“Now you’ve upstaged the party,” he whispered back. With a gentle pat on her bottom, he let her go and picked up the cake. “You can tell me again later.”
Carrying the cake through, the grin on his face grew as the party guests all cheerily sang Happy Birthday. Her face glowing with happiness, Leila blew out her candles and clapped with everyone else.
The party wound down eventually at midnight, and tired parents carted off their sugar-hyped daughters. Finally alone, Liam handed Leila her present.
“This is to show you carry the people who love you with you. All the time. Happy birthday, baby. If you lose it, Daddy’ll kill you.”
Leila laughed. “Thanks. I think!”
Untying the intricate ribbon from Links of London, Leila opened a charm bracelet. Three of the charms were picture lockets. One contained a picture of Sarah a few hours after she’d given birth to Leila. The other held a picture of both sets of grandparents. And the final one kept a picture of Liam, Leila and Abigail in Cornwall. The only picture in the locket that Abigail hadn’t seen. Keeping it secret was all in their future. The photo showed all the happiness of their first holiday together and please God, he thought, not their last.
Leila looked up at her father with shining eyes. “Are you going to marry her, Dad?”
Liam looked to where Abigail was waving goodbye to the last parent, handing over the gift bag as she did. He couldn’t even imagine what his life would be like at this moment had she not strolled in and told him to do better—as a father and as a man. “Don’t tell her. We’ll come up with a master plan.”
Looking down at the last picture, Leila gave what sounded like a sigh of contentment. “Good.”
Abigail handed over a beautifully illustrated geography book to Leila. “It helps when you can visualise it,” she assured the girl. Leila’s current nemesis was the subject holding back her grades.
“This bites!” She groaned, slumping over her desk.
“It doesn’t,” Abigail argued. “You should understand your own country.”
“There are so many people who don’t, though. I swear Mr. Reed doesn’t know where Leicester is without Google Maps.”
“So why would you want to be like him? Learn to navigate. Read maps. Geography will help. What happens if your phone battery is dead, your sat nav doesn’t work, you’re in the middle of Oxford and the only thing you’ve got left is an A-Z?”
The girl looked blank. “What’s that?”
“It’s a map.” Abigail despaired for future generations. “Just get to grips with that book and those questions will be as easy as pie. I’ll just be downstairs. Your dad will be home soon.”
“Thank you,” Leila called over her shoulder before settling down to work.
There now. Anyone who said Leila McNamara couldn’t behave would get a swift rap over the knuckles from her.
Abigail had been able to hire more staff to cover the increase in custom. After her chef watched them with a hawk’s eye, Abigail felt she could leave them alone once in a while. It meant she could spend her evenings with Liam and Leila. Her friends still didn’t understand it, but truthfully, it fit with her.
Christmas had been one of the few hinges of people’s expectations. Even Abigail felt the pressure from her own mother to make their lives official and get engaged at the least. She told her mother and Liam in no uncertain terms it was far too soon for them to be shacking up together. The diamond earrings she received as her present were absolutely beautiful, but to both Liam’s mother and her own, they were a stark disappointment. It was coming up to a year to the date Liam got frisky with her upstairs in
The Library,
and she couldn’t be happier.
The scariest thing she had to do was discipline Leila with a grounding for missing her curfew by two hours. Her boyfriend wanted to see how she handled it and informed her he was suitably impressed, even though Abigail cried to see Leila’s face full of upset and disappointment. It hadn’t, thank the Lord in heaven above, needed to happen again. For now, Abigail suspected. When the summer holidays kicked in, she had clear predictions; it would be horrific.
She called in to check up on her staff, going through her mental checklist and interrogating her manager on the smallest of pauses in her answers. Her phone buzzed while she was speaking and she pulled the mobile away to see a message from Liam.
On my way home. Be about fifteen minutes. Bringing dinner with me. x Liam
Darling man. Abigail shouted up the stairs, “Lei-Lei, dinner’s in fifteen.”
There was no answer to her call. Frowning, Abigail knocked on Leila’s door and heard a breathless, “Coming!”
