Chapter Thirty-Six
Enya leaned back against the wall, creating as much space as possible as Holly walked in with possibly the most ornate cake she had ever seen.
The girl had made it herself, obviously, and it was worthy of a place on any shelf in the finest patisserie imaginable.
The kind of cake Enya liked to ogle on her fancy cake programmes.
It was Holly’s way; she had a gift, presenting everything she made with so much love and care.
‘You are such a clever girl, Holly!’ Maeve called out from her comfy chair in the corner of Jenny’s kitchen.
Columbus, who it seemed found nearly everything funny, laughed as he clapped. He put Enya in mind of a golden retriever, in that he had an abundance of blond hair and was never in bad humour. She liked him enormously. They all did, Holly included...
Holly’s meticulous attention to detail certainly seemed to be a contributing factor to the fabulous homewares and lifestyle website she and Columbus had set up, which was proving to be extremely popular.
Enya had even made a couple of purchases, including the fancy-pants collar that Madam Pickle Paws now wore around her neck.
Phil whooped and hollered his delight at the sight of the cake, made for Amelia’s ‘welcome to the world’ party.
Angela and Frank, Aiden and Iris too, all looked on with delight, utterly besotted with the beautiful baby girl who was pure magic!
She had brought love, light and joy when they had needed it most.
The plan was for Enya and Jenny to each look after her one day a week, but the two had already discussed how they might spend these days together, sharing the childcare while taking it in turns to tempt her with glorious morsels for lunch, reading her books, washing her little clothes, and letting her rest within their warm embrace.
The little girl felt like the glue that would repair the cracks in their lovely friendship.
A friendship she truly relished and one, having tasted life without, Enya knew she would cherish, as they healed together.
The biggest surprise to her was Iris, her beloved daughter-in-law.
Iris was a generous spirit; her kind nature and her unconditional love of Aiden meant she built a bridge that led to Amelia with every word she spoke and everything she did.
Enya was beyond thankful for her, understanding how a young woman of a different nature might have made things far less harmonious.
Trish had only recently, and surprisingly, become engaged.
According to Iris, the teetotal couple seemed to enjoy nothing more than attending exotic yoga retreats, and then holding dinner parties during which they could tell you in great, great detail all about their latest adventure.
And where they served bright beets, scarlet peppers, turmeric-scented dhals and any number of healthy dishes that could, with no more than one small slip of a spoon, stain a pristine kitchen if you weren’t careful.
She hadn’t heard from Dominic since that night last month when he’d been about to launch Foula Girl , chasing his dreams and following his path to happiness.
Not that she didn’t think about him from time to time, of course she did, and suspected she always would.
But the fact was her life was here, here with these people with whom she mattered, all staring at her beloved granddaughter, who was passed around, sleeping soundly, wrapped tightly in a blanket of adoration.
‘I’ll cut the cake!’ Jenny called as she grabbed the knife from the utensil pot, before she and Holly grappled with the vast confection, taking it to a safe spot on the counter.
‘A big piece for me!’ Angela yelled. Enya shot her a look. ‘What?’ Her sister pulled a face. ‘It’s not every day I become a great-aunt!’
Iris came and stood next to Enya, while Phil and Aiden did as they often did, sat in front of Amelia, staring at her as if they still couldn’t quite believe that this little angel was real and was theirs.
Iris nudged her with her elbow. ‘One month old, can you believe it, Granny Brown?’
Enya laughed at the nickname, which she knew Iris and Aiden had picked just to annoy her. She refused to rise to the bait. ‘It’s gone quickly.’
‘It has. And I wanted to say,’ Iris licked her lips, ‘you know we’re okay, don’t you?’
‘Yes.’ She studied her daughter-in-law’s face. ‘I know you’re okay. Is this your way of telling me you’re not okay? Because it’s an odd thing to say, so now you’ve got me worried! Should I be worried?’
Iris laughed out loud. ‘I’m saying we’re all okay.’
‘Well, good.’ Enya stared at her, waiting for her to get to the point.
‘I remember when I was learning to ride a bike, I was about five, Dad bought me a fabulous little pink bike with a basket on the front, streamers on the handles and stabilisers. I took to it like a duck to water, riding up and down the drive, going around and around inside the house, which was a building site in those days, but I absolutely loved it! That taste of freedom, I felt like I could go anywhere, see anything, be anything! It was just brilliant.’
