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Dumping his bits and pieces on the floor, he unlocked the front door to the farmhouse.
‘I’m home,’ he whispered, falling in through the door with his belongings.
‘Hello, dear.’ His mother’s voice came from the kitchen.
‘Hi, Mum.’ He walked round to her and planted a big kiss on her cheek. ‘Thanks for this evening.’
‘It’s no trouble, love. Cassie was an angel,’ she said, drying up the last of the crockery.
‘How much did Cassie pay you to say that?’ he asked with a laugh.
‘Can’t say.’ She mimed locking her lips.
‘Well, thank you, anyway. She loves spending Tuesday evenings with you. I just wish she could be that happy all the time.’
‘She is, love. She’s just working through some stuff,’ Barbara said, untying her apron and hanging it on