“Everything all right?” Abigail asked, pushing open the door. Leila’s head came up from under her desk, strands of hair everywhere. The flushed girl burst out, “I’ve lost my bracelet.”
Abigail’s heart sank. “What?”
“I can’t find it.”
Oh good God, Liam was going to kill them both. Leila for losing something so damn expensive and Abigail for letting it happen on her watch. “Okay, let’s calm down a bit. Where did you see it last?”
Leila thought for a minute. “I was showing Rebecca in
The Library
.”
If they hurried, they could drive to the café, get the bracelet and come back. No way before Liam got home, but having the bracelet was more important. Abigail tugged Leila to her feet. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Oh thank you!” Leila heaved. “Don’t want Dad to flay me. Didn’t they use to do that to saints?”
Abigail sent her an arched look. “You’re definitely not at saint level.” Edging the girl to her car, they strapped themselves in and Abigail resisted the urge to bang her head against the steering wheel. “I said this to you, what did I say?”
“I know you said leave it in the safe and wear it on special occasions but...”
Now she was getting annoyed. “You’ve got to learn to look after things, I can’t cover for you. What if you’ve lost it? I’m not telling your dad.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Abigail’s irritation faded. She wouldn’t have lost the bracelet on purpose; there was little value in her annoyance. “All right, let’s just find it. Then it goes in the safe and you don’t touch it until your wedding day.”
Leila sent her a look of disgust. “My what?”
Abigail frowned at her. “One day I’ll show you the valuation certificate for it and then you’ll understand.”
She huffed, “You’re not being fair. It’s the only time I’ve misplaced it.”
“First and last!” Abigail reminded her. “Oh God, if your dad finds out...”
Coming to a halt outside the café, Abigail and Leila exited the vehicle and locked it fast.
Hold on, why wasn’t everything locked up properly
? she wondered, as Leila brushed past her to enter the café. Why were the shutters not down? Why were the lights still on? “Abigail!” Leila bellowed. “Come on!”
She followed the girl inside and put her bag on the nearest table. “Okay. Where were you?”
“Upstairs with Becca. We were working on the script for the end of year play.” Abigail made a moue with her mouth. Still not a Dalbury-Scott fan, Abigail kept her distance from the blondies if they didn’t want to be attacked by the five-foot-ten woman. Breathing out, Abigail commanded, “You check down here. Go to my office and see if anything is in the lost and found box. I’ll check upstairs.”
Abigail headed for Leila’s favourite spot in the upstairs section. She gazed around and saw the silver chain in the centre of a beanbag. Throwing up her hands in relief, Abigail called down the stairs, “Found it!”
“Same place I found you.”
Bracelet in hand, Abigail whipped around. “What are you doing here?” she asked, lifting a hand to keep her heart in her chest. Her boyfriend scared the living daylights out of her. Wait a minute. He wore a suit. Suits were not his thing. He abhorred them and they were only worn on special occasions. Had he just come from a meeting?
“I know it’s only been a year. Not even quite,” Liam started, ignoring her question entirely, “but I’m ready. I didn’t think for a moment I’d be there again and still... I wouldn’t want to if it wasn’t for you.”
“Honey,” she said delicately, “are you feeling all right? You look pale.” He looked positively sickly. “Seriously, are you all right?”
“Abi, open the locket.”
She flipped through the charms on Leila’s bracelet, the one her father had given to her with the express words that the people who loved her were on that bracelet. The locket contained a picture of Sarah and Leila when she was a baby. Popping open the locket, Abigail lost the breath in her lungs. Opposite the picture of Sarah was now a picture of Abigail, Liam and Leila together. Taken at Christmas, their first Christmas together, they looked a complete family and it brought tears to her eyes. “Did you do this? And I nearly took Lei’s head off for losing this stupid thing.”
“Has she said yes yet?” Leila bellowed from downstairs.
“I haven’t asked yet, Jumpy!” Liam yelled back.
Please don’t say move in
, she thought.