Enya narrowed her eyes at her daughter-in-law. ‘I feel like there’s a moral message here, some kind of allegorical tale developing, and I’m waiting for it to land.’
‘And you’d be correct.’ Iris smiled at her.
‘Dad wanted to take the stabilisers off, and my mum railed against it, ‘No way!’ she yelled. ‘She’s too little, she’ll fall over!
She’ll scrape a knee, break a bone, go through a window!
’ I just remember all these terrible scenarios being bandied about, making me feel scared – was that what would happen if my stabilisers came off?
My dad went along with it for a while, but I was getting faster and faster, and more and more impatient, until one day he took the bike to the garage with me following him.
And he pulled those training wheels off.
He put them in a box, and he said, ‘You don’t need these, Iris, you’re going to fly!
’ I got on the bike, and he was holding on to the back of the seat.
I remember how it felt very different. Initially, I lost quite a lot of my confidence – gone was that feeling of invincibility, like I could go anywhere, and take on the world.
I felt a little anxious, a little wobbly, but I was okay, because my dad had his hand on the back of that seat, and I knew as long as he didn’t let go I was always going to be all right and we raced up and down the drive, which is quite a way. ’
Enya laughed. She’d been along that driveway, and it was quite a way. The thought of an exhausted Dominic running with one hand on the bike was funny.
‘Then after a few turns, I looked around to smile at my dad, and realised he wasn’t holding on anymore, and I don’t think he’d been holding on for quite some time. I hadn’t noticed. I was just flying! Going along on my own, at my own pace, free! And it felt wonderful.’
Enya noted the glint of tears in Iris’s eyes and sidled closer to the girl she loved.
‘I realised years later that the reason my mum wanted me to keep those wheels on was only in part because she thought I might break a bone or go through a window. It was far more about keeping me little, keeping me small.’
They both almost instinctively looked over at Amelia.
‘She didn’t want me to grow up that quickly. She wanted me to be dependent on those training wheels, wanted, I guess, for me to be dependent on her, she loved me that much, I was her purpose.’
‘Okay,’ Enya nodded, ‘I understand the analogy. I can even imagine the scene. And you are one of the most beautiful and independent, free-thinking, strongest women I’ve ever met.
It’s my pleasure to know you, and an even greater pleasure that you’re married to my son.
I guess what I’m struggling with here, darling,’ it was her turn to nudge the girl with her elbow, ‘is where the moral message for me is among all this? Are you saying I should get a bike?’
Iris turned to face her. Her voice was low, her tone level. ‘I spoke to my dad.’
‘Oh! Good, good! How is he?’
Iris held her gaze. ‘I spoke to him about you.’
Enya felt her legs sway a little; she took a stuttered breath and shrank back against the wall, grateful of the support.
‘He told me how he felt, told me that there was this, this spark between you, Enya.’
‘I don’t...’ She shook her head; it was exposing and embarrassing and all the things she had worked so hard to avoid. ‘I...’
‘Please, please don’t deny it. If it was a terrible issue, or a bad thing in my view, do you think I’d mention it?’
Enya undid the top button of her blouse and pushed up the sleeves of her Fair Isle jersey, suddenly feeling a little too hot as she struggled for breath. ‘Nothing, nothing happened, it was just, I don’t know how to describe it.’
‘I think it’s an opportunity, Enya, for you both. For two of the people AJ and I love most in the world. It could be wonderful, we just want you both to be happy. No, more than that, you both deserve to be happy.’
Enya wondered if she might actually faint.
‘Dad told me he’s carried you in his thoughts since he first met you.’
‘He, erm, I don’t know what to say.’ Enya ran out of words and fanned her face with her hand.
‘I believe him, I think whether you’re present or not, he’s thinking of you. So I guess my question is, are you ready to take off your stabilisers? Are you ready to chuck in your training wheels?’
‘I don’t know,’ she whispered, staring at the girl who was encouraging her to seek out her happiness.
‘The last thing I want is to make life difficult for you and Aiden. Supposing, supposing I did take off my training wheels and crashed and burned, what does our family life look like then? What would happen at Christmas, birthdays, all the times we would have to be together, it would be excruciating!’ She spoke quickly, as flustered as she was overwhelmed.