea and an early night, her phone pinged. Pulling it out of her pocket, she saw that she had a Facebook message request. Somehow, before she even opened the app, she had an inkling as to whom it might be from. Her heart started to race as she waited for the message to load. Timing had never been his strong point, but even she had to question what made him think that eight o’clock on Christmas Day was the right time to make contact. The message was short, to the point and didn’t give much away, but she knew it was going to be the gateway to a much longer conversation. It wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have, but it seemed, now, it was inevitable.
