Page 57 of Good Sisters

‘Yes, but hardest on you,’ Sophie said.

‘Well, I think it’s pretty tough on me that my baby will never know Mum.’ Gavin was not to be outdone on the loss front.

‘I’m sorry, Gavin,’ Julie said. ‘Mum would have been all over your baby, her favourite child’s child.’

‘I wasn’t her favourite.’

‘Yes, you were,’ we three sisters all said.

‘Apple of her eye,’ Dad agreed.

‘Only son.’

‘Little prince.’

‘Youngest and finest.’

‘Sod off.’ Gavin smiled sadly. ‘She loved us all.’

‘Not me so much until Clara came along,’ I noted.

‘You were hard to love,’ Gavin said.

‘Thanks a lot.’

‘Well …’ Sophie said, ‘… you were a bit dismissive of everyone except Dad and Julie.’

She had a point. I had been hard on Mum, Sophie and Gavin. Julie had always got a pass because she was so nice and Dad was smart so I had related to him.

‘Clara has brought out your softer side,’ Julie said.

‘Your mother doted on Clara,’ Dad said. ‘She worried about her all the time, the little pet.’

‘So do I,’ I admitted. ‘She really misses Mum.’ My voice broke.

‘Oh, Louise.’ Julie hugged me.

‘I really miss her advice with Jess. She’d raised three teenage girls and she knew what to do and say, and she always had my back with Pippa.’ Sophie welled up.

‘She was our biggest cheerleader and our harshest critic,’ Julie said.

‘She was a woman who spoke her mind,’ Dad agreed.

‘And never sugar-coated things.’ I grinned.

‘Or backed down if she felt she was in the right,’ Julie added.

‘Which was all the time.’ Gavin laughed.

‘She was one in a million. That saying “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” is very true,’ Dad said.

‘Do you want to move into Christelle’s room for a few months, Dad? It’d be less lonely for you?’ Julie suggested.

‘You’d only have to put up with Marion once a month,’ Sophie added.

‘You certainly wouldn’t be lonely in Julie’s house,’ I noted. I reckoned after a week in Julie’s madhouse Dad would be sprinting home.

Dad patted Julie’s hand. ‘Not at all, pet, but thanks. I have to get used to this new normal. I’m just feeling a bit sorry for myself and a bit useless. I’ll get there. I’ll do my best to be a better granddad and try to fill the gap Anne left a little bit.’

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