Page 104 of Second Verse

‘I can’t wait,’ Norah said with a delicious grin. She added more quietly. ‘I hate to be such a star-fucker, but it turns me onso muchto watch you perform.’

Poppy knew right then that when the gig was over, she was gonna make a hell of a lot of love to her wife. But then a realisation blew a cold wind on her plans. ‘Who’s gonna look after the kids?’

‘I’ll call Jane,’ Norah said easily.

‘It’s term time. She’s gone back to Manchester,’ Poppy pointed out.

‘Cherry?’ Norah suggested.

‘She’s visiting her mum to watch her run that 5K for cancer,’ Poppy reminded her.

‘Then I guess I’ll just bring them to your gig,’ Norah shrugged.

‘It’s a pub!’ Poppy said.

‘I’m not gonna buy them shots,’ Norah said wryly. ‘We’ll just stand at the back.’

‘I don’t know...’ Poppy said.

‘They keep asking to watch you perform,’ Norah added. ‘Especially Freddie. He said he wants a guitar for Christmas, actually.’

That gave Poppy serious pause. It was nice that they wanted to watch her trying to start up again and even more lovely that Freddie wanted to follow in her footsteps. Poppy knew she had a long journey ahead of her and might never get back to any kind of career in the industry. But as long as she still breathed, she had to go back to the music. Life wasn’t quite whole without it.

And she had so much now that it made her greedy for more happiness. She wanted everything: to love her wife and kids, to watch her family flourish, to watch her wife go back to school and restart her career as a graphic artist, to keep making music. It was all in front of her.

Still, she was a bit nervous to be watched by the only people living whose opinions mattered to her. ‘That’ssomuch pressure, though. You all watching? I’ll forget the notes.’

‘You could play ABBA covers, and they’d still think you were the coolest mum of all time,’ Norah told her plainly.

‘Second coolest,’ Poppy said with a cheesy wink.

But Norah wasn’t to be diverted. ‘That’s cute, but you’re not getting out of it. We’re all coming.’

‘Fine,’ Poppy gave in. ‘But if I fuck it up...’

‘If you fuck up, you just start again,’ Norah told her.

Poppy grabbed her wife and pulled her close. ‘I guess I can’t do anything else,’ she said and called the kids to bring in some popcorn.

She immediately began googling the worst kids’ movies she could find. Freddie and Luna’s education began tonight. They needed to learn to dig out the best from the worst. Poppy felt surer than ever that it was a crucial life skill. Because she’d come crawling home a few years ago, broke, lonely, feeling like a failure. And she’d found love and passion right here, as well as a second chance.

It went to show that you never could know where the good life might be hiding. Sometimes, it was exactly where you started.

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