Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
If you’d asked me when I was a student, where I saw myself in twenty years’ time, I’d probably have said living in Manhattan, running my own wildly successful business, with a wardrobe full of fabulous clothes.
But instead here I was. Trying to ice spots on to a ladybird birthday cake, my hair scraped off my face with a crocodile clip I’d had since the 1980s and wearing an old university T-shirt I used to sleep in. Back in the days when I got some sleep that was.
But I wouldn’t have changed a single thing.
‘How’s it going?’ My wife, Louise, wandered into the kitchen, looking pretty much as rough as I did. She was wearing running shorts and a black T-shirt that was speckled with what looked like snot, and her short blonde hair was sticking straight up like a washing-up brush.
‘It’s actually nearly finished,’ I said, dabbing on one final spot and turning it round so she could see. ‘Ta-dah.’
‘It’s brilliant,’ she said. ‘Fiona will adore it.’
‘Fiona won’t give two hoots,’ I said with a grin. ‘Just like Finlay won’t care about the caterpillar cake I spent most of this morning lovingly icing. But it’s not every day our children turn one.’
Lou slid her arm round my waist and rested her head on my shoulder.
‘Thank god,’ she said. ‘I’m dead on my feet.’
‘Are they asleep?’ I asked.
She nodded.
‘Finally,’ she said. ‘Hopefully they’ll sleep for a good while now and then they’ll be on top form when everyone arrives.’
Everyone meant our families, who were coming over to celebrate the twins’ first birthday with us. My mum was coming down from the Highlands, with my Aunt Tess and her new husband, Doug. My cousin Esme, her husband Jamie and their baby Clemmie were coming, and so were Lou’s parents and her brother, Hugh, his wife and their two angelic sons. My half-brother was in Thailand on holiday so he couldn’t come, but he’d sent the twins an enormous card and promised to spoil them rotten when he returned.
‘Can you believe this?’ I said to Lou, who seemed to have fallen asleep where she stood.’
‘This time last year we’d just sold our flat and we were waiting to hear if we’d been matched with a child. Now look at us.’
We’d adopted the twins when they were just eight weeks old and in the space of a couple of months we’d gone from being sassy professional women in our swanky Edinburgh New Town flat, to being bewildered new mums, in a house where the only room with furniture was the nursery.
Lou lifted her head.
‘It’s been a whirlwind,’ she said. ‘But a good one.’
We stood there, arms round each other for a minute, gazing out into the garden. From the street our house looked like a run-of-the-mill new-build town house, with a garage, loo, and general junk room on the ground floor, the kitchen and lounge upstairs and the bedrooms up another floor from there. But we lived in Dean Village, one of Edinburgh’s strange places where streets ran above streets, huddled in the valley made by a pretty river. So at the back of the house, the open-plan lounge and kitchen were at ground level with a huge conservatory at the end of the room, opening out on to the small garden. The river ran along the end of the garden, though thankfully it was behind a sturdy fence with a lockable gate ‒ I didn’t want the twins wandering out there when they were older.
‘It’s a glorious day,’ I said. ‘It really feels like spring has arrived. We could open the doors when everyone gets here, and people can go outside if they like.’
Lou nodded.
‘Good plan,’ she said. ‘In fact, they’re going to be here very soon and we look like … well, like we always do.’
She grinned and ran a hand through her messy hair.
‘Shall we sort ourselves out before the troublemakers wake up?’
We dashed upstairs and made ourselves look presentable. I pulled on some jeans that didn’t have yogurty fingerprints on and a silky black T-shirt, and I was just twisting my long dark hair into a knot at the nape of my neck when the doorbell rang. I padded down to the door in bare feet to welcome our first guests.
‘God, H, you always look so bloody glamorous,’ my cousin Esme said. She handed me a bunch of flowers and kissed me on the cheek.
‘Hello,’ I said. ‘You look nice too.’
Esme looked nothing like me. She was petite and naturally pretty with wavy blonde hair and a lovely smile. She was wearing a cute dress with butterflies on it and looked fresh and spring-like.
Behind her, Jamie ‒ her husband ‒ stood with their baby girl on his hip.
‘Hi, Harry,’ he said. ‘Don’t come too near, there’s been an explosion in this one’s nappy ‒ can I pop in here and change her?’
He disappeared into our small downstairs toilet and I took Esme upstairs.
‘Clemmie’s teething,’ she said. ‘She’s really suffering, bless her, and I’m exhausted.’
I filled the kettle and switched it on.
‘Tell me about it,’ I said in sympathy. Though Fiona was a great sleeper, Finlay was often awake in the wee small hours. ‘I’ll open some wine when everyone arrives, but do you want a cup of tea to start with?’
Esme nodded.
‘Can you put two teabags in it?’ she said. ‘It’s been that sort of a morning.’
While I made the tea, Esme wandered round the living room, reading some of the cards the twins had been sent. She gasped when she spotted the birthday cakes on the table.
‘Oh, H,’ she said. ‘These are lovely. Did you make them?’
I nodded, bracing myself for what was coming next.
Ez bent over the table, peering closely at the ladybird’s spots.
‘Hang on,’ she said. ‘You made these. You made them normally.’
I poured water on to her teabags, deliberately not meeting her eye.
‘I did,’ I muttered.
Esme looked at me, one eyebrow raised.
‘How