Chapter 2 #2
For a long time, he’d prioritised his career and he had no regrets about that.
He loved teaching and didn’t mind the extra work required to keep on top of everything and do the best work he could on behalf his students.
He’d had girlfriends over the years, both during his time at university and once he’d started working, but none of his relationships had ever come close to going the distance.
He couldn’t help but wonder what set him apart from the rest of his family.
His brothers and sisters had found ‘the one’ when they’d been young and so too had his parents.
Marriage and kids had come quickly to them all, and he couldn’t remember once hearing any of his siblings talk about wanting to wait until they were older and more established in their jobs before settling down and having kids. They’d all just cracked on with it.
One of the great stories in their family was how Peter’s sister Amber had been a ‘lovely late little accident’ as his mother put it.
Kate and Tommy had had their sons in quick succession, with just three years separating Peter from his oldest brother Brad.
When Amber was born, Peter was nine years old and he and his brothers had always teased her as the annoying little sister they’d never wanted, which everyone knew wasn’t true but which became a running joke in their family anyway.
It suddenly struck Peter now, as he gazed at the family photographs on the sideboard across the dining room, that while his mother talked about Amber being a ‘lovely late little accident’, Kate had been only a few years older than he was right now when she’d had her.
She’d thought her family was complete until a surprise ‘late’ pregnancy brought a much-loved daughter into her life, but she’d only been thirty-six when that had happened.
At thirty-three, Peter hadn’t even started a family.
He was almost the same age as his mother was when she had her last child, a child she’d always adoringly called her ‘lovely late accident’ because she’d thought those days were long behind her.
The enormity of that thought suddenly hit him like the proverbial tonne of bricks.
The tinkling sound of cutlery on glassware broke Peter’s chain of thought and he looked up to see his sister Amber trying to get everyone’s attention.
“Before Mum brings out the dessert, I have an announcement to make,” Amber said.
She paused and looked at her husband Mikey, the two of them exchanging a knowing smile.
Mikey was holding their daughter Alicia on his lap, the little girl patting at her father’s face with one hand while waving her favourite stuffed tiger toy around in the air with the other.
“Well, don’t keep us waiting, squirt,” Brad said, using the term of affection the brothers had always used for Amber and which she’d long ago embraced once she’d realised complaining about it only encouraged them. “Mum’s made sticky toffee pudding tonight and we’re keen to make a dent in it.”
Amber rolled her eyes but her smile only widened. She glanced around the table, her gaze settling on her parents who sat together at the other end.
“My announcement is… I’m pregnant!” Amber said at last.
A whoop of celebration just about lifted the ceiling as everyone cheered and jumped to their feet to offer congratulations.
It was total pandemonium, especially once the kids started diving around and making a racket, glad of the excuse to get up from the table and let off some energy.
Peter’s parents’ dogs, Fozzie and Murdoch, got in on the action too, the two golden retrievers rousing themselves from where they’d been napping on the floor and launching a volley of barks as they rushed to join in with the kids who were leaping around the room like maniacs.
Peter waited his turn while his parents and his brothers and sisters-in-law each offered hugs and congratulations to Amber and Mikey.
By the time he shook hands with Mikey and pulled his sister into his arms and kissed her cheek, the entire room was in the grip of a complete emotional meltdown.
While Peter’s mother dabbed at tears and his father popped a bottle of champagne, as well as a bottle of sparkling apple juice for his pregnant daughter, his sisters-in-law shared excited chatter with Amber and his brothers exchanged a few more tough-guy hugs and back-slaps with Mikey as the kids and dogs continued racing around the dining table.
Peter meant every word of the congratulations he offered his sister and brother-in-law. He couldn’t be happier for them and the look of stupefied delight on their faces had him laughing as he joined in the celebrations and raised his champagne glass to toast the good news.
And yet, some small part of him still ached. Another baby would soon join their family… and he wasn’t even close to getting started yet.
“We can’t wait to welcome another grandchild into our family,” Tommy said, his glass in the air in a toast. “Congratulations to my wonderful daughter and her wonderful husband. And congratulations to Alicia who can now look forward to having a baby brother or a baby sister.”
