Chapter Thirteen
836 Words
Would it be like it had been with the twins all over again?
She actually ached to see them but it wasn’t just the blood relations that hurt. There had been so many girlfriends and along with them their children, and it was much the same with her mum.
‘I don’t want to go to your wedding.’ Emily said it out loud as she stared at the screen, though she knew she’d do the right thing and be there, more in the hope of seeing the twins, though.
If Donna let them attend.
That was why she was like this, Emily reminded herself. That was why she let no one in.
She checked her reminders. It was her half-sister Abby’s birthday tomorrow and though she had sent a gift in the post Emily posted a message on her mum’s timeline.
She flicked through some images; saw Abby smiling with her own dad’s children from a previous relationship.
There wasn’t enough wood in a forest to map Emily’s family tree.
It was always the one, her parents told her when they met the latest love of their life.
This time they were sure.
Until it was over.
Emily allowed herself one look at the smiling image of Hugh on her screen and then clicked off.
Hugh was a sure-fire recipe for disaster.
She was right to refuse herself a taste.
************
FOR ONCE HUGH wasn’t looking forward to Monday.
And it wasn’t just Emily’s revelation that had soured the weekend!
The accident and emergency do had been a little wild and Hugh had again had to put out an increasingly regular fire named Gina.
He’d gone round yesterday to speak to her and she’d done her best to convince him it had just been a one-off, that she hadn’t been the only one who’d had too much to drink.
True.
And, yes, it had been her thirtieth birthday after all.
Yet Hugh wasn’t so sure it was just the drinking that was the problem.
Three years ago when he’d voiced his concerns first to Alex and then to Mr Eccleston, the head of Anaesthetics, he had been taken seriously. Gina had actually cried on him about the unknown person who had threatened her career.
It had all come to nothing and it had eaten Hugh up since then that possibly he had jumped the g*n because Gina really was an amazing doctor and she had proved it over and over.
Just lately, though, Hugh felt that things were sliding again.
Driving to work, he took a call from his sister. ‘Is everything okay?’ Hugh instantly checked.
‘Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?’ Kate answered.
‘It’s not even seven a.m.’
‘Well, I knew you’d be on your way to work and I don’t like to trouble you there.’
‘You can call me any time, Kate.’
‘Hugh, can you take your social-worker voice off? Just because I’ve had a baby it doesn’t mean that there has to be a problem.’
Easy for you to say, Hugh thought, pulling up at traffic lights. Three years ago Hugh had taken Emily’s advice and practically frogmarched Kate to her doctor, and still, all these years on, what had happened in Kate’s dark teenage years ate at him.
‘So, what are you calling for?’ Hugh asked instead.
‘We’ve booked Billy’s christening,’ Kate said, ‘for the end of June.’ Hugh grimaced when she gave him the date. He was quite sure he was on take that weekend and he’d already swapped his roster once to accommodate an upcoming wedding that he wouldn’t miss for the world.
He’d actually given Kate a list of his available dates when she had started to talk about making plans for the christening.
Let it go, Hugh, he told himself as the lights changed.
Yet he always let it go around Kate.
‘The thing is, I’m actually—’ Hugh attempted, but Kate cut in.
‘We want you to be godfather.’
‘Oh!’ Hugh didn’t know what to say at first and then he said the right thing. ‘I’d be delighted to.’
So there was no getting out of it, then.
Damn.
Hugh loved his sister and nephews very, very much; it was just the timing of things that was a serious issue. How the hell could he ask for another Sunday off?
‘Will you be bringing someone?’ Kate asked.
‘Probably not.’
‘I’ll need to know for the restaurant.’
- Writer
