Page 116 of From Now On

From the hallway he hears Nina crying, a soft voice comforting her.

Charlie waits.

Eventually she comes back into the room, hand in hand with Maeve. Rather than disappearing upstairs, they arrange themselves on the sofa – Nina’s legs over Maeve’s lap, their fingers entwined. It’s a day for being together.

The intimacy between them shines a spotlight on Charlie’s lonely heart.‘Shall we watch a movie?’ he asks, not in the mood for another game.

‘The Lord of the Rings?’ Duke says, ever predictable, ever hopeful.

‘No way. We’ve seen that three billion times since Charlie bought the TV.’ Nina throws a cushion at him.

‘Die Hard?’ Charlie suggests.

‘Is it a Christmas movie, because, if so, then no.’ Duke strokes Billie who is not so much curled on his lap but crammed into the space between his legs and the chair where she really doesn’t fit.

‘It’s not a Christmas movie,’ Charlie says as he lines it up.

‘It totally is, and Christmas is over,’ Maeve says.

‘So, you won’t be wanting any of these?’ Charlie slides out a brand-new tub of Cadbury Heroes from under the sofa.

‘Chuck me a caramel.’ Duke cups his hands ready.

‘Errgg too gooey.’ Maeve pulls a face. ‘Got a Dairy Milk there, Charlie?’

‘I’ll have a fudge,’ says Nina.

‘You don’t like flying, do you?’ On screen, John McClane utters his first line when the doorbell rings again.

‘I’m not getting it. I don’t want to disturb Maeve,’ Nina says.

‘Same but with Billie.’

Charlie complains good-naturedly about missing his favourite film as he heads towards the door. He pulls it open and is glad it’s him who answered it as he finds himself looking at the face he never thought he would see again.

His world tipping on its axis, again.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Duke

As much as he loves his new school, Duke has been happy to be home for the holidays but there is something unsettling about today. As though they are all waiting for something to happen. He tries to focus on the movie but his mind drifts back to last year, making cookies with Pippa, playing ‘I Wan’na Be Like You’, with Nina, for Sasha. It is disconcerting the way people can come and go. Mum and Dad were here, and then suddenly they weren’t. His throat closes and the caramel feels too thick to swallow as he remembers the way he’d hugged them goodbye. He draws in a shaky breath and tries to recall the way Mum smelled but he can’t. He remembers there was perfume but also there was the smell of cookies drifting from Pippa’s oven.

He holds Billie tighter; her rough tongue licks his hand in an I’m-still-here way.

Momentarily he wonders who is at the door this time. He casts his eye to Nina and Maeve, hears Charlie in the hallway.

All the people he loves the most in the world are here and he’d spoken to Evie earlier.

There is nothing to worry about at all.

He tries to relax but still there’s that ominous feeling.

That sense of waiting, but for what?

Or who.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

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