Page 6 of The In-Laws

‘Are you enjoyingThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?’ Nancy asked her granddaughter.

Lucy nodded eagerly. ‘I love it, Granny. I love Aslan the most.’

‘Good girl. You’re such a fantastic reader. You know what I always say?’

‘Reading makes you clever and curious,’ Lucy quoted.

Nancy smiled. Wow, Katie thought. Lucy really was her favourite grandchild. It was the only time the old bat had smiled all day.

Katie was in awe of Lucy’s thirst for books. Her daughter ate them up – she read every single day. And Lucy’s teacher said she was reading way above a nine-year-old’s standard. Katie had had to admit to her that neither she nor Jamie could take much credit. Katie barely read magazines, and in school she had dreaded English class because reading had been a struggle for her. She reckoned she was probably dyslexic, but what was the point in being diagnosed now? It was too late, she was a crap reader, and that was that. Jamie only ever read sports and history biographies, so Lucy’s love of fiction was down to Nancy. She had encouraged all the grandkids to read, but Lucy was the only one who had truly fallen in love with books. Obviously Jamie and Katie supported Lucy’s love of books, but it was Nancy who really nurtured her passion.

Katie worried slightly that Nancy saw herself in Lucy.Her mother-in-law had been a bookworm too and had made a very successful career from her love of books, setting up her own literary agency aged twenty-nine. But Katie did not want her daughter turning into Nancy. Lucy was a sweet girl and she wanted her to stay sweet, not become cold and ruthlessly ambitious.

Sometimes Katie wondered if, before too long, Lucy would be smarter than she was. Katie was street smart, but not book smart. She was secretly intimidated by her daughter’s ability to read so many books. Her vocabulary was incredible – sometimes Katie had to look up words that Lucy used. Only last week Lucy had told her that one of her teachers had said she was ‘precocious’. Katie had no idea what that meant, so she’d had to google it. She kept misspelling it, so in the end she’d had to use the audio dictionary. ‘Precocious’ meant ‘gifted and talented’. That summed up her daughter.

She worried that Lucy would move past her and not find her stimulating enough. She also worried that Lucy would stand apart from the other kids her age. All Lucy wanted to do was read. She wasn’t bothered with playing Tip the Can or chasing about with other kids – she said she thought it was pointless and stupid. Katie was proud that her daughter was smart, but she wanted her to fit in and have fun too.

Katie reckoned Toby was more like her – less bookish and more of an outdoorsy kid, getting into mischief and having fun. She sipped her wine. Parenting was a head wreck. You had no idea what you were doing. You just had to try not to mess them up.

‘Mum?’

‘Okay. I’ll give Toby my phone. He can watch cartoons in the other room.’

‘Katie, you know the rules, no technology at lunchtime. The children can play chess or Monopoly,’ Nancy barked. Clearly her bionic hearing hadn’t been affected by her accident.

Damnit, Katie knew Toby would have a meltdown soon. He was six, for Christ’s sake, and he’d been sitting down quietly for almost an hour. He’d done amazingly well. The last thing he wanted to do was play bloody chess. Katie still didn’t know how to play chess even though Jamie had tried to teach her a million times. It was so hard to remember what all the stupid pieces did. Sideways, diagonal, jumping … It was too complicated.

Turning her back to Nancy, Katie stood up and led Lucy and Toby out of the kitchen and into the living room. She handed Toby her phone and he immediately clicked on to watch cartoons. He was a whiz on an iPhone. He probably had too much access to it but, feck it, it was Sunday.

‘I don’t want to lie to Granny and break her rules.’ Lucy’s forehead wrinkled.

‘It’s okay, sweetie, it’s just for a little bit, so Toby is happy and you can read.’

Katie knew her daughter: more than anything she wanted peace and quiet to read so if her mother and her little brother were going to break some house rules, she’d live with it.

‘Okay, but only for a bit. Toby shouldn’t be on the phone for long. My teacher says we shouldn’t be allowed on screens for more than one hour a day. You always give Toby your phone, Mum, and it’s bad for him. He’ll become an addict.’

Not another lecture. In a firm voice Katie said, ‘Lucy, chill out and enjoy your book. It’s fine. Toby is not going to ruin his life by watching cartoons for a bit.’

‘He watched three hours yesterday when you went back to bed for a nap because you had been out late dancing and Daddy was playing golf.’

‘Please, Lucy, I don’t have time for this. Just read your book.’

Katie closed the door and headed back to the kitchen. She was actually quite enjoying watching the family dynamics today. It was fascinating to see Ross and Amanda trying to fit back into the family with their pointy elbows rubbing everyone up the wrong way.

She felt zero guilt about the rule-breaking, especially as none of the other grandkids abided by Nancy’s ridiculous technology ban. Katie had seen Theo looking at his phone under the table all through lunch. Nancy would have a tough time getting him off it. As for Melanie’s twins, they constantly snuck off to the loo and went on their phones. Nancy’s stupid rules were too harsh, just like the woman herself.

As Katie was heading towards the kitchen, she heard Theo talking. His cut-glass English accent was hard to miss.

‘Mate, it’s hell on earth here. It’s like an actual prison. My parents are barely letting me breathe. The boys in school are such idiots. Dublin is a dump. I don’t know how I’m going to stay sane.’

Poor kid. Katie felt sorry for him. Seventeen was a difficult age for any child, but to have been pulled out of school and moved to a different country to live with your grumpy granny was really rough.

Melanie rounded the corner and almost bumped into her.

‘Sorry, I had to get out of there,’ she whispered. ‘Amanda is banging on about how far superior the UK education system is. If it’s so bloody good, why did she make Theo leave it?’

Katie shushed her and pointed to the toilet door. Pulling Melanie aside, she whispered, ‘Theo’s in there. Look, I know Amanda’s hard-going, but you can see she’s struggling, I would be too if I had to live with Nancy … and, let’s face it, Ross.’

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