Page 64 of All Wrapped Up
‘I was getting on with life,’ I butted in. ‘I was living itexactlyhow I needed to.’
‘In that case,’ she said, with a small smile, ‘we’ll say no more about it.’
We looked at each other for a moment longer and I knew she wasn’t going to hold my decision not to tell the truth against me.
‘I take it Dad has seen through me, too?’ I sighed.
Mum rolled her eyes at that. ‘Since when have men ever noticed anything?’
I couldn’t agree with that. Callum had always been pretty perceptive and Ash, though he was completely different to my husband in so many ways, was a guy with an eye for the finer details, too.
‘In my experience, men notice things just fine,’ I therefore replied.
‘Yes, well,’ Mum sighed. ‘Not all men are like your Callum was.’
I decided then wasn’t the moment to tell her about Ash. We’d covered enough new ground for one Sunday morning.
‘Now,’ she then said, ‘where’s Pixie? Let me see my favourite girl.’
‘I thought I was your favourite girl,’ I joked as I picked up Pixie, who was never far from my side, and sat her on my lap.
‘Well, I’ve got two now,’ Mum cooed. ‘Aw, there she is!’
I wasn’t really sure what it meant to set an intention, or how the lunar cycle could impact on it even though I did keep up with the waxing and waning of the moon, but after a quick search online, I soon had a little knowledge. Hayley had been right about a new moon being the perfect time to set what I interpreted as basically a goal or aim, and I decided that I’d give it a go.
I still didn’t have a name for my fairy, but feeling a sudden desire to reread the note that Callum had written the day after we’d been treated to a stunning show of the Northern Lights from the comfort of our own back garden, and he’d romantic-ally named me as his sun and moon, soon provided one.
‘Aurora,’ I said aloud, as I held the fairy up. ‘That means dawn in Latin, Pixie,’ I added, and she cocked her head as she listened. ‘Our fairy friend has arrived right at the dawn of my new beginning, hasn’t she? And yours, too. And therefore, Aurora feels like the perfect name for her.’
Pixie barked in agreement and then settled back down while I lit a candle and, following Callum’s love of sharing notes, wrote, in the simplest of terms, what I hoped to achieve by the time the autumn festival came to a close in November.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t groundbreaking, but it meant a lot to me. My intention was to carry on along the new path I had already started to walk, but also continue to allow myself to take time out if I needed it.
Given that I had been home alone for a year and a half and had recently been thrust, quite literally, into a huge patch of limelight, I thought I had coped surprisingly well and my ability to take the changes in my stride, was a reminder that the fun-loving and gregarious young woman I had once been was still there.
Life might have knocked me about in the last few years, but at my core, the essence of who I was still existed and that was heartening. It was time to bring her out again and let her properly shine, but also look after myself while I did it.
I carefully pinned the intention to Aurora’s skirt and then sat back in my armchair. My thoughts were initially all about Callum but they slowly drifted to include Ash and as if I had somehow conjured him, a few minutes later, he called.
‘Hey, Clemmie,’ he greeted me and I could tell he was smiling. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m good,’ I happily responded, feeling relieved that my spontaneous kiss hadn’t apparently done any lasting damage after all. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m great, but I wanted to check in to see if you’d recovered from yesterday.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked, as I set Aurora aside.
‘From the festival launch,’ he elaborated. ‘It was quite an intense start, wasn’t it?’
‘It was,’ I agreed, and I realised how wonderful it was that Ash had the sensitivity to appreciate that it had been a lot for me, having gone from seeing literally no one to then addressing a huge crowd. ‘But I loved every minute of it. And having you there with me made all the difference.’
‘It did?’
He sounded touched.
‘It really did.’
‘Crikey,’ he said, then went quiet.
