Chapter 53
I find Dad and Debbie sitting on the sofa in the big lounge, sipping mugs of tea.
“Alreet, lad,” says Dad when he sees me.
“We’re just havin’ a breather, love,” explains Debbie. “We weren’t sure if you’d have tea bags, so we brought our own.”
“We’re not as young as we used to be,” jokes Dad. “And we’re jiggered after all that dancin’.”
I sit in the armchair facing them. “I thought you did well. You kept up with most of the kids.”
Debbie smiles. “Yeah, but we’re payin’ for it now.”
I’m suddenly compelled to tell them what I came to say. With no preamble, I bark, “Debbie, I’m sorry.”
There’s a pause. She brushes some imaginary fluff from her lap. “What for, love?”
“For wiping your toast on the floor and all the other grim things I did.”
She waves away my concern. “That’s alright, love. You don’t need to apologize.”
“No, I do,” I insist. “It’s important. And Dad, I’ve already apologized to you, but please, can we not keep anything from each other again?”
Dad looks thrown. “’Course not, lad.”
“Fab.” I shuffle forward so I’m perched on the edge of the chair. “In this new spirit of openness, I’m going to share the way I feel about you.”
Dad rests his tea on the side. “Oh yeah?”
“I love you, Dad.”
He looks shocked. “Really?”
“Yeah. Even if I haven’t always shown it.”
A smile sweeps across his face and into his eyes. “I love you, too, Adam.”
“I know,” I reply. “Or at least I do now.”
“I always have,” Dad goes on. “I never stopped loving you.”
I stand up and hold out my arms but Dad struggles to get to his feet.
I lower a hand and he grabs onto it. Once he’s standing up, I draw him into a hug.
He feels warm and his back is slightly damp, but I hold onto him tightly and breathe in his familiar earthy scent, overlaid with deodorant and beer.
“I may not have understood you properly in the past,” I say. “But I do understand you now and I’m looking forward to understanding you even better in the future.”
I pat him on the back and he pats mine several times. “Same ’ere, lad.”
We come out of the hug and he wipes a tear from his eye.
“That’s beltin’ that is,” says Debbie. “Seein’ you two have a hug.”
Dad sits down again and she links her arm through his.
“Well, get used to it because it’ll be happening a lot more often,” I say.
Dad wipes another tear from his eye. “Good. I’d like that.”
“Me too.”
As I step outside, I notice that the sun has started setting. I wonder if I can slip away and go up to the castle to watch it.
Theo slides in next to me. “Come on, let’s get up there,” he says.
I smile. “I was just thinking the same thing. But where are the kids?”
The last time I saw Archie, he was playing with Giuseppe—riding him like a horse; Mabel was lying in a hammock with Freya, monitoring our likes on TikTok; while Callum was leading Lina into the grain store. I don’t like to think what for.
“Don’t worry about the kids,” Theo says. “Kate will keep an eye on them. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
My breath stops in my chest. Maybe Dom’s right; maybe Theo is going to propose. Come to think of it, Gloria’s been teasing me about it, too. Do they know something I don’t?
I swallow and nod. I follow Theo around the edge of the dance floor, behind the chapel wall and over to the bottom of the hill, my heart galloping.
As we walk up the steps, I notice the blackberries on the brambles are now perfectly ripe.
I pick one, put it in my mouth and lick the juice off my fingers.
I grab another for Theo and when we make it to the top, pop it in his mouth.
We look into each other’s eyes and I realize I’ve nothing to be nervous about.
“Surprise!”
I almost jump back in shock, then turn around to see Callum, Mabel and Archie.
“I thought you were with your mum,” I splutter.
“I just said that to get you up here,” admits Theo. “Come on, come over here and sit down.”
I follow them past the entrance to the underground chamber and through the ruins of the castle. I may no longer be nervous but I’m even more intrigued to find out what’s going on.
Then again, I’m obviously not going to get a proposal if the kids are here. My spirits plunge as I realize just how much I did want that. Part of me was holding out for Theo to do the traditional thing and get down on one knee.
When we reach the stone wall, we sit down, facing a glorious pumpkin and peach sunset.
“Right,” says Theo, “there’s something the kids and I want to ask you.”
He, Callum and Mabel turn to face Archie as if to give him his cue. Clearly, they’ve rehearsed this.
Archie stands up. “Adam, will you be part of our family?”
“We were going to ask you to be our stepdad,” pitches in Callum, excitedly. “But we’re not sure we like that word. And we’re not sure it describes you.”
Wait a minute, so is this a proposal or not?
“Then we realized we already had the perfect word,” Mabel runs on. “We just didn’t realize it at the time.”
I crinkle my face. “What’s that?”
Archie takes a deep breath. “Will you be our Dadam?”
Mabel hands me a bracelet she’s made from the bead kit I bought her in Lucca. I see they’re all wearing them.
“We made this specially for you,” she says, proudly.
I turn it around in my hands, seeing that it’s lilac, sky blue and bright green.
“We all did it,” says Archie, grinning. “I did the green.”
“I love it,” I say, turning it around in my hands. But I’m also confused. Is this instead of a ring? What’s it supposed to mean?
Mabel must have read my expression. “We wanted to do something different because we’re a different kind of family. And we like it like that.”
“Being the same as everyone else is proper boring,” elaborates Callum.
Theo picks up their explanation. “When I talked to the kids, we realized they like being part of a family we’ve invented ourselves. It makes them feel they’re not restricted by having to conform to expectations.”
“Yeah, what Dad said,” quips Callum.
We all laugh.
“And they’ve realized it’s a privilege,” adds Theo.
“Actually, we didn’t say that,” Mabel corrects him.
“We said it’s a superpower!” chirps Archie.
“Oh, yeah,” says Theo. “They said it’s a superpower to be able to express our uniqueness in the shape of our family.”
I’m so touched. What they’re saying has been carefully thought out and is so intelligent and wise.
But I also feel embarrassed for expecting a traditional proposal.
After spending the summer creating something so special, how could I be so basic as to want Theo to get down on one knee and pull out a ring?
The kids have asked me to be part of their family—their alternative, unique family—and the way they’ve asked is much more meaningful than if Theo had followed any kind of template.
But part of me can’t help wondering if Theo’s going to say anything. The kids have had their say: is he going to express his feelings?
I tell myself to keep quiet: Theo loves me. He tells me that all the time. The last time he told me was less than an hour ago.
I tug in a breath. “Yes, of course I will. Thanks a lot, guys.” I slide the bracelet onto my wrist and give them my brightest smile.
Everyone cheers. I feel a powerful sense of belonging, of being in exactly the right place with exactly the right people. Then I realize it’s this I’ve been looking for all along.
“While we’re on the subject,” says Theo, his face glowing pink from the sun’s last rays, “I want to ask if you’ll share the rest of your life with me. As your partner, your soulmate, your other half, your husband—whichever word you prefer. Or we can invent our own word.”
All of a sudden, I feel choked up.
“I don’t know,” I stutter. “I …”
The kids’ faces drop.
Theo looks crestfallen.
“Sorry, the answer’s yes!” I shout. “Of course that’s what I want! That’s what I’ve always wanted!”
“So what’s the problem?” asks Theo.
“I don’t know the right word,” I say. “I don’t know which word I prefer.”
“That’s OK,” he reassures me, taking hold of my hand. “We’ve got plenty of time to work it out. We can spend the rest of our lives working it out.”
I squeeze his hand. “There’s nothing I’d like more.”
I look up at the sunset and remember that somewhere beneath me is the stone inscribed with the names WILF + ARNALDO.
And the sun slips behind the mountain.