“I want a sister,” Alicia announced. She might only be three years old, but she knew her own mind and having a clutch of older cousins meant she’d had to learn to speak up for herself. “I don’t like boys.”
Everyone laughed at the look of disgust on Alicia’s little face.
Her boy cousins responded by prancing around like monkeys and chanting that boys were better than girls, which prompted a predicable response from the two older girls, who stuck their tongues out and shoved the boys away when they leapt too closely.
“That’s enough you lot,” Brad and Shaun said in unison.
“Calm down boys before you knock something off the dining table and upset your Grandma Kate,” Donna told her sons.
“I think it’s time to serve dessert,” Kate said, turning for the kitchen and squeezing Amber’s arm affectionately as she passed.
“Good idea, Mum, give the kids more sugar,” Shaun quipped. “That will calm them down.”
Peter followed his mother into the kitchen to help dish up dessert, happy to leave everyone to their excited chatter about the new baby news.
While Kate pulled the sticky toffee pudding from the oven, Peter organised plates and brought the ice cream out of the freezer.
His mother sliced the pudding into portions and spooned it into the plates and Peter added scoops of ice cream.
Brad appeared in the kitchen doorway in time to carry the pudding plates through to the dining room.
“We make a good team,” Kate said with a smile once Brad disappeared with the last of the plates. “Thanks for your help.”
“My pleasure.” He returned what was left of the ice cream to the freezer as his mother set the pudding tray into the sink to steep. “Come on then, let’s get back through there and find our plates before those greedy boys finish their own desserts and start on ours.”
“Which greedy boys do you mean? Your brothers or your nephews?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in league together.”
Kate laughed. Peter turned for the kitchen door but his mother stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“It’s great news about the new baby, isn’t it?” Kate asked.
“It’s brilliant news,” Peter replied and meant it. “I couldn’t be happier for them.”
Kate’s smile softened. “I know you want what your brothers and sister have, a family of your own. And I know you’ll find it.”
His mother’s words, said so simply and with such confidence, hit him square in the chest. “I’m sure there’s some unsuspecting woman out there somewhere who I can convince to take pity on me.
” Humour was Peter’s default setting when it came to talking about this stuff, because the idea of being honest with his mother about his true fear—that he’d never have what his brothers and sister had—was too embarrassing to contemplate.
But his mother always saw through him. Of course she did.
“The perfect woman is out there for you, Peter,” she said, her tone still soft but certain. “You just haven’t found her yet. But you will.”
There were so many things he could say in response, so many flippant comments he could blurt out to ease past the tender moment and mask his embarrassment and his feelings of failure. Instead, he offered a bright smile and gestured towards the kitchen door.
“Let’s go through and get our pudding,” he said. “You know I love your sticky toffee pudding, Mum.”
Kate gave him a thoughtful look before planting a kiss on his cheek and pulling him into a quick hug.
They walked back to the dining room together, where everyone was still chatting loudly as they tucked into their desserts.
Peter took his seat and picked up his spoon and dug into his mother’s signature pudding, which everyone was quick to compliment.
Half an hour later everyone was getting ready to leave, pulling on jackets and searching for misplaced toys and talking loudly over one another. As usual, it took about fifteen minutes before everyone was actually ready to leave.
There was another round of congratulations to Amber and Mikey as they left with Alicia, with yet more hugs and well-wishes and happy moments.
Peter’s nephews raced up and down in the front garden as they waited for their parents to leave the house and his nieces played a complicated game of skipping out on the pavement before being shepherded into the car by their parents.
As his brothers and sister drove away from where they’d parked on the street, tooting their horns in farewell, Peter turned to his mother and father who stood in the front doorway.
“Are you sure you don’t want some help clearing up after dinner?” he asked.
“No, I’ll manage just fine,” Tommy replied. “I like to potter around and take care of it all while I listen to my radio programme. And anyway, you’ve got some marking waiting for you at home, and that’s a better use of your time than dealing with dirty dishes.”