Page 125 of My Year of Saying No
‘You are?’ I said, surprise evident in my voice.
‘Yeah,’ he gave a small, lopsided smile. ‘With my dad.’
‘Oh… right.’ The surprises kept on coming.
‘Maybe we could all meet up?’ he suggested.
‘That sounds a brilliant idea. I’m sure my parents will get on really well with your dad, and obviously they still think you’re wonderful.’
He pulled a face. ‘Even after this week?’
‘Luckily for you, I’ve been kind of swamped and didn’t get a chance to call them and whinge.’
He gave an exaggerated mop of his brow.
‘I’ll message them in a minute. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to meet him.’ I stood and wandered out to the kitchen to flick the kettle on, taking my phone with me. ‘I have to say, I’m a little surprised to hear you’re going with your dad,’ I said, dropping a teabag in one of my largest mugs and pulling the milk out of the fridge ready. ‘Although it’s a good surprise.’
‘Thanks. I’m pretty happy about it too. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.’ Seb smiled and the happiness radiated out of him. There was a relaxation there when he spoke about his dad now that certainly hadn’t been there before, and I was intrigued to hear more. ‘Sounds good.’
32
The following morning, Mum, Dad, me and Humphrey all piled out of the car at the show and made our way to the area I’d arranged to meet up with Seb and his dad. Humphrey sensed them first, suddenly tugging at his lead. I looked up to see Seb give a command to Scooby, who was now standing beside his master, his feet dancing on the spot as his tail whizzed back and forth in a blur. Once upon them, we let the dogs say hello as Seb stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me in a huge hug, his head down by my shoulder and the softest whispered sorry drifted into my ear. His hug tightened and I reciprocated momentarily, acknowledging and forgiving. His eyes lingered for a moment as he pulled away, his hand brushing mine as he then quickly introduced his dad to my parents and they immediately began chatting.
I gave his dad a hug and told him how pleased I was to see him. He replied in kind and although unspoken, I could see something had changed between him and Seb. Not just by the fact they were here together but the atmosphere between them, their body language, their manner – everything was different and far more relaxed.
‘Hello,’ Seb said quietly, turning away from our parents, who had already begun to wander towards the first stalls, talking and laughing.
‘Hi,’ I smiled up.
‘I’m so glad you could come today.’
‘Likewise. I have to say it was kind of unexpected when you said what your plans were.’
‘I can see that. If you’d asked me a week ago if I thought this is what I’d be doing with my weekend, I’d have thought you’d been on the smarties.’
‘So?’ I asked, looking up at him as we wandered slowly along the first row, stopping occasionally for me to look at a plant and for Seb to nod with the encouragement of someone who has no clue what they’re looking at but is still happy to be there. It was wonderful. ‘What happened?’
He blew out a breath. ‘Well, once you left last weekend, I was not exactly the most popular person in that house.’ He glanced down. ‘My dad wouldn’t even look at me. Jamie’s always been the quieter one and has pretty much kept out of things between me and my dad. He and Olivia have always made sure we’re both included in family stuff, but the problems between me and Dad, as far as he was concerned, were between us and he, quite rightly, didn’t want to get involved. But once I came back inside from seeing you off, the tension was pretty high and he’d had enough.’
‘What happened?’ I asked, stroking the leaves of a chocolate variety of herb and holding my hand up for Seb to catch the scent.
‘Ooh, nice. What would you use that for?’
‘Literally no idea. I’d probably just plant it and give it a sniff each day.’
‘Sounds as good a reason as any.’ With that, he handed over some money to the stallholder, pointing at the plant as he did so.
The female stallholder gave him a wide smile and returned his change.
‘Seb. You don’t need to do that!’
He shrugged, shoving his wallet back in the inner pocket of the light jacket he wore. ‘I wanted to.’
‘You don’t have to make anything up to me.’
‘I know. It’s not for that.’
‘What is it for then?’
