Chapter 15
‘Are you sure you’re OK with this?’
Zoe stepped over the threshold as Heath invited her in, followed by Alex and Billie with Louisa in the car seat.
Ottilie came from the living room to greet them, Anthony chattering away in her arms.
‘Yes,’ Ottilie said. ‘Stop stressing.’
‘It’ll be good practice for when we have another one,’ Heath added with a grin.
Ottilie aimed a fake scowl at him. ‘Absolutely not! I’m too old to have another; I’ve just about got enough energy for this one.’
‘Oh, but—’ Zoe began, Ottilie swiftly cutting her off.
‘I don’t mean having Louisa is going to be a problem before you start that again,’ she said. She smiled at Billie and Louisa. ‘It’ll be fun getting to know her. After all, she and Anthony will become playmates at some point – might as well get them used to one another from the start, eh?’
‘She’s due to go to sleep soon anyway,’ Billie said. ‘She normally goes through till about five a.m. after that, but I don’t know if she’ll go that long tonight because she’s not in her cot at home. But if she gets up—’
‘We’ll sort it,’ Ottilie said. ‘Have you all got time for a drink before you go? The doors don’t open for another forty minutes, do they? We’ve got snowballs on the go.’
‘Snowballs?’ Billie scrunched up her nose, and Zoe laughed.
‘You’re too young and cool to know what a snowball is! I’d go for one; I love a sneaky snowball at Christmas!’
‘Me too,’ Alex said. ‘We’ve got time.’
‘Do they have alcohol in them?’ Billie asked as they followed Ottilie and Heath through to the living room.
‘Barely,’ Ottilie said. ‘But I can fix you something without if you’re still breastfeeding.’
‘Yeah, I’ll just have some juice or something, if that’s OK.’
As they all settled into seats, Billie took Louisa out of her seat. Ottilie brought Anthony over to introduce them, and as the two infants stared at one another with gummy, drooling interest, Heath went to make the drinks.
‘Oh look, they’re so cute,’ Zoe said.
‘I think they like each other already,’ Ottilie agreed. ‘We should do a proper playdate.’
Billie looked unconvinced, but she gave Ottilie a taut smile and a brief nod. ‘Maybe after Christmas.’
‘So how are you feeling about the prospect of coming back to work?’ Zoe asked Ottilie. ‘And I mean, really. It’s just us now – nobody at the surgery is here, so you can be honest. It’s too soon for you? Because you haven’t had your full year of leave yet.’
‘No, but it’s not until January, so I don’t suppose I’ve really processed it yet.
I’ll miss Anthony, of course, but I think the change of routine will do me good.
It’s not going to be full-time, and I’m more than happy to leave him for a couple of days a week with Stacey.
She’s practically his aunt anyway, and she sees him all the time.
She’ll have one or two other little ones to childmind as well, so the socialising will be good for him. ’
‘Sounds like you have it figured out even if you haven’t processed it as such.’
‘Simon had a chat with me before we left the other day, and he says they’ll get someone in to support me. If not a locum nurse, perhaps a healthcare assistant, someone I could delegate some of the less demanding tasks to.’
‘That actually sounds like someone the surgery could do with anyway. I’ve always wondered why we don’t have a healthcare assistant.’
‘We always managed without one before, but you’re right.
Goodness knows how they’re going to recruit, though.
It would be ideal for someone who lives locally, but I don’t know there’s anyone experienced around here who would want the job.
There might be someone willing to train, I suppose.
But it’s not the best-paid position, and I don’t see how it would work for someone if they had to travel into the village – half their wages would be eaten up in petrol money or bus costs.
’ Ottilie bounced Anthony on her knee. ‘Didn’t you say one of your mums was interested in healthcare when she goes back to work? ’
‘Did I?’
‘One of the younger ones…’
‘Oh, Fern! She’s keen to become a midwife; I’m not sure this would suit her.
And she’s not really had much in the way of employment experience – she lived on a commune for a couple of years…
not sure what she did before that, but pretty sure it wasn’t health related.
She’s got a ton of courses to do as well to get the qualifications she needs to sign up for the midwifery training.
’ Zoe paused for a moment. ‘Actually… It’s a good idea, and I could ask her – doesn’t she need to train for that position too? ’
‘We could talk to Simon, and he would facilitate that, I’m sure. If she was interested, that is… It might not be what she wants at all. It would be a bit of a sidestep if anything, but it might be a good grounding for her to go on to do other training.’
‘It might,’ Zoe agreed. ‘I’m not sure she’d be ready for when you went back to work, though. Benji is only four months old.’
Ottilie nodded. ‘It was just a thought.’ She glanced at Billie, who was scrolling on her phone. ‘Do you have any thoughts about whether you might want to work when Louisa is old enough? Or will you be helping out in the family business?’
