Page 5 of Christmas Games
Two days later, Zoe took a break from admin and strolled through Kinloch to a modern housing estate on the edge of the village, where her friend Fiona lived with her family.
As a child, Zoe had spent a summer in Kinloch where she’d met Fiona for the first time. They were the same age and shared the same sense of humour. Now, two decades on, Zoe was back for good and Fiona had become one of her closest friends.
As the front door opened, an auburn-haired toddler barrelled out, his arms outstretched.
‘Dohee! Dohee!’
Zoe lifted him. ‘Hey Liam, you gorgeous little monkey. How goes it?’
A plastic car was thrust in her face. ‘Brrrrrrrrmmm! Brrrrrrrrmmm!’ he replied, splattering her face with saliva.
Fiona grabbed her son. ‘No brum brum in people’s faces, mister, or Dohee won’t ever come back.’ She pulled a face at Zoe. ‘Sorry about that. Try and think of it as strengtheningyour immune system. Come on through and I’ll put the kettle on.’
Inside, Zoe sat at the kitchen table with Liam next to her in his high chair as her friend bustled about. She tried to keep her eyes on Fiona’s face, but her gaze kept falling to her rounded belly. Would she ever get pregnant?
Zoe had always wanted to be a mother, and now she’d met Rory, it was all she seemed to think about. Well, that and jumping him at every opportunity. She kept expecting their first flush of passion to fade, but it only seemed to be getting stronger. If the amount of sex correlated with the ability to get pregnant, she should have been carrying octuplets well over a year ago.
‘Milk?’ Fiona asked, startling her from her daydreams.
‘Yeah, thanks. Ooh! And you’ve got choccy bickies, too.’
‘Bickie! Bickie!’
Fiona broke a biscuit in half and handed one side to Liam, who stuffed it in his mouth sideways.
‘Jesus wept, love, not like that!’ Fiona retrieved it and broke it in half again. ‘Honestly, Zo, he loves these. I left the room to pee yesterday and came back to find he’d dragged a chair to the counter and was trying to climb up to get to the cupboard. Sneaky little bugger.’
‘Bugga! Bugga! Bugga!’ yelled Liam excitedly.
‘Fuck’s sake! I keep forgetting he can talk.’
‘Ucks ay! Ucks ay, Mummy!’
Zoe snorted with laughter, which set Liam off even more. Fiona attempted to be stern with her son, but he seemed to know from her expression that this word would get the maximum reaction from the most important person in his life.
‘Just wait till your father gets home, Mister,’ said Fiona, wagging her finger at her son.
Fiona’s husband, Duncan, worked as an electrician and ropeaccess specialist on oil rigs in the North Sea and was away two weeks out of every four.
‘How’s it going?’ Zoe asked.
Fiona’s hand went to her bump. Zoe knew how anxious she was each time her husband left. Her mum, Morag, had been pregnant with Fiona’s younger brother, Jamie, when her father had died on the rigs doing the exact same job that her husband now did. Fiona usually tried to hide her concern, but now the smiles about Liam’s antics slipped away.
‘Not great, to be honest, Zo.’ She rubbed at a spot on the table. ‘With the state of the world, half the crew doesn’t know if they’ll be laid off tomorrow, then reinstated the week later. Dunc’s fed up with the uncertainty.’
Zoe gave her friend’s hand a squeeze.
‘You must be sick of me moaning by now,’ Fiona grimaced.
‘No! Of course not. Complain all you like. That’s what friends are for.’
‘It’s like we’ve made a pact with the devil. The money’s so good we can afford to buy our forever home. But I don’t know how I’m going to cope once the new baby comes.’
‘Babyyyyy,’ repeated Liam, solemnly.
Zoe understood. One child looked hard enough, but having to be a single mum half the time with a newborn as well didn’t sound like much fun.
‘You know you can always ask me to help?’
