Page 38

JACKSON

“Hello, Betty,” I say, pressing a kiss to Nanny Taylor’s cheek, “You ready to go?”

She’s waiting for me in the main room of the care home, where an elaborate game of festive charades is being chaired by an over enthusiastic elf.

Betty tugs me closer with a firm arm and whispers, “Get me away from them all, Jackie.” She’s wearing a homemade jumper that just says ‘Sleigh’. A Betty Taylor Original.

I chuckle. “You don’t want to play another round of charades?”

The look Betty sends me is flat, and I wink at her as I help her out of her chair. We wander slowly back to her room to find Maryanne, one of the carers, already helping pack a bag.

“There you both are,” she says with a kind smile. “Are you excited, Betty?” She raises her voice in the semi-patronizing tone that has Betty replying with a wave of her hand.

“Yes, yes, did you make sure my yarn is in there?”

“I’m just going to sign the paperwork.” I leave Betty in Maryanne’s care and head back to reception .

“Merry Christmas,” I tell Penny as I lean over the desk.

“Merry Christmas.” The woman smiles as she hands over the paperwork. “It’s so lovely that Betty’s getting away. Is her granddaughter excited?”

“She will be.”

Am I kidnapping my girlfriend’s ninety year old grandmother on Christmas Eve? Maybe. Will my girlfriend be happy about it? I sure hope so.

I slide the paper back across the desk, chuckling as I finally see Betty’s full name. “Thanks again for helping me with this.”

“Of course.”

It’s a plan I concocted a few weeks ago on one of our monthly visits.

Rosie assumed her parents would be picking her up but when I quietly asked Penny, she told me no one had informed the staff or requested any paperwork.

I knew if I told Rosie, she’d stress and try to get Betty to come to stay with us anyway, so I decided to ease her burden and create a little Christmas magic at the same time.

I wander back to Betty’s room. Maryanne has gone, and Betty is dressed in her light pink puffer coat with her bag clasped on her lap and her suitcase by her feet.

“You ready to go, Elizabeth Taylor ?”

Betty laughs. “Don’t you start with that too. I had that from my husband since the day he proposed. He’d tell me I was his Cleopatra. That’s where Cleo got her name, you know.”

I swipe her suitcase up in one arm and help her stand with the other.

“Oh really?” I ask gently.

“Is she coming for Christmas? Cleo? I haven’t seen her in months.” I hold my tongue, Rosie and I spent all of Betty’s birthday with her last month but none of the rest of the family showed up.

“It’s just us and my family.” I help her out of the front door, waving goodbye to the staff who are head-to-toe in tinsel. “I can’t believe I never put it together,” I say, changing the subject back to her famous moniker as we slowly amble to the front where I’ve left the car.

“It’s my secret fun fact,” she chuckles.

Getting a small, ninety-year old woman into an SUV is a challenge, but Betty and I persevere.

I let her control the radio until we’re listening to Bing Crosby dream about a White Christmas.

Betty spends the drive staring out the window as the setting sun allows the Christmas lights to flicker on outside the houses lining the street.

Londoners definitely know how to do Christmas.

We haven’t spent much time in Central London, where the Christmas lights illuminate the busy streets full of shoppers and immaculately decorated trees sit in every window display.

But even in the suburbs, lights are strung in front gardens and holiday songs play on the radio twenty four seven.

The air smells cold, like snow is just around the corner.

I could get used to a Christmas like this.

I shift in my seat. “So, just to warn you there are a lot of people at the house.” I reel off introductions to my family. “But my sister-in-law Nina used to be a nurse, so she’s already ready to step in if you need to get away.”

“It sounds lovely, darling,” Betty says, folding her hands neatly in her lap. “Thank you for breaking me out.”

“Anytime, Betty.”

We pull up outside the house, and Betty tilts her head forward. “Goodness me, you don’t do things by half do you?”

“Never,” I tell her as I jump out and round the bumper, helping her onto the gravel .

I open the door to Christmas music and laughter, and Betty takes a deep breath beside me. “Rosie!” I call down the corridor.

She rounds the corner with a smile and a tea towel in hand, which she drops to the floor in shock. “Nanny?”

Betty pats my arm with a smile. “I’ve been kidnapped.”

Rosie crosses the hall in a few steps. “Oh my God!”

She wraps her grandmother in a firm hug and gazes up at me with watery eyes. “Merry Christmas,” I tell her.

Mum wanders down the hall behind her, and I’m quick to make introductions.

“Come and sit down,” Rosie says, ushering her into the living room.

“Oh, it’s so lovely in here, darling,” Betty says as she gazes around the room. I’m left with Betty’s suitcase as all the women in my life convene around the perfectly sized tree.

I’m just about to head upstairs to store the suitcase when I hear Rosie call my name.

I have just enough time to turn before she’s in my arms and pressing her lips to mine. I drop the case to the floor and scoop my arms around her, tugging her as close as I can with her belly pressing against mine.

I pull back just enough to cradle her face in my hands and wipe her tears with my thumbs.

“I can’t believe you,” Rosie says, with a watery laugh. “How did you do it?”

“I have my ways.”

She curves her arms around my neck and holds my gaze with hers. “I love you.”

Her words settle across me like a blanket, curling around me and squeezing my heart. I’ve feel like I’ve waited my whole life to hear those words fall from her lips, and I can barely contain myself.

“I love you too, pretty girl,” I tell her. “I have since the day you left me on that balcony.”

She grins as I crash my lips into hers. My blood rushes south, and I’m more than happy to whisk her to our bedroom to give her another early Christmas present but my little sister shouts, “Ugh, get a room,” as she passes us in the hall, and it’s enough for Rosie to pull away with a giggle.

“Let’s,” I say, pulling her closer.

“We literally have a house full of family,” Rosie says with a bright smile as she untangles herself from me.

I tug at her arm as if I can pull her back. “Whose idea was that again?”

“Yours,” she tells me, pushing me towards the stairs. “One of your best.”