Page 9

‘Isn’t that lovely of you? Well, there are some cans of pop in the cool box. Now come on in, come on in, you’ve got so many people to meet.’

9

As Holly watched her mother make her way through her guests, Holly was left in no doubt that her babbling matched her own. She was firing off a dozen questions a minute and giving Evan exactly zero seconds to answer them.

‘Was the flight okay? Was it direct? I’m not sure Holly said where you flew into, was it Bristol?’

‘Mum, please give him a chance to breathe,’ Holly said, trying not to glare too obviously. Thankfully, Wendy listened and took a quick breath in before she spoke again.

‘Sorry, of course. Now, come meet Holly’s dad. Arthur’s been talking about meeting you non-stop since he knew you were coming to his party.’

This, Holly knew, was an outright lie. When she mentioned that Evan would be attending her father’s sixtieth birthday and checked that it was all right during a shift at the shop one afternoon, her father had grunted, showing his complete indifference to the idea. Her mother was the one who had rung her that night, needing to chat for forty minutes.

‘Arthur, Arthur, come here, love. Giles has just turned up.’

The name flew so effortlessly off her mother’s tongue that for a moment, Holly didn’t realise why it sounded so wrong. The moment she did was the same moment the realisation struck her mother. Wendy’s jaw dropped, and a crimson flush coloured her cheeks.

‘Evan. I’m so sorry. I’m terrible with names.’

Evan smiled. ‘Well, if you’re going to mistake me for someone, I’m glad it’s the guy with a yacht.’

With her face still bright red, her mother chuckled awkwardly. The laugh was tight and overly fast, and Holly squirmed with both sympathy and horror. Wendy clearly wanted the world to swallow her up, but Holly wasn’t that far behind. She’d never known her mother get a name wrong before, and she couldn’t have picked a worse time.

‘I… I…’ She continued to stutter, though before she could apologise again, Holly’s father was standing beside them, his hand stretched out.

‘Evan.’ He paused slightly after saying his name, making it clear there were no mistakes there. ‘Glad you could make it. Help yourself to a drink. Wendy, dear, why don’t you come and help me get the cutlery sorted?’

Offering Holly a slight and secretive smile, her dad took her mum by the hand and led her back towards the house. A fraction of the tension lessened in Holly’s shoulders.

‘Now that we’ve got that over and done with,’ Holly said, as she slipped her arm around Evan’s waist, ‘there’s someone even more important than my parents you need to meet. And fingers crossed, this introduction goes a little better.’

At that moment, Hope was in Caroline’s arms. No doubt her friend had come straight into the party and swept Hope away from whoever was holding her previously. Probably her mother. But Hope was perfectly content with her aunt Caroline, gigglingup and down as she bounced around on her lap. Only when she saw Holly did she stretch out her arms for her mum.

‘Hey, baby girl.’ Holly lifted her straight up into the air and kissed her belly before lowering her back down. ‘Guess what? Mummy’s got somebody she’d like you to meet. Hope, this is Evan. Evan, meet Hope.’ Holly angled her daughter, so that she was looking straight at Evan. But rather than looking at Hope, as Holly had expected him to be doing, Evan was opening up his bag. It took less than a minute to realise why.

‘Hey, Hope, look what I found at the airport.’

From out of his bulging satchel, Evan pulled the softest, cuddliest bunny Holly had ever seen. Hope’s eyes lit up at the sight of the little brown toy, as she immediately reached out to grab it.

‘You didn’t have to do that,’ Holly said, kissing him lightly on the lips. When she broke away, his smile twisted slightly.

‘Actually, I had a bit of a problem at the airport.’

‘You did?’

‘Well, I wanted to get Hope something, but the problem was, I couldn’t decide which colour bunny was the cutest.’ He reached back into his bag and pulled out an identical-sized bunny rabbit with the same adorably floppy ears. Only this one was blue.

‘Evan…’

Holly could feel herself using a warning tone, but there was no point.

‘I liked this blue one too, but then there was the yellow one…’ Evan proceeded to pull the next bunny out of his bag. ‘But then I thought, Hope’s a girl, so obviously I’ve got to get her a pink bunny.’ The pink rabbit was the next one to come out. ‘But then I worried about the whole gender-neutral thing and stereotyping her before she was ready.’ A green one quickly followed.

‘Evan?’ There was no hiding the hint of sharpness in Holly’s voice then. ‘Exactly how many bunnies did you buy for Hope?’

He looked at her bashfully, a slight smirk twisting on his face.

‘Seven, I think.’