Page 126 of Vivacity

His face falls. ‘Yeah. You might be right. Glad you guys won the teen lottery, though. Hey, gorgeous.’

This to my wife, whom he kisses dangerously close to her lovely mouth. I’d punch him, but this is Theo. I’ve long since learnt that it’s all bluster, that he’s as in love with Nora as a man can be.

Out of nowhere, Aide and Bren rock up behind us, and the four of them encircle me and Soph and Lola.

‘We were just chatting about godparents.’ Bren scoops Lola out of my arms with ease and she goes shamelessly, grabbing at his face with her tiny hands. His and Marlowe’s baby boy, Paddy, is about the same age as her. Bren is a great big softie these days. ‘Because the pressure is on. There’s a lot of money riding on this. You’ve got to make the call sometime, Kingsley.’

I grin at him. He, Miles, Theo and Aide have been going on about being Lola’s godfathers since the day she was born.

‘Soph, have we made any decision yet?’ I ask my wife, feigning ignorance.

‘Hmm.’ She pretends to think. ‘Don’t think so. We’ll probably just flip a coin.’

There is immediate outrage.

‘I’ve known you the longest,’ Bren says.

‘No, that’s probably me.’ This from Miles. ‘I just didn’t like him for most of it.’

‘I’d be by far the most fun,’ Theo says, and Bren glares at him. Those two are far too similar.

‘Look, you want your kid to have some proper guidance in life,’ Aide points out. ‘And I’m by far the most down-to-earth. I’ll introduce her to manual labour and show her how to use a hammer. Don’t foist some posh twat on her.’

Beside him, Bren’s brother Gabe, who’s married to Athena, just smiles in quiet amusement. As a former Catholic priest, he’s probably the best placed of all of them to offer spiritual guidance to Lola, but he’s not the kind of person to throw his hat in the ring like that.

Soph sighs. ‘Okay, we did actually make a decision. And it might sound a little OTT, but we’d like all of you to be godparents. And your other halves. May as well share the love, eh?’

Because here’s the thing.

You can’t choose your family of origin. My parents are notably absent today—my father because I’ve rightly given up on him, and my mother because she has too much fear and trauma and whatever else to cross my dad. And that’s tragic for her, but her reactions aren’t my responsibility. Neither are his. I’ve learnt that much.

You can, however, choose the family you move through life with, and you can choose the humans with whom you surround your children.

Even better, you can choose that one special person who makes it all worthwhile, who decides to love you in all your chaotic, imperfect glory.

I lock eyes with my wife as, around us, our friends celebrate their joint win.

There was a time when I believed that nobody and nothing was perfect up close.

And I was wrong.

Because Soph is.

THE END