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Jamie shrugged, as if someone paying for half a complete stranger’s holiday wasn’t a big deal. ‘Oh, he earns crazy money in London.’
He must be half crazy too, Holly wanted to add. Maybe he was one of those loner types who used his money to buy friends. Although that didn’t seem likely knowing Fin.
‘There’s still the flight to get there.’ Holly had never been to the south of France, but she could imagine it wouldn’t be cheap. Rather than trying to convince Holly it would be all right, Jamie looked to her fiancé. Sheepish grins spread across both their faces.
‘That one’s on me,’ Fin said. ‘Or at least, my frequent flier account.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Fin has loads of airmiles,’ Jamie said, taking Holly’s hand. ‘Literally tonnes, from his skateboarding days. And they need using up. He’s already said he’ll use them to cover your flights. Right?’
‘Of course,’ Fin replied. ‘We need you there.’
‘Hope will be fine with Ben,’ Jamie continued. ‘And we will have an amazing time. You never know, there might even be a holiday romance on the cards for you.’
Holly scoffed at this remark. Romance was entirely off the table for now, but she had known then there was no way out of the trip. She would be going. Or at least, she had agreed to.
There had been six months between Jamie and Fin’s announcement of the holiday and the date they were actually going, so Holly had assumed something would crop up or she would come up with a believable excuse as to why she wouldn’t be able to go. But the six months had come and gone and now the day was upon her. In half an hour, Michael would arrive to drive her and Caroline to the airport, and Holly would fly off to a different country, away from Hope for the first time since she had been born. Just the thought of it was enough to fill her with nausea.
‘You won’t forget Mummy, will you?’ She bent down and picked the child up off the floor. ‘And be good for Daddy, but not too good, okay? I don’t want him finding it too easy without me, so a couple of sleepless nights would be all right.’
Her eyes prickled with heat. Without a word, her mother came round behind and wrapped her arms around her.
‘You are going to be just fine. Don’t forget I’m still here. I’ll be looking after her too. Just try to enjoy yourself, okay?’
Holly was about to reply how she didn’t think that would be possible, but her words were cut short by the ringing of the doorbell. Feeling like her heart was about to explode, she pulled Hope in close.
‘Well, that’s it. I guess Daddy is here to pick you up.’
3
‘We’ll be down in a minute.’
While Ben chatted with her mother downstairs, Holly was double checking everything. She had packed Hope’s favourite snuggly, although she knew there was one identical at Ben’s house, plus an extra spare they’d bought in case tragedy struck and they lost them both. She had packed her a new tub of nappy rash cream, in case Ben had run out, not to mention the baby nail clippers. Nail clipping was her job, so that would be something she’d have to remind Ben about, in case Hope went through a rapid nail growth spurt in the four days she was gone. Still, it felt like she had forgotten something. Or rather, everything.
‘Holly, are you coming?’
Knowing she couldn’t avoid it forever, she grabbed the baby monitor and shoved it into the side pocket of Hope’s bag before she trudged downstairs.
Ben was sitting on the sofa, though he stood up the moment Holly appeared.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Terrified,’ she admitted.
‘You’ll be fine. We both will.’
To an untrained eye, Ben’s smile looked perfectly relaxed, though Holly could see the terror flitting away behind his pupils. Throughout the last eight months, they had tried to parent as evenly as they could, and Ben had never shunned any of his responsibilities, but his frequent days and nights working away in London, combined with Holly breastfeeding until only a month ago, meant he’d never had Hope for more than one night. So this trip away was likely to be a steep learning curve for them both.
‘I thought it might be a good idea if we did a quick scan of the checklist before you leave.’ She reached for a piece of paper on the sideboard. ‘Just to go through the routines and make sure we’ve got everything.’
‘You mean the checklist you sent me last night?’
‘I think it would do us both good, just to make sure I didn’t forget anything.’
Ben’s lips twisted.
‘I know the routines, Holly. Hope is my daughter, remember?’