I couldn’t bear the disappointment
. Instead, her suited and neatly trimmed Liam McNamara went on one knee. She burst into tears immediately. He’d have to repeat what he said to her around two hours later, when she stopped crying. She didn’t hear him say how wonderfully she’d changed his life, what a wonderful role model and mother she’d been to his child, how much he looked forward to having more together and spending the rest of their lives avoiding the words DNA. The ruby ring in the white velvet box was a sidebar to Liam telling her how much he loved her and how lucky he was she’d given him and Leila a chance. She couldn’t speak when Leila leapt on her and demanded to know what she’d said and if she’d be allowed to be maid of honour and wear a dress a little shorter than knee length.
“Abi?” Liam asked, still on one knee. “Sweetheart, are you all right?”
With an arm around Leila’s waist, she pulled Liam to his feet and kissed him. He’d figure it out from there.
Two Years Later
Liam nudged his wife as she waited anxiously. “She’ll be fine.”
Abigail shushed her husband as they waited for Leila’s plane to land. Regardless of biology, Abigail knew her daughter better than Liam did. Sixteen or not, she liked attention. A baby was going to disrupt her right in the middle of her first A-Level year and since she was taking six subjects, having a toddler running around the house was not conducive to a studious atmosphere.
Leila had been picture perfect from the moment Liam proposed. Even when Liam and Abigail’s wedding had grown from a small family affair to a bit of a spectacle. Liam asserted it was what Abigail deserved for putting up with him and his progeny. Said progeny turned out to be a wonderful, calm and extremely practical maid of honour. Abigail feared the days of wonderful-calm-practical Leila were over. That a new baby would mean tantrums galore. Maybe even a threat to move in with either Orna or Sheila. The horror!
The trip to Hawaii was a gift to Leila to say congratulations for the straight-A stars she received for her GCSEs, an apology for having a two-week holiday (honeymoon) without her, leaving her alone with two gloating grandmothers who were very pleased with the success of their scheming, and a further apology for a slip-up which now meant she was going to be a big sister. One exuberant wine date night resulted in all this guilt.
Leila squealed as she saw her parents waiting for her. Liam made a sound of disapproval in his throat at the denim shorts she wore. Abigail tapped him lightly. The girl was five foot eight inches tall and still growing. Of course she wanted to show off her legs, it was Hawaii and it was hot. Skipping through the crowd of passengers and shoving her case to the side, she wrapped an arm around each parental neck. Abigail hugged her tightly. As lovely as time alone with her husband was, she’d missed Leila. Talking to her daily hadn’t been the same at all.
“How cool is this? This is like, the best present ever!”
Releasing them, she looked Abigail up and down critically. “You all right, Mamagail? You look pregnant.”
Ouch. “I sort of am, baby.”
Leila shook her head. “Knew it. Dad, best get the case, I spent all the money you sent me in Topshop, it’s freaking full. Where are we staying?”
Liam and Abigail exchanged glances. “Is that it?”
Leila shrugged. “I can pretend to be a
Teen Mom
for a minute or two. At least I’ll get to hand him or her back.” She laughed. “What are you two staring at? I’m seventeen in a bit. Unless...” Her green eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Are you trying to tell me I won’t have driving lessons because Mamagail can’t take the stress?”
Abigail hadn’t even thought about the idea of Leila behind the wheel of a car. Seemed only yesterday she was moaning about having to pay three pounds for a piece of cake she now ate for free.
Liam took control of the situation, as she felt considerably lightheaded. “Let’s go back to our villa and we’ll discuss everything.”
“After all those web pages on contraception as well,” Leila mocked. Abigail felt her cheeks heat and she saw a similar blush on her husband. A thought crossed Leila’s pretty, freckled face and she turned to her stepmother in part horror. “Shit, does this mean you can’t surf?”
Hold on a damn minute. “I am surfing,” Abigail announced. “I did not suffer a seventeen-hour journey to not surf.”
Liam sighed heavily. “I need a boy on my side. I really do.”
“If he knows what’s good for him,” Leila murmured.
“He’ll be on our side,” Abigail finished. Patting her daughter on the cheek, she said happily, “You’ve grown up so nicely.”
“You mean, I’m turning into you.”
Yeah. She kinda was. “Good girl.”