Chapter 10
In the end, Alex had come clean to Billie about inviting Luis’s parents to England to spend Christmas with them.
He and Zoe were pleased to see she was keen on the idea after all, perhaps happy that her doubts had been for nothing and that they seemed enthusiastic.
When Alex told her he was waiting for a reply, she went to find her phone and Zoe presumed she was going to try to speed along their response, or else talk to them about it in some other capacity.
Alex was dishing up a hotpot he’d made for dinner while Zoe dashed upstairs to change out of her uniform after what had been an unusually boring day filled with paperwork and cleaning her treatment room. When she got back to the kitchen, Billie was putting Louisa into her high chair.
‘They can’t come,’ she said to Alex.
‘Who?’ Zoe asked.
Billie looked up. ‘Luis’s mum and dad. They can’t come for Christmas; they can’t find anyone who will look after the animals… I mean, they do have a few, and the horse is really old. They had one friend who would but couldn’t do it over Christmas, only before or after.’
Zoe exchanged a glance with Alex. How badly did he want to do this?
He’d always wanted to please Billie if he had it in his power.
Would he mind her suggestion? She decided to make it anyway because it would probably come to nothing in the end.
‘What about if they came before? We could have an early Christmas celebration so we could include them. I suppose afterwards would be fine too. It would be a good excuse to have two Christmas dinners, and I’m never going to complain about that. ’
Alex turned to Billie. ‘What do you think?’
‘I could ask,’ she said doubtfully. ‘When should I say?’
‘Why don’t you ask when they’re free?’ Zoe said. ‘If they’re free at all, and it’s probably a long shot because we’re already so close to Christmas. But it would be a way for them to sort of share Louisa’s first Christmas. I think it would be nice.’
‘It would.’ Alex shot a grateful look Zoe’s way.
‘I’ll message them now!’ Billie said, going to get her phone from the living room.
Alex mouthed a thank you to Zoe, who smiled.
Billie came back and put her phone on the table next to her plate.
‘Sent!’ she said breathlessly, and Zoe had to admit it was a long time since she’d seen her so excited and hopeful for a good outcome.
Luis’s parents arriving would be a lot of work and more upheaval at a time when they were already busy, but she was glad she’d suggested it now, if only to see Billie’s smile.
All through the meal, she kept glancing at her phone. And when it lit up with a message, she snatched it from the table before she’d even read the name of the sender and then set it down again when she saw it was Maisie.
‘I’ll get that later,’ she said. ‘It’ll only be something about wallpaper for the new house. Honestly, she asks me every day what I think of this paint or these curtains. I don’t live there, do I? What’s it got to do with me?’
‘She values your opinion,’ Zoe said.
‘Yeah, I get that, but it’s weird.’
‘Bill…’ Alex began.
‘I know, I know.’ She sighed. ‘Maisie’s my mate, and I’m being mean. It’s just that sometimes she reminds me that she’s younger than me because she acts younger.’
‘She’s also had a more unstable upbringing, and so her confidence is much more fragile,’ Zoe said.
‘She’s growing every day, but there will be lots of days when she still needs reassurance.
And that’s all it is; she just wants to know she’s doing the right thing, even when deep down she does already. ’
‘Reassurance for curtains?’ Billie raised her eyebrows. ‘Curtains are not that deep.’
‘The curtains and paints and whatever else are just a manifestation of something else, something deeper.’
Billie’s eyebrows went even higher. ‘Oh, OK, therapist…’
‘Zoe’s good at reading people and working out what makes them tick,’ Alex said. ‘Surely you’ve noticed,’ he added with a wry smile. ‘She had us two figured out as soon as she met us.’
‘I wish!’ Zoe laughed lightly. ‘It might be more to do with the fact I’m used to working with people and being there for very emotional periods of their lives, and you learn to read people in those situations. Sometimes it’s part of my job, and sometimes you get it for free.’
‘Are you still going to meet Fern at the weekend?’ Billie asked in a tone that was neutral enough.
Zoe, as they’d just discussed, could read something else there, despite Billie’s attempts to mask it. What that was, however, she couldn’t work out for the moment.
‘I think so,’ Zoe said. ‘Unless Fern has to cancel, of course. I’m looking forward to it.
I haven’t had any one-on-one time with her since she had Benji.
Not that it will be one on one strictly because Benji will be coming with us.
And even before then, whenever I met up with her, we were always just talking about her pregnancy, or I was helping her get set up in a house away from the commune.
It’ll be nice getting to know her, finally, just as a person. ’
‘She doesn’t seem like the sort of person who would be a midwife.’
‘What does that person look like?’
Billie gave a vague shrug. ‘You, I suppose. Normal. Fern’s got that grunge, New Age vibe going on. She looks like a soap dodger.’
‘She doesn’t!’ Zoe squeaked, trying not to laugh at the unfortunate turn of phrase. ‘She’s a bit alternative, that’s all.’
‘People might freak out if they’re waiting to see their midwife and she comes in, that’s all I’m saying. It doesn’t look…’
‘Professional?’ Zoe prompted, annoyed that she’d reacted, though unable to deny that in the back of her mind, she had thought it more than once.
She’d wondered whether to mention that Fern might want to tone down the New Age vibe, as Billie called it, but figured that, in the end, it didn’t make a difference to whether she’d be able to do the job or not.
It was up to Fern to decide how she wanted to present herself.
‘Yeah, that’s it. But they definitely wouldn’t do that with you. You look sensible.’
Zoe laughed. ‘I think that’s a compliment.’ Louisa let out a squeal as if in agreement, and Zoe laughed harder.
‘All right.’ Billie turned to her. ‘Your dinner is coming.’
She started to mash up the contents of a small bowl.
‘She really could try some bigger pieces now,’ Zoe said. ‘She’s old enough.’
‘I know,’ Billie replied, continuing to break the food up anyway. ‘She does sometimes, but I’m too tired to watch her tonight. Sometimes she chokes a bit. She eats it too fast.’
Zoe had never noticed that, but she didn’t comment either way. At the end of the day, Billie had to do what she felt was right. Zoe could offer gentle guidance, but she knew better than to lecture Alex’s headstrong daughter on anything.
Louisa had just taken the first mouthful when Billie’s phone pinged the arrival of a text. She let the spoon fall into the bowl, and Louisa grabbed for it, unnoticed, as Billie read the message.
‘They can’t do it,’ she said, and the disappointment in her voice was so palpable it almost appeared at the table to sit with them.
‘They’ve got nobody to look after the animals after all – I think the one friend chickened out because the horse is so old.
They said we could go to them if we wanted, but not at Christmas because they have lots of family staying.
Before or after.’ Billie looked up, but Alex shook his head.
‘We can’t really go there either – not all of us, at least. Zoe has to work, and we’ve got Grizzle.
’ Alex paused, watching carefully for her response – at least that’s how Zoe translated the worry in his expression as he asked his next question.
‘If it really means so much to you, you could go with Louisa. I’m sure it’s you they want to see anyway, not us. ’
‘I just went, didn’t I?’ Billie’s shoulders slumped as she put her phone down and pried the spoon from Louisa’s grip. ‘Not even that long ago. And you’d miss Louisa’s first Christmas.’
‘Maybe we can work something out—’ he began, but Billie cut him off.
‘It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t that bothered anyway.’
Billie’s body language was saying something very different, and Zoe could see in Alex’s pained study of it that he thought so too.
Perhaps later, if Billie decided to go to bed earlier than them they’d have a chance to discuss it, and what they might be able to do about it.
Zoe wasn’t sure there was anything to be done, but she was sure Alex would appreciate the chance to talk it through and some suggestions for ways they might temper her disappointment.
Perhaps the lead-up to Christmas in itself would be enough in the end.
There would be gift buying – far too many for little Louisa to play with, but wasn’t that the point of a first Christmas?
And there would be village events, and perhaps things outside the village they could take her and Louisa to.
Zoe rallied at the thought. They could salvage this, and they could turn Billie’s mood into something more positive again.
Yes, she decided, they could make Christmas brilliant.
All it needed was a few sparks of inspiration.