Page 46 of An Angel's Share
“Do they always do what Marshall tells them?” I ask Evie on her return from settling the boys.
“Yes, their Granda has this weird effect on them. He only has to look at them and they behave. I’m trying to bottle it.We would make a fortune if we could. I’m sure Seamus will have the same effect on your little one. It seems like the grandparents have the magic touch. Tarron, Xander's dad, is the same. Although, to be fair, he does amp them up. Lets them run wild, and just laughs at their antics.” She’s smiling at the thought.
I’m quite jealous of the family she has, my envy notching up when I see how Jonno looks at her. Utter devotion and love.
“I’ll get up with the boys tonight, Evie, if they wake,” Jonno states as he’s sat talking to Tommy. “Give you all a night off.” He nods towards Tommy and Valentina.
“To be honest, we’re not too bad. Xan has only just gone to LA a few days ago. Do we look haggard already?” Evie’s nodding and smiling at Tommy. She turns to me, explaining, “My husband doesn’t sleep much, so he’s up and about in the middle of the night. Does all the early morning stuff with the kids. It’s amazing, I’m so grateful at times.” Her eyes go to the phone lighting up with a facetime call. “Oh speak of the devil. I’ll take this.” She stands and answers, “Hey Xan,” as she walks away from the table.
“They’ll be on hyperspeed as she’s not there,” Jonno tells us, flicking his eyes to Evie’s retreating back, grinning knowingly at Marshall. “I bet they ring about one hundred times an hour.” They’re both smiling about the dads. “But I get it, you would never want to be away from your children and wife.”
He looks straight at me as he states it. His eyes going from chocolate to molten, and I can hardly get my breath. Someone is going to notice if he doesn’t stop it.
Marshall clears his throat, and I look down. Clearly he has. My dad also must, as he engages Jonno in inaneconversation as I try to break his intensity and head into the house for drinks.
“Doyou want to start with the plans tomorrow?” I ask Evie when she appears a good while later.
“Yep, if you both have nothing on, we could get cracking.” She obviously is very well informed, as she looks at both Christy and myself.
“Christy, are you getting involved?” Maggie asks her in surprise.
“Yes, Aoife’s asked me to run the café, and—” Christy starts off happily before being rudely interrupted.
“How are you going to do that with the kids? I’m not sure you’ve thought this through,” Patrick pipes up, clearly exchanging incredulous expressions with her mother.
I see Evie clock the situation and turn on the charm. I’m so bloody impressed. “Oh I thought Christy was the architect of the plan?” She looks in confusion at me, and I play right along.
“Yes, she is. Well, we both are. Christy runs the house, so we thought it would be good for her to oversee the café. Put all that skill to even better use. If it gets too busy, we can commandeer some staff from the offices. I overheard some of them saying at the dining room table how ‘unbusy’ they were. We can remedy that and get Christy an assistant. Two birds.” I beam at Christy and hear Jonno try to stifle a laugh.
“Yes, Patrick,” Christy jumps in. “I am overseeing it all. Afterall, I ran your office, your diary, your life. In fact, I am still doing that bit, as your assistant seems too preoccupied. We even saw her in town—on a lunch time—not long ago.Not sure how she’s time for that. It takes nearly thirty minutes to get there.”
I pull a face at her, trying to telegraph her to rein it in. Whoa Christy, you might give the game away. Clearly she looks a bit upset, and her mother is staring at her outburst. Patrick looks shocked. Good, you deserve to be shocked.
He starts to back track, or at least pacify her. “I didn’t mean you couldn’t, of course I know how organised you are. It was just the workload.” He tries to dig himself out of the hole. “And obviously it's a different type of work. You’ll have to deal with outside agencies, and you’ve never had to—” He’s just fallen back in the hole again. He never learns.
“Really Patrick? I deal with the outside world every day. I organise this whole house.” She gestures at the grand old huge house behind us. Her mother, as ill-advised as mine, snorts at that. “What was that for?” She turns on her, and Maggie wilts as all eyes swivel towards her.
“Er well, I…” She stammers and stops as she takes in the face of her outraged daughter.
I step in to support Chrisy. “Christy does organise the whole house. The food, laundry, she might as well run a hotel with the number of people we are feeding and cleaning for. Not to mention all the cleaning services she runs for all the people on the estate. It’s practically a resort she’s running.” My jab at Patrick and his ridiculous levels of generosity hits as expected.
“Well, yes, I never thought about that. I’m sorry, darling. I suppose I’m just used to you being there for us. I never?—”
“Yes, that’s about right.” She curls her lip at him. “Take me for granted. Expect that I’ll always be where you expect me to be. Well you had better start getting used to me not being there. I’m involved with Evie with the building plans. I’m involved with Aoife with the business plans. Involved,involved, involved.” She’s wafting her hands around in a slightly manic fashion. None of them have seen her so animated in years. They all have varying degrees of shock on their faces.
Evie grins at her, and asks, “Do you think we need to overhaul the existing café, Christy, or do you think a repurpose is all it will take?”
“Oh God, not more people to fuel the refurbishing plans?” Liam walks out onto the terrace. The man is completely self-obsessed and full of his own importance. He hasn’t picked up on the tension swirling around the conversation. And to top it off, at the end of the day, he isn’t even family.
I watch Jonno go from mildly amused to hard, cold edges. Evie swivels her head and her body stiffens. She really does know everything. Even the security guy, Tommy, lifts his head from his phone.
Liam clearly thinks he’s funny and is now the centre of attention, a position he loves. Patrick, trying to cover for him, starts to laugh heartily. But he’s as fake as a Rolex bought from a dodgy market stall.
“Liam,” I don’t bother getting up to greet him, or make any attempt at an acknowledging kiss. I just point at him. “My fiancé.” The edge in my voice is unmistakable.
He looks at me then, as if he’s just noticed I’m sitting at my own table and chairs, and comes over to kiss me. I can tell by his obsequious manner he’s going in for a full snog. I turn my cheek toward him, clamping my lips together so he gets the message, then add quickly, “This is Evie and Tommy.”
I gesture towards Evie. Her uber polite face is on show, but her eyes are like flints of grey sea glass. Tommy’s face is blank, but still manages to be a bit intimidating.
