Page 26 of Love Is: Two Bodies One Soul

‘Hey folks, I’m here,’ Xander yelled from the hallway. Then, bringing with him a blast of cold October air, he appeared behind his mother.

‘Ah! There you are,’ Doctor Scott said unnecessarily. ‘Elizabeth, fetch the champagne.’

‘But .…’ Elizabeth stalled, looked at the tray she was carrying, perhaps wondering if she should mention the coffee and biscuits.

‘Hiya, Lexie.’ Xander breezed over to her, carrying the faint smell of public transport with him. He dropped a kiss on her cheek before doing the same to his mother and grandmother. ‘Sorry I’m late, Dad. Bloody dreadful journey. I missed the usual train by seconds. I’m sure it left early. No regard for timetables, these rail people.’

Doctor Scott rumbled at his son. Lexie recognised the sound as her father’s way of showing forgiveness to his favourite child.

Elizabeth left the room with the untouched coffee. Lexie settled on the sofa, noticing that her brother hadn’t brought gifts, not even flowers for their mother, but possibly worse – he’d come alone. On Friday, Kate had asked what present she should bring, so why wasn’t she here?

‘Where’s Kate?’ Lexie asked.

‘Couldn’t make it today,’ Xander batted away the query and moved to the fire, warming himself, clapping his hands together and holding them to the heat while complaining about his journey to his grandmother.

‘Here we are,’ Elizabeth announced her return, carrying a new tray with ice-bucket, Champagne and glass flutes.

Doctor Scott popped the cork with much display. Xander toasted his parents’ anniversary. Parental glances, loaded with unspoken thoughts, were exchanged. Lexie tried to catch her brother’s eyes, but he avoided contact. She wished she could take her grandmother to one side and find out exactly what was going on.

* * *

It wasn’tuntil they sat down to eat Sunday lunch that the mystery finally began to unravel.

‘You know, Xander,’ Doctor Scott said, waving a carving knife in the air before setting about the roast beef with less than surgical precision. ‘It’s not too late. If you buckle down to it, you could catch up. I’ll fund the completion of your studies. I’m not happy about the cost, but I’d rather do that than have you go off on some other wildcat scheme.’

Lexie shot a look at her brother across the dining table. He shook his head at her, a hardly noticeable movement she recognised as meaning: Stay quiet. Don’t ask.

‘No, Dad,’ he said. ‘It’s kind of you to offer, but I’m still a photographer. I have a big enough client base now to be totally independent. I don’t need WIV.’

Don’t need WIV?Lexie frowned at her brother. He avoided meeting her eyes, helping himself to horseradish sauce instead.

Lexie’s stomach heaved as her father slapped down three gory slices of beef on Xander’s plate and grunted loudly. No one, not even Xander himself, would ever convince Doctor Scott that his son could make a worthwhile career in photography.

Ignoring his father’s disappointment, Xander continued cheerfully, ‘I’ve got plenty of work. Too much, in fact. I’ve been juggling things for weeks. There’ve already been a few run-ins with George over my availability. So, when the climax came on Friday ….’ He paused, suppressing a smile, as if he’d thought of a joke. Then keeping whatever it was to himself, he continued. ‘Honestly, it was a relief to agree to a parting of the ways. And I still get to do the Paradise assignment. How about that, then?’ He looked triumphantly around the table. ‘An all-expenses-paid trip to a glorious tropical island with a leading writer. Can’t be bad. It was best for everyone.’

‘Kate will miss you,’ Elizabeth observed, helping the elder Mrs Scott to Yorkshire pudding.

‘No! No, she won’t,’ Xander snapped. Then, diverting the conversation, he asked for more wine.

‘Sorry there’s no veggie pasta,’ Elizabeth whispered to Lexie. ‘What with one thing and another, I forgot to put it in the oven.’

Lexie patted her mother’s arm. ‘Don’t worry, Mum, I’m fine with green beans and potatoes.’

Doctor Scott, whose hearing could rival a bat, made disapproving grumbling sounds, adding, ‘Don’t, for God’s sake, tell her what you cooked the roast potatoes in, else she won’t eat those either.’

Gran distracted her son by asking if he grew his own horseradish. A question she’d asked at almost every roast beef dinner for nearly as long as Lexie had been a vegetarian. And keeping a wary eye on her husband, Elizabeth shook her head at Lexie and mouthed vegetable oil – not beef dripping.

‘So, where did you say Kate was?’ This time, it was their father quizzing Xander.

‘I didn’t,’ Xander choked, swallowing a chunk of beef without chewing. ‘I’m not sure what she’s doing. A family thing,’ he added vaguely, then changed the subject again. ‘Pass the beans. Are these the last from the garden for this year, Dad?’

‘Yes. Late in the year, but I suppose that’s climate change for you.’

‘The longer the season, the better. Your runner beans are the best.’ Xander turned from flattering his father and asked, ‘You want some, Gran?’

‘Pardon?’ Gran, who maintained she was deaf, peered at her grandson before she asked, ‘Where’s that nice girl of yours?’

And so it went on for the rest of the day with Xander determined to avoid the truth … until.

---