Players, Bumps and Cocktail Sausages (SAMPLE)

Players, Bumps and Cocktail Sausages - Chapter Three

Chapter Three

I plucked Everleigh out of the air as she jumped at me. The kid could proper clear the floor. I swear she’s an undercover ninja. I could see her future career in MI5.

“Hey, Noodle.”

“Don’t eat the chicken. Daddy said Grandad don’t cook it right,” she said, getting straight to the point. “Chicken that don’t cook right makes you hurt, right?” It was hurl. I told her when I was sick once bad chicken made you hurl, but I was glad she’d mixed it up, Oakley would only yell.

“That’s right. Bad chicken makes your belly hurt.”

“Hey, girly,” Abby said, taking her from me. Everleigh started telling Abby about the chicken too so I took the opportunity to say hi to my mum, who was waiting by the front door – on granddaughter duty.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Mum said, hugging me.

“Hey. How’s it going?”

“Good. I’m so happy everyone can be together again. It’s been too long. Abby,” she said, pushing past me. “How are you? It’s been a while.”

I tried not to think about why she wasn’t at my mum and Miles’ for dinner last week. It seemed that while I just wanted to knock her up and have a family, she just wanted to be young and go out again. I thought we were on the same page. When we got married I thought – because she’d said – that we were going to start thinking about trying to have a baby. Usually I was quite good at finding the real message between what a woman said and what she actually fucking meant, but clearly I had mistaken ‘I can’t wait to have a family with you’ for ‘Sod off, I want my freedom.’

I followed them into the back garden, saying happy birthday to Miles before I grabbed my first beer of many.

“Hey, man,” I said as Brad walked into the back garden. Holly was just behind him, almost hiding. I nodded my head. “Holly.”

“Where’s the beer?” Brad asked, heading over to the cooler by the barbecue that I pointed out after giving me a nod.

“Hi. Thank you again for inviting me,” Holly said, biting the inside of her mouth.

I shrugged. “No worries. Let me introduce you to my sister. Oakley!” Holly flinched, not realising I was about to shout, even though Oakley was at the other end of the garden.

Instead of my sister my niece ran over and stood in front of Holly, checking her out with a little scowl. “Do you like purple?” Everleigh asked her.

“Um, Holly muttered at the random question and then smiled, bending down a little. “I love purple, it’s my absolute favourite.”

“Mine too.” Everleigh beamed and skipped off, and Holly had been accepted. “She’s cute. Your niece Everleigh, right?”

“Yeah, and yeah she is. She likes you.”

She smiled. “You can tell from that?”

“You like purple and if she didn’t like you she would have held onto my hand and glared at ya.”

Holly laughed. “Alright.”

“Hi,” Oakley said, finally getting to us. “You’re Holly, right?”

“Yeah, hi. Thanks for letting me come.”

Oakley waved her hand. “Of course. You want something to drink? My mum’s making cocktails, can’t guarantee they’ll be nice, though.”