Billie looked up. ‘What? Were you talking to me?’
‘I just wondered if you’d planned to work, or whether you’re going to stay home with Louisa?’
‘What’s wrong with staying home with her?’
‘Nothing. Nothing at all… People do what’s right for them. I was just curious, that’s all.’
‘I don’t know. There’s no jobs around here anyway.’ She turned to Zoe. ‘What time do we have to leave?’
Zoe blinked. ‘We’ve got half an hour at least yet. Why?’
‘Just wanted to know.’
Billie’s head went down, and she began to type on her phone. Zoe thought about asking who the message was to, but the mood Billie was in, she knew better than that.
Heath came in with a tray of drinks. ‘Here we go…’
‘Thanks!’ Zoe got up to take one for her and one for Alex from him. ‘These look delish!’
‘Delish?’ Billie rolled her eyes. ‘Who says that?’
‘Me, apparently,’ Zoe replied, determined not to be offended by anything Billie said or did tonight. It was a day from Christmas Eve, she’d finished her shopping and wrapped her presents and got her patient records up to date, and she was going to enjoy herself.
It was then that she happened to glance down and caught sight of Billie’s phone screen.
She didn’t speak Spanish, but she recognised it.
Was Billie messaging Luis’s parents? It was to be expected that she would, but something about it made Zoe uneasy.
She couldn’t even say why, except that every little thing she saw or heard these days fed into the fear that Billie was pulling away from them.
In lots of ways, that wouldn’t matter to Zoe.
In some ways, so selfish she didn’t want to dwell on them, it was even good for her – if Billie left them, it meant she got to have Alex all to herself.
But she knew having Alex to herself wouldn’t be the sunshine and rainbows she’d hoped for if those were the circumstances in which it happened.
She decided not to attach any significance to it. After all, it was almost Christmas and Luis’s parents were practically family to Billie. They were Louisa’s grandparents too, so it was only natural she’d message them.
‘This one’s for you.’ Heath smiled as he gave Billie a glass. ‘I made a non-alcoholic version.’
‘What’s in it?’ she asked, locking her phone to take it from him.
‘Lemonade…’
‘What else?’
‘No, it’s just lemonade!’
Ottilie let out a groan. ‘Heath! It’s only you who thinks you’re funny, you know!’
‘I don’t know,’ Alex put in. ‘Sounds like the sort of dad joke I’d make. And if I say so myself, I think I’m pretty funny.’
‘You’re really not,’ Billie said.
Conversation turned back to everyone’s workload and plans for Christmas Day, and then reminiscing about the previous Christmas when the entire village was involved in one way or another with the plot to rescue Zoe’s Christmas Day after she’d stayed up all night helping Georgia to deliver her baby, and then the spat between Flo and Magnus that had meant Heath and Ottilie couldn’t go to the panto, and then the significant developmental milestones both Anthony and Louisa had recently reached – where Billie seemed to brighten a little as she recalled Louisa laughing like crazy as Alex flew her around the room in his arms – and then to who was up to what in the village, when there was a knock at the door.
Ottilie let out a sigh as she exchanged a look with Heath. ‘I think we know who that’s going to be, don’t we?’
With a grin, he got up and went to the door, returning a minute later with a grumbling Flo, who stopped mid-sentence and surveyed the room.
‘Oh. You’re all here. Are you staying?’
‘No.’ Zoe moved along the sofa so that Flo could sit, but she just stood at the door and stared at the space. ‘We’re off to the panto shortly.’
‘Humph…’ Flo stood at the chair where Heath had just retaken his seat and waited. After a second, he got up to allow her to have it and went to sit next to Zoe.
‘You haven’t forgiven Magnus then?’ Zoe asked.
‘I’ve never met anyone so stuffed full of himself!’ Flo huffed. ‘I won’t be going in that shop to give him my custom again.’
‘No, you’ll just make me go instead,’ Heath said wryly.
‘But Geoff hasn’t done anything wrong,’ Alex put in. ‘So you can still go to the shop. Besides, where else can you go around here?’
‘Nowhere,’ Heath said. ‘That’s why I have to go in for her.’
‘I can’t always get around,’ Flo snapped. ‘You know what my legs are like!’
‘Your legs are good enough to come round here every five minutes,’ Ottilie said under her breath, and Zoe had to stifle a giggle. Luckily, Flo hadn’t heard, or if she had, she chose to ignore it.
‘What are you drinking?’ Flo asked.
‘Snowballs,’ Heath said. ‘Want one?’
‘Too fizzy for me. Can you make me a flat one?’
‘If you give me a day to leave the lemonade out, yes,’ Heath said. ‘So I’ll make you a cup of tea for now then?’