Londoners definitely know how to do Christmas. We haven’t spent much time in Central London, where the Christmas lights illuminate the busy streets full of shoppers and immaculately decorated trees sit in every window display. But even in the suburbs, lights are strung in front gardens and holiday songs play on the radio twenty four seven. The air smells cold, like snow is just around the corner. I could get used to a Christmas like this.
I shift in my seat. “So, just to warn you there are a lot of people at the house.” I reel off introductions to my family. “But my sister-in-law Nina used to be a nurse, so she’s already ready to step in if you need to get away.”
“It sounds lovely, darling,” Betty says, folding her hands neatly in her lap. “Thank you for breaking me out.”
“Anytime, Betty.”
We pull up outside the house, and Betty tilts her head forward. “Goodness me, you don’t do things by half do you?”
“Never,” I tell her as I jump out and round the bumper, helping her onto the gravel.
I open the door to Christmas music and laughter, and Betty takes a deep breath beside me. “Rosie!” I call down the corridor.
She rounds the corner with a smile and a tea towel in hand, which she drops to the floor in shock. “Nanny?”
Betty pats my arm with a smile. “I’ve been kidnapped.”
Rosie crosses the hall in a few steps. “Oh my God!”
She wraps her grandmother in a firm hug and gazes up at me with watery eyes. “Merry Christmas,” I tell her.
Mum wanders down the hall behind her, and I’m quick to make introductions.
“Come and sit down,” Rosie says, ushering her into the living room.
“Oh, it’s so lovely in here, darling,” Betty says as she gazes around the room. I’m left with Betty’s suitcase as all the women in my life convene around the perfectly sized tree.
I’m just about to head upstairs to store the suitcase when I hear Rosie call my name.
I have just enough time to turn before she’s in my arms and pressing her lips to mine. I drop the case to the floor and scoop my arms around her, tugging her as close as I can with her belly pressing against mine.
I pull back just enough to cradle her face in my hands and wipe her tears with my thumbs.
“I can’t believe you,” Rosie says, with a watery laugh. “How did you do it?”
“I have my ways.”
She curves her arms around my neck and holds my gaze with hers. “I love you.”
Her words settle across me like a blanket, curling around me and squeezing my heart. I’ve feel like I’ve waited mywhole life to hear those words fall from her lips, and I can barely contain myself.
“I love you too, pretty girl,” I tell her. “I have since the day you left me on that balcony.”
She grins as I crash my lips into hers. My blood rushes south, and I’m more than happy to whisk her to our bedroom to give her another early Christmas present but my little sister shouts, “Ugh, get a room,” as she passes us in the hall, and it’s enough for Rosie to pull away with a giggle.
“Let’s,” I say, pulling her closer.
“We literally have a house full of family,” Rosie says with a bright smile as she untangles herself from me.
I tug at her arm as if I can pull her back. “Whose idea was that again?”
“Yours,” she tells me, pushing me towards the stairs. “One of your best.”
38
ROSIE
“Canyou change this to the wide shot?” Kathleen asks, pointing over my shoulder at the screen hung on the wall behind my desk.
