Chapter 9 Lily
CHAPTER NINE
LILY
While the flat in Leven Street did feel like our place, stepping into the house I grew up in, in Kirkliston, was truly like coming home.
I wondered if it always would or if one day I’d find some place new that made me feel like I was stepping into a warm hug and not merely a building.
The village was on the outskirts of Edinburgh, not far from the airport.
Most of our extended family of friends lived in the city, but my parents had opted to move to Kirkliston because they could afford a bigger property farther out.
Grandpa Mick, my mum’s dad, moved to a bungalow a street over a few years after we moved.
He lived there with Granny Dee, my mum’s stepmother.
My dad’s parents, my nana and papa, still lived in Dad’s childhood home in Longniddry.
When we were kids, we’d go stay with Nana and Papa for a week during the summer holidays and Jan and I used to love it, not just because they spoiled us, but because they lived near the beach.
To January’s delight, our parents’ best friends, Aunty Jo and Uncle Cam, moved to Kirkliston before their youngest Louis turned five.
They wanted more space for their kids Louis and Belle, and since there was only a year between Jan and Belle, the cousins were delighted to be attending the same school.
Despite Belle graduating a year before Jan, the two of them were best buddies.
Everyone else, however, lived in or around the city center.
Beth and her brother Luke and sister Elle grew up in this amazing Georgian townhouse in New Town with my Aunt Joss and Uncle Braden.
Once a month or so, they still invited us all round for Sunday lunch, and I never missed the opportunity if I could.
Not just because I loved our big extended family but because I adored that house. That house was Edinburgh goals!
Our house, though, was home.
“It’s me!” I called as I stepped inside. The smell of Mum’s soup hit my nose, and my belly rumbled. No one made veggie soup like Mum.
“In here, Lily-Billy!”
I let out a beleaguered sigh. At least she refrained from calling me that at the university.
Following my nostrils, I walked down the hall and into the new extension Mum and Dad added a few years back. It made for a spectacular kitchen, dining, and living area.
“Aunty Jo!” Happiness lit through me to see Mum’s best friend sitting on a stool at the island.
Jo hopped off said stool to envelop me in a hug. “Lily, it’s been ages, sweetheart.”
Squeezing her tight, I replied, “Too long. You haven’t been to the Sunday dinners at Aunt Joss’s for a while.”
“Work has been crazy,” she told me as I rounded the island to hug Mum. “Things are finally calming down a little.”
Aunt Jo was a highly sought-after painter and decorator. She used to take on any job, but over the last decade she’d started working exclusively with the top interior designers in the country. Sometimes it meant traveling around Scotland.
I nodded as Mum and I hugged. “Where’s everyone?”
“Dad and Uncle Cam are out in Dad’s man cave with Louis watching the game.”
Along with the extension, Dad had a garden pod put in that served as a gym/office/TV room.
“Jan and Belle?”
“Jan’s on her way.”
“Belle is out with her boyfriend,” Jo said with a twist of her lips.
Slipping onto the stool next to her, I carefully asked, “How’s that going?”
“I hate him. He’s every creep I ever dated before I met your Uncle Cam.” Jo shrugged unhappily. “But I know if I keep coming down on him, I’ll only push her away.”
“Jan hates him too,” I told her, sure I wasn’t telling her something Jan wouldn’t happily share herself. Jan had told me he set off her arsehole radar and couldn’t understand why Belle couldn’t see past his pretty-boy face. “She’s not afraid to let Belle know that. Hopefully it’ll sink in soon.”
“I wish Belle was at Edinburgh with Jan. Maybe Jan could knock some sense into her.”
Belle attended Napier University because she wanted to study journalism and it was the top university in Scotland for it. She was in her second year there and had switched from journalism to advertising and public relations.
“Knock some sense into who?” January asked, sauntering into the kitchen. She snapped a huge chunk of the large carrot in her hand and waved it at us. She said something around a mouthful of orange vegetable.
Today she was dressed like Wednesday Addams, if Enid had gotten into her wardrobe.
Her bright pink polka-dot dress had a big white Peter Pan collar with the pointed ends, large white cuffs, and straight lines.
Black tights, pink patent boots, pink nails with white tips, and pigtails completed the look.
January dressed however the hell she liked and always had, and I admired the heck out of her for it.
She gave zero effs what anyone thought of her.
“Well, aren’t you adorable with your carrot and pink dress?” Aunty Jo teased.
“Why are you eating a carrot like Bugs Bunny?” Mum queried lightly. “I’m making lunch.”
