Page 48 of All We Want for Christmas
‘She knows your name but she didn’t connect it withyou. When she was going on about you being handsome, I thought she might guess, but she’s only seen one photo of you from years back. You had short hair and were wearing a baseball cap and you looked younger.’
‘I’ve aged a lot recently,’ Flynn muttered – and most of it in the past five minutes.
‘You don’t go online much,’ Molly said. ‘Not for a bloke your age. Most are forever sharing photos of themselves on holidays or in the gym trying to look cool.’
‘I’m sorry to disappoint you. Still, you did well to track me down.’
‘I also saw that you updated your LinkedIn,’ she said proudly.
‘My LinkedIn?’
‘You sound very impressive.’
‘I promise you I don’t mean to.’
Esme shrieked in delight – or derision. Was she old enough to be sarcastic? Of course not, but Flynn didn’t actually know how old she was. Seven months? A year? It was a complete guess.
Molly smiled and placed Esme’s toy penguin within her reach again. ‘So that’s why Nan had no idea that she was talking to my father, and …’ Molly grimaced. ‘Saying you were handsome. Sorry about that. I love her to bits but she can be very embarrassing.’
Flynn made an unintelligible noise. He couldn’t form a coherent response in the face of this one huge revelation. It was like a giant sun, irradiating every other thought. He had a daughter, and a granddaughter. He was a father and hischild and her child were here in front of him and apparently living down the road.
‘I – I am – sorry … I – um – do you want to get a coffee?’ he asked, wondering what excuse he could make to leave the Winter Spectacular and where could they go to speak privately.
‘I don’t think that’s a great idea. Esme needs her bedtime milk and, anyway, do you really want to talk about this in public?’ she added, reminding him that they were standing in the middle of hundreds of people, his work colleagues a moment away. It was a miracle no one had called him on the radio yet to ask where he’d been.
‘No. Yes. I mean you’re right,’ Flynn said, realising Molly was more mature than he had given her credit for.
‘I could meet you tomorrow, though?’
‘Yeah. That would be good.’Good? Was it?‘I can get some time off,’ he said, vowing that he’d make time.
‘Should I come here? I don’t want Nan to know I’ve found you yet. She might have a heart attack.’
She’s not the only one, thought Flynn, his body stiff with tension. ‘Yes, if you don’t mind. You could come to the cottage. I can meet you in the visitor car park. We can talk at my place.’
‘OK.’ She beamed.
Esme let out another wail and, this time, even Flynn could tell it was a cry of demand.
‘OK, sweetheart. I know. It’s almost bedtime.’ She looked at Flynn with an eye roll. ‘She probably needs a clean nappy too. I’d better get home fast. I don’t want to change her in the public toilets here. Too busy.’
‘You could use my cottage …’ he offered, before he’d really known what he was saying. But Esme was his flesh and blood.
‘Thanks. But I’ll get her home. I can see your place tomorrow—’ she hesitated and, for a second, he thought she might call him Dad, but instead she grasped the buggy handles and said, ‘See you tomorrow. What time?’
‘Six-thirty?’ He dragged up a smile from somewhere because he thought it was how he ought to react. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’
The words came out of his mouth but they hadn’t seemed to come from his brain. They had just emerged as a pleasantry he might say to an old friend, to Harvey, or to Lara. Oh God, Lara …
‘Me too, and we can definitely arrange a DNA test if you want to. It might give us all some certainty, even if I am sure,’ said Molly.
‘Yes. Probably a good idea.’
She lifted Esme’s hand in a wave.
‘Bye,’ said Flynn, and lifted his own hand and somehow managed a smile for the baby and his daughter.
Molly wheeled the buggy away between the flanking yew trees and he watched until she turned a corner and vanished.
