Page 65 of You Only Live Once
‘I’d forgotten how much stamina I needed for shopping with Poppy.’
‘You got something nice, though, by the sounds of it.’
‘I did. I kind of baulked at the price tag, but it’s not many times you get to go to a big production film premiere, is it? The last thing I want to do is show myself up.’
‘You would never show yourself up.’
‘Thanks for the confidence, but to say I’m out of practise at anything remotely social, let alone anything this size, is an understatement.’
‘You’ll do fine. We’ll just have a nice evening.’
‘Auntie Lily!’ Suddenly, two small children came hurtling down the corridor and launched themselves at me. I heard a muffled ‘oof’ as something of Freddy’s connected with something of Jack’s.
‘Mind what you’re doing,’ I said as I gave them both an enormous cuddle. ‘We can’t injure Jack before he finishes my garden, can we?’ I asked, as I gave them a tickle.
They giggled and wriggled and wrapped their arms around my neck as I cuddled them to me. Freddy then wiggled across to Jack and began climbing up on his shoulders.
‘Don’t you fall off there. I’m not cleaning any blood up.’
As I looked across to Jack, he had his hands firmly on Freddy’s legs, sending me a silent promise with his eyes that there is no way he’d let go. I gave the tiniest nod to show I understood before rearranging Ruby on my lap a little more comfortably.
As I cleared my view of children, I was finally able to see Clive, who was now sitting so close to the sofa as to be almost upon it without actually being so. His bum hadn’t quite touched the floor in his excitement and his tail was whipping from side to side like some mad duster on overdrive. With one hand wrapped around Ruby, I leant forward and gave the dog a cuddle and a kiss on the top of his silky head.
His day of return to the shelter had been put off, first by one day, then by another, then by a week, and then permanently. I think I’d known from the moment he gave me his first goofy grin that I was already in trouble and then that night of the storm sealed both his and my fate. I loved his company and, even when he was asleep, I never felt alone. I wasn’t quite sure how well he’d cope once Jack left, as the moment he came in the door, Clive went absolutely mad, encouraged, I had to add, by Jack. Hopefully he’d be all right. Hopefully we’d both be all right.
‘You guys ready for some dinner?’ Felix said, having now had a poke around in Poppy’s shopping, which she couldn’t wait to show him.
‘Absolutely famished.’
‘Me too,’ Poppy added. ‘Being a style consultant can be very hard work. What’s for dinner?’
‘Chilli con carne with rice, guacamole, and sour cream. There are nachos as well, although the kids may have been at them already, and I think Clive hoovered up a few from the floor.’
This was another bonus that I discovered to having a dog. You had an inbuilt vacuum in the event that you ever spilled food. This was all well and good for the odd nacho crumb, but I had discovered it was less of a bonus when the sausages I had just cooked for my sausage sandwich rolled off the plate straight onto the floor and were swallowed in one gulp by Clive.
‘Sounds great,’ I said through a yawn.
‘It won’t take too long to heat up, but do you want to go and have a lie down before we dish up?’ Jack asked. ‘You look tired.’
‘No, I’m fine,’ I replied through another large yawn.
I could feel Jack’s eyes on me for a moment before he gave my leg a quick pat and pushed himself up off the sofa, scooping my niece up on the way past as he made his way into the kitchen end of the room.
‘Uncle Jack, can you be a horsey now?’
‘Ruby, Daddy said Uncle Jack spent about an hour this afternoon charging around with you on his back. Don’t you think you ought to give the horsey a rest now?’
From the look on her little face, Ruby definitely didn’t think the horse needed a rest. She wound her fingers together turning from side to side on the spot and nodded anyway. ‘OK.’
Jack crouched down next to her, one of his knees making a loud crack as he did so. ‘How about five more minutes of horsey before dinner and then you and Freddy go and get washed up. Deal?’
‘Deal!’ she said, jumping up and down in excitement, her cherubic little face now wearing a wide grin and the bright blue eyes shining. She flung her arms around Jack and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. ‘I love you, Uncle Jack.’
‘I love you too, chickpea.’
‘Can you bend down now? I can’t get on.’
‘How about we go outside in the garden? The floor’s a bit hard for Uncle Jack’s old knees in here.’