“Mrs. Brown asked me if I wanted a carrot from her garden and I thought it would be rude if I said no.” Jan referred to our neighbor down the street as she crossed the room to kiss Aunty Jo’s cheek. “Also, is it Belle you want me to knock some sense into?”
“Only metaphorically.”
January scowled as she rounded the island to hug Mum. “I’m going to have to do it literally, I’m afraid.”
“Is this guy really that bad?” Mum asked.
“Worse.” Jan sighed heavily. “This might be breaking the girl code, but a new friend at uni knows him. She said he’s dating her friend too. So, the motherfu—fritter is cheating on Belle. My Belle! The audacity.”
I felt sick for my younger cousin.
Aunty Jo looked murderous. “Are you kidding me?”
Jan shook her head. “Unfortunately not. I’m telling Belle today. And if she doesn’t believe me, I’m going to have to make her face some harsh truths no matter what. I might even enlist Sara.”
Sara was another pseudo-cousin of sorts.
Growing up, my dad and Uncle Cam were best friends with Uncle Peetie.
However, tragically, Uncle Peetie and Aunt Lyn died in a car accident when I was eleven and Sara was nine.
Sara’s paternal grandparents adopted her, but Dad and Uncle Cam and our whole extended family had gone out of our way to make sure Sara was looked after and loved.
Sara, Jan, and Belle were particularly close because Sara was only a year older than them.
However, Sara was in Illinois, on a semester abroad program at Northwestern University, and probably couldn’t be of much help thousands of miles away.
Not that I thought Jan’s plan was a solid one.
“Is that wise?” I worried anything too forceful would only humiliate our cousin in an already painful situation.
“Tough love.” Jan shrugged unapologetically. “She’ll thank me for it one day, even if she hates me today. And Sara is the ying to my yang. Together we can make Belle see sense. She’s calm and reasonable like you. While I’m blunt, like a tire iron to the face.”
I snorted in my glass of soda.
“Despite the tire iron reference, I’m so grateful she has you.” Aunty Jo’s eyes were suspiciously wet before she looked away. “She doesn’t seem to want to talk to me much these days.”
“It’s just a phase,” Mum promised. “Lily wouldn’t talk to me for the last two years of high school.”
“That’s not true.”
“It’s so true. I had to get everything out of January.”
“Uh!” I glowered at my sister. “Traitor.”
“Tough—”
“If you say tough love, I’ll stick the rest of that carrot up your nose.”
My wee sister cackled, completely unthreatened. “Drinks, anyone? I fancy Sunday mojitos!”
“Before the men return from the cave, any exciting dating news, Lily?” Aunty Jo asked. “I had to stop listening to your podcast, sweetie. Too many details for your aunt. You’re still Lily-Billy to me, you know.”
“Me too,” Mum agreed.
Thank goodness for small favors. I’d die if my family listened to the podcast.
“Jan’s done an episode.” I attempted to turn the limelight off me.
“Oh? How did that go?” Aunty Jo inquired with laughter in her eyes.
January sipped loudly through her mojito straw. I was nursing mine slowly.
“It was just introductory. But I’ve got a date this Friday, so I’ll have something more to talk about next time.”
“Date?” Mum and I asked in the same overprotective tone.
It was an ingrained reaction, not a necessary one.
If there was one person I didn’t need to worry about when it came to dating, it was January.
She was confident, assertive, and took no prisoners.
Which was probably why she was more of a casual dater.
She’d never had a long-term boyfriend, and I thought it might be because the boys she’d met so far were a little intimidated by her.
January nodded. “He’s a second year. I met him at Teviot. He knew of the Shambolics, so I said yes to a date. We’re going to a gig together.”
“Who are the Shambolics?” Mum asked.
“An indie rock band from Glasgow. They’re amazing.” Jan reached for her phone. “Here, listen.”
“Or not.” I cut her off. “I need advice on something I can’t ask about on the podcast.”
After reviewing my response to Sebastian’s text and how much I couldn’t stop thinking about him yesterday, I was beginning to suspect being friends with him was a terrible idea.
Mum looked so happy she might cry. “You want my advice?”
“Aye. And Aunty Jo’s.”
“And mine!” Jan piped up.
“No, you’re merely here.”
“You’re getting spicier in your old age.” Jan narrowed her eyes at me. “I like it.”
Shaking my head at her nonsense, I turned back to Mum. “Do I not ask you for advice?”
“You haven’t in a while.”
Guilt suffused me. “I don’t mean not to.” I made a mental note to make more time for Mum and to confide in her more. After all, if there was one person in the world I was most like, it was Mum.