Page 24 of The Mistake

‘Sure he does,’ Eve says.

A wave of resentment bubbles up as Erin laughs at Eve, who is making faces at her, and Natalie looks ahead to the edge of the woods. Something about the way Eve is behaving lately is off: the cancellation of her clients; the way she seems to have ditched her other friends – not that she has many, Pete says Eve changes her friends more than her knickers; her comments about Pete that seem to be getting progressively more and more spiteful. Natalie doesn’t know any more if she is too dependent on Eve, or if it’s beginning to be the other way round and she feels a sudden longing for space. ‘Thanks for today, Eve. I can take things from here.’

Eve looks up, puzzled. ‘I thought I was coming back to yours? I was going to help Emily with her packing list for university.’

‘Erin needs a nap. I’ll catch you later.’ Simmering with a mixture of irritation at Eve’s comments and an uneasy stirring in her gut, Natalie marches the pushchair towards the woods, her pulse pounding in her ears. As she reaches the path leading through the trees towards the back of the house, she glances back to see Eve standing on the footpath, watching her go, her face clouded with confusion.

Erin begins to cry as Natalie shoves the pushchair over the bumpy dirt track, the wheels catching on a tree root. She is hot, sweaty despite the cool shade, and as she wheels a now screaming Erin through the trees towards the house, the same thought forms over and over in her brain.Erin is such a good baby. But not for me. Only for Eve. Eve is a godsend.Sweat prickles on the nape of her neck and Natalie swallows, her mouth dry.Maybe Eve is a better mother to Erin than I am. Maybe I have made a terrible mistake – maybe I never should have had another baby at all.

Pete

Pete shuts down his laptop with a sigh and glances at his phone. Five past five. That’s it, he’s going home. It’s Friday, the sun is out, and he’d once again promised Natalie he would be home in time for dinner, and this time he means it. He’s got a gift for her, and he wants to do things properly.

It’s been a month since his initial showdown with Vanessa at her flat, and ten days since she showed up at his house with that explosive file. Since then, he has been cordially polite to her on site, and the only emails he’s received have been from her work email. None of those emails have made any mention of her rescinding the contract, nor did she mention the possibility of it when he happened to bump into her in the site office early one morning. In fact, her face had dropped at the sight of him, and she had made her excuses and left before he’d even really had a chance to think about what he was going to say to her. He’s starting to believe that she took on board what he said at the house, and that she’s seen sense now she’s had a chance to process things.

As he gets into the car, turning the air conditioning up full blast, Pete takes a moment to sit back and just breathe. The last few months have been an absolute horror show, if he’s brutally honest with himself. Erin’s arrival turned their entire world upside down, far more than he’d expected it to. Between Emily’s mood swings, Zadie’s school trouble and theconstantbed-wetting, not to mention Natalie barely functioning … plus the fuckingholehe dug himself into with Vanessa, Pete is surprised any of them are still standing. But they are. By some complete miracle. And now, today, Pete can see that the way he’s behaved is beyond selfish. He puthimself before his family, and it just isn’t acceptable. It’s not who he really is. The realisation that he came within inches of losing them all makes his blood freeze in his veins. Leaning forward, he punches a button on the touch screen of his dashboard, smiling as the car dials Natalie’s number.

‘Pete?’ She sounds frazzled but she doesn’t have that sullen tone to her voice, and Pete hopes she’s in a good mood. ‘What is it?’

‘I’m leaving the office now – shall I pick food up on the way? Maybe a Chinese? If Emily is there, keep her home for dinner. I want to talk to you all.’ He pauses. ‘And if Eve is round … can you get rid of her?’

Natalie has the small kids at the table when Pete walks in with a huge bag of Chinese takeaway and two bottles of wine, as Emily lays down plates at everyone’s seat, except for Erin who gets a plastic bowl that she immediately starts to thump on the tray of the high chair.

‘Oh, yum, I love Chinese.’ Emily takes one of the bags from him, as Natalie gives him a curious look.

‘No late meetings tonight?’ Her tone is light, but with a slight edge, and Pete thinks she might be being sarcastic.

‘The only meeting I have this evening is with four beautiful women,’ he says, determined not to let tonight turn out like all the other nights, with Natalie facing away from him in bed as he scrolls mindlessly on his phone, wishing he could go back to before, when things were good. He leans over and kisses Natalie full on the mouth.

‘Err … gross,’ Zadie says with a grin. She’s lost another tooth.

‘I know, right,’ Natalie says, but she smiles as her cheeks flush and she drops Zadie a wink before moving to the worktop to help Emily with the takeaway containers.

Once everyone is seated and tucking in, Natalie pushes a piece of chicken around on her plate, laying her fork down before shesays, ‘Aren’t you going to tell us what’s going on? You said you had something to tell us all.’

Pete feels an odd flutter of nerves in his belly. He hasn’t made a grand gesture to Natalie since the tickets to Australia, and look how that debacle turned out. Clearing his throat, he fumbles in his pocket, drawing out a small box. ‘Natalie – and you, girls – I know these past few months have been really difficult for all of us. Things have been really up in the air, and I know I haven’t been around as much as I should have been.’ Pete casts his gaze around the table, guilt turning the few bites of food he’s eaten to tar in his stomach. Natalie pauses, her fork halfway to her mouth now. She looks panicked, a rabbit in headlights, and Pete thinks maybe he hasn’t gone about this quite as well as he’d hoped. ‘What I’m trying to say is, Nat, I know I’ve let you down recently, and I hate myself for it.’ He clears his throat again, hearing the echo of the words he said to Vanessa days ago. ‘I’ve got yousomething.’

Natalie leans forward, her breath catching as he pops open the lid of the small jewellery box to reveal a diamond eternity ring. ‘Pete … Oh my God, I don’t know what to say.’

Pete swallows, a lump in his throat building at the emotion on her face. ‘You don’t have to say anything, just put it on.’

Natalie slides the ring on to her finger above her wedding and engagement rings. ‘It’s perfect. Thank you.’

‘Wow,’ Emily breathes. ‘That is gorgeous, Dad. You really must have some making up to do.’ She laughs, and Pete tries to, but it comes out as an odd wheeze that he covers with a sip of wine.

‘So, anyway,’ he says, once he’s recovered, ‘I was thinking … we should throw a party.’

‘A party?’ Natalie looks doubtful.

‘Yes, a party. We can say it’s a double celebration – for Emily turning eighteen and for passing her exams. Or a commiseration party if she flunks out.’ Pete winks.

‘Wow, cheers, Dad.’ Emily rolls her eyes, but she’s laughing, and Pete realises it’s the first time in a long time he’s seen his eldest daughter laugh like that.

‘I don’t know, Pete. A party is a lot of work,’ Natalie says. ‘Couldn’t we just do something a little more … I don’t know … low-key? Something for just the five of us?’

‘Noooooo,’ Zadie cries. ‘We want a party!’

Pete reaches out and grasps Natalie’s hand. ‘Come on, old girl, you used to be the life and soul of the party. It’ll be fun. We can invite Stu and Mari, a few of Em’s friends—’

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