Kate Hardy - A Forever Family - Their Christmas Delivery

‘Thanks for bringing all this,’ Josh said, ‘and I owe your sister flowers and some decent chocolate. And you, too.’

Alison waved away the thanks. ‘It’s good to be able to do something nice for someone at Christmas. It feels as if it’s putting the balance back a bit, after all the greed and rampant consumerism.’

When she’d gone, Josh turned to Amy. ‘The only time you’ve been out of the flat since Christmas Eve morning is our middle-of-the-night trip to hospital. Do you want to go and get some fresh air?’

‘That’d be good. And I could probably do with picking up something for dinner,’ she said. ‘I forgot to get something out of the freezer earlier.’

‘I ought to be the one buying dinner,’ he said. ‘You’ve fed me two days running as it is.’

‘It really doesn’t matter.’ Unable to resist teasing him, she added, ‘But if you really want to cook for me...’

‘Then you get a choice of spaghetti Bolognese or a cheese toastie,’ he said promptly.

‘Or maybe I should teach you how to cook something else.’ She grabbed her coat and her handbag. ‘I’ll see you in a bit. I’ve got my phone with me in case you need me.’

‘Great.’

* * *

It felt odd, being alone in Amy’s flat, Josh thought when she’d gone. Weirdly, it felt like home; yet, at the same time, it wasn’t. Everything was neat and tidy and she’d done the washing up while he was seeing Alison out of the flat, so he couldn’t do anything practical to help; all he could really do was watch the baby.

He’d texted his parents and his siblings during his break at work on Christmas Day, and hadn’t corrected their assumption that he was working today. Not that he really wanted to speak to any of them. If he told them how his Christmas had panned out, he knew they’d try to manage it—which drove him crazy. He was perfectly capable of managing his own life, even if he was the baby of the family and had messed up, in their eyes.

He held the baby and looked at the framed photographs on Amy’s mantelpiece. The older couple were clearly her parents, and the man in one of the younger couples looked enough like her to be her brother in Canada. The other couple, he assumed, must be the friends she’d talked about staying with in Edinburgh.

‘She really loves her family,’ he said to the baby, ‘and they clearly love her to bits, too.’ He sighed. ‘Maybe I should make more of an effort with mine.’

The baby gurgled, as if agreeing.

‘They’re not bad people. Just they have set views on what I ought to be doing with my life, and right now they feel I’m letting them down. I’m the only one in our family to get divorced. But Kelly didn’t love me any more, and I couldn’t expect her to stay with me just to keep my family happy. It would have made both of us really miserable, and that’s not fair.’

The baby gurgled again.

‘Tell you a secret,’ he said. ‘I think I could like Amy. More than like her.’

The baby cooed, as if to say that she liked Amy, too.

‘And I would never have got to know her like this if it wasn’t for you, Munchkin. We’d still just be doing the nod-and-smile thing if we saw each other in the corridor or the lobby. But this last couple of days, I’ve spent more time with her than I have with anyone else in a long, long time.’ He paused. ‘The question is, what does she think about me?’

The baby was silent.

‘I’m not going to risk making things awkward while we’re looking after you,’ he said. ‘But in the New Year I’m going to ask her out properly. Because I’m ready to move on, and I think she might be, too.’

* * *

It felt odd being out of the flat, Amy thought. It was nice to get some fresh air, but at the same time she found she couldn’t stop thinking about Hope.

Or about Josh.

But what did she have to offer him?

If he wanted to settle down and have a family, then it couldn’t be with her. She knew that there were other ways of having a child as well as biologically, but Michael had refused flat-out even to consider fostering or adoption. She wondered how he would’ve reacted to Hope; she had a nasty feeling that he would’ve decided it wasn’t his problem and would’ve left it to the authorities.

Josh, on the other hand, had real compassion. He’d been instantly supportive. Even though he didn’t know her well, he’d offered help when it was needed most.

She shook herself. She and Josh were neighbours, making their way towards becoming good friends. Their relationship couldn’t be any more than that, so she would have to be sensible about this and damp down her burgeoning feelings towards him.

The supermarket was crowded with people looking for post-Christmas bargains. Amy avoided the clearance shelves and headed for the chiller cabinet. A few minutes later, she paid for her groceries at the checkout, and went back to the flat.

‘You’re back early,’ he said.

‘The shops were heaving.’ And it hadn’t felt right to go to the park without the baby. Which she knew was crazy, because Hope wasn’t hers and would only be here for a couple more days. ‘I thought we’d have French bread, cheese and chutney for lunch.’

‘Sounds perfect. I’ll prepare it, if you like, while you give our girl a cuddle.’

Her gaze met his and her heart felt as if it had just done a somersault.

‘Temporary girl,’ he corrected himself swiftly.

‘I know what you meant.’ Being with Josh and Hope felt like being part of a new family. It was so tempting, but she mustn’t let herself forget that it was only temporary. Clearly Josh felt the same way. If only things were a little different. If only she’d never met Gavin, or had at least been a bit less clueless, so she’d been able to get the chlamydia treated in time...

But things were as they were, and she’d have to make the best of it instead of whining for something she knew wasn’t going to happen.

‘Did Jane reply to your text?’ he asked.

‘Not yet. And it wasn’t an emergency, so I’m not expecting her to pick it up until at least tomorrow.’

‘You’re probably right,’ he said. ‘Hope’s temperature has come down a lot, but it’s probably too much for her to go out for a stroll in the park.’ There was a definite wistfulness in his expression as he glanced at the pram.

‘Maybe tomorrow,’ she said.

After lunch, they spent the afternoon playing board games. ‘I haven’t done this for a while, either,’ she admitted ruefully. ‘I’d forgotten how much fun it is.’

‘Remember what you said to me,’ he said. ‘Make the time for stuff you enjoy.’

* * *

Josh sketched Hope again in the back of the notebook after her next feed, and couldn’t resist making a sneaky sketch of Amy. Though in a way that was a bad idea, because it made him really aware of the curve of her mouth and the way her hair fell—and it made him want to touch her.

He still couldn’t shake how it had felt this morning to draw her into his arms and hold her close. OK, so they’d both been dog-tired and in need of comfort after their worry about Hope and a very broken night—but it had felt so right to hold her like that and fall asleep with her on the sofa.

For Hope’s sake, he needed to rein himself back a bit.

‘While Madam’s asleep,’ Amy said, thankfully oblivious to what he’d been thinking, ‘maybe I can teach you how to cook something really simple and really impressive.’

‘Which is?’ he asked.

‘Baked salmon with sweet chilli sauce, served with mangetout and crushed new potatoes.’

It sounded complicated. But clearly Amy was good at her day job, because she gave him really clear instructions and talked him through making dinner.