Chapter Nine
Callum kisses Astrid on each cheek, holding her by the arms and smiling fondly as he takes a good look at her. “Still beautiful, Astrid.”
“I’m not, Callum. It’s that trick the eyes do when you haven’t seen someone in years.
There is a split second when you see them as they are today—old, wrinkled, saggy—and suddenly they go back to who they were when you first knew them.
” She doesn’t tell him that’s what just happened to her with him.
“Maybe. But you’re still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Astrid shakes her head. “Your wife would hate that you just said that to me.”
“She’d just roll her eyes. She knows who I am.
But I don’t drink anymore, or do any of the other stuff, which makes things easier.
The wife lets me do my own thing. She’d much rather be hanging out with her girlfriends.
She doesn’t want to be around an old fart like me.
” He laughs, but his face soon grows serious.
“You are the great love of my life, you know. I wish things had been different. When the wife wants to go off to Soho House and the Roof Gardens, I often think about what it would be like if we were still together. We’d be lying on the sofa watching a great crime drama, eating your famous scrambled eggs. ”
Astrid smiles. “I still make those scrambled eggs for Zara.”
Callum swoons, in just the way he has always swooned.
Despite the betrayals, the many, many betrayals, Astrid knows that a piece of her heart will always be with him, and she is grateful—so very grateful—that she is old enough and wise enough to know better, to know how much he hurts the women in his life.
“Be still my beating heart. Best eggs I’ve ever eaten. I miss them still. Tried to teach the wife to make them, but they always end up rubbery.”
“It’s the slow stir.” She smiles.
“That’s what I keep telling her. She says she doesn’t have the patience.”
“You’re happy?”
“Well, I’m not entirely happy. This has been hard. Although I probably should have gotten rid of Vic years ago. Still. The way it happened, and then of course the tapes. I didn’t bloody remember I’d ever made those tapes. I have no recollection of that night whatsoever.”
“Those were some funny old times, weren’t they.” Astrid tries to lighten the mood.
“Were they? I wish I could remember. I’ll tell you what, though—look at our girl. I wouldn’t have chosen for her to write about those tapes and get all this publicity.”
“Really? You always used to say all publicity is good publicity.”
“Well, yeah. But not when you’re implicated in covering up a murder.”
“Murder?”
“Manslaughter. I’ve had a hell of a public backlash.”
“And you’re coping?”
Callum shrugs and leans forward, his voice low. “The truth is, my darling, I don’t very much care. I’m an old man now. I’ve had an extraordinary life. People have always hated me as much as they’ve loved me. If all the young kids now want to call me a sick, twisted bastard, let them.”
“Dad!” Zara appears then and gives her father a kiss. “I didn’t think for one second you’d come.”
“After my darling daughter destroyed my career?” His dimples appear, along with his famous smile, as he puts his arm around his daughter’s shoulders and holds her close. “How could I not?”
“Are you mad at me?”
“Nah. I’m far too old to be mad at anyone. I’m proud of you. Yeah, you’re making my life a little bit difficult right now, but it’ll pass. Things have been worse.”
“The drug bust and prison spell?” offers Astrid, surprised at how easy this is, how familiar—her, Callum, and Zara. Almost as if they are a proper family.
“That wasn’t much fun, true. But it was the seventies. That was expected. I didn’t quite expect to be thrown under the bus by my own daughter at this age, but I am coping.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Dad.” Zara leans her head on his shoulder as he kisses the top of her head. Whatever he is saying, it is clear that he loves Zara, that he is not mad in the slightest.
Zara reaches out a hand and pulls Astrid close, into her other side. And there they stand, Callum and Astrid flanking their daughter, Astrid with her heart cracking open. After all these years, her family is still her family.
And her daughter has finally come home to Mama. Where she belongs.