Chapter 14
‘Thanks for that,’ Marc said as Noah drew up outside the lake house in his Tesla. ‘I didn’t know how much I needed it.’
‘Any time. Besides, I’ve got to pick up the babysitter, so I thought I might as well drop you home, too.’
‘You’re a very considerate date!’ Marc laughed. He’d laughed a lot this evening, and it had felt good. ‘Do you and Bella have time for a cuppa?’
‘Depends on if the kids are still awake.’ Noah grinned. ‘For all we know, Luca and Liam could have hog-tied Bella up and be holding her hostage in the cellar!’
‘No cellar,’ Marc replied. ‘At least, not that we’ve found… yet!’
They got out of the car and Marc opened the front door.
‘All quiet,’ Noah said in a stage whisper. ‘That’s got to be a good sign.’
Marc nodded. Luckily, once the twins were asleep, they generally tended to stay that way. As they walked through the hallway, they spotted Bella ensconced on one of the squashy sofas in the living room. She was sipping a cuppa and watching a cheery Christmas film.
‘Love Actually?’ Noah asked as she spotted them.
‘Close.’ Bella grinned. ‘But no. Finn Sanderson and Montana de Santo have just done a sequel to their hit film from a few years ago, so I thought I’d check it out now the boys are asleep.’
‘Finn who?’ Marc shook his head. ‘Sorry, Bella, I’ve been out of the loop for a while, as you can imagine. Tess and I missed a lot of good TV when the boys were small.’
Bella smiled. ‘Finn and Montana were the hottest on-screen couple in the world when I was a teenager. The did this show, High School Dreams, together. For a long time, they went their separate ways, but they got back together and did their first Christmas film, A Countess for Christmas, about four years ago, and it was such a hit for FilmFlix that they both agreed to do another one. They shot it in Roseford, just down the road from here, and, even more excitingly, they came back to Somerset to do the sequel. Finn’s living here most of the time, anyway, as he settled down with the woman who ran the café there – isn’t that romantic?
– and Montana agreed to come back to do a follow-up, although she lives in California with her wife. ’
‘Wow! Get you! You sound like a Buzzfeed article,’ Noah teased gently.
‘Well, it’s good to pay attention now I’m back in the business,’ Bella replied, swatting Noah’s arm playfully. ‘After all, you never know when a film company might want to buy the rights to one of my songs and put it in a rom-com!’
‘Fair,’ Noah replied. ‘Although I thought you’d be over all of the fame stuff, after the grief you gave me when “Heartbreaker” went viral.
’ Noah’s estate agency had sampled Bella’s former hit in a listing for a swanky London apartment, and that, combined with some publicity from her sometime musical collaborator, Jason Flyte, had meant that Bella – whose stage name had been Isabella Indigo – had seen a spike in her royalties when the track rocketed in popularity.
Although she’d been freaked out at the time, Bella had, in the end, conceded that the exposure had been positive, and the first gig she’d played after the resurgence had raised a lot of money for Purrfect Paws and stopped it from having to close down.
‘I’ve got used to it.’ Bella beamed up at Noah.
‘And is the film any good?’ Marc asked.
‘Well, I’m always sceptical about sequels, but this one was sweet. It’s always nice to catch up with characters you loved the first time around, isn’t it?’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ Marc said. ‘I’m not much of a film guy, myself. Tessa used to say I needed a bit more whimsy in my life, but I’ve always preferred a decent documentary.’
Bella laughed. ‘Christmas rom-coms definitely aren’t your thing, then?’
‘Afraid not. I like to keep my feet on the ground.’
‘So, no mysterious princesses under the mistletoe for you, then?’
The moment Bella said it, Marc could see she knew she’d made a faux pas. ‘Shit, sorry, Marc.’ Her face coloured and began to clash with her cherry red hair. ‘I didn’t think…’
‘It’s all right. No harm done. But I’ve never believed in fairy tales, anyway. And Christmas films give me toothache!’
Bella laughed in evident relief. ‘I’ve just made a cuppa if you want one. There’s plenty left in the pot.’
‘Thanks. The boys behaved okay?’
As Bella filled him in on the evening’s activities, which had included a Marvel film, a big bowl of popcorn and a few rounds of a very messy game called Pie Face, which involved whipped cream, a timer and a catapult, Marc shook his head.
‘You’re definitely getting the reputation of most fun aunty.
I’ll be such a drag, compared to you, tomorrow! ’
‘We all had fun.’ Bella agreed. ‘They’re cute kids.’
Marc was glad that both the boys seemed to have been good. He was worried that Liam might kick off again, as he’d done a couple of times lately, but if Bella was being straight with him, that hadn’t happened. Marc took the win. He’d learned to be thankful for them.
‘Well, thank you again,’ he said as Noah and Bella left. ‘I had a great time, and it sounds like the boys did, too.’
‘Any time.’ Bella smiled. ‘It’s really nice to have you all so close.’
As Marc closed the door and watched the taillights of Noah’s Tesla heading down the driveway back to the road, he felt a pang.
Noah had fallen hard for Bella, and Bella adored Noah.
They were on the cusp of so many wonderful things; things that he and Tessa had discovered, before her life had been cut short.
Two years on, it still caught him sometimes.
But tonight, having spent time with his brother and Bella, it didn’t feel as raw as it normally did.
Christmas was going to be tricky, but taking each day as it came was the way to make progress.
And there was one more major hurdle to get over before Christmas came, anyway.
The twins’ birthday was in a week’s time.
He’d managed to buy some presents, but there was one thing he’d not sorted out yet: the cake.
Up until this point, they’d been quite happy sharing a cake, but he wondered if he needed to do something more individual this year.
They were going to be six years old, and the pair of them had developed quite different interests over the year since their last birthday.
Liam was into Minecraft, and Luca was much more into Octonauts.
Marc had been vaguely browsing cake toppers on , but perhaps he should put a bit more effort in, since this was their first birthday in the new house?
Writing that down on the notepad in the kitchen, which was the only way he ever remembered to do things these days, he put his mug in the dishwasher and, with a yawn that surprised him, decided it was time for bed.
Maybe it was the wine, but as he closed the door and got ready to turn in, the feeling of contentment he’d had in the pub with Noah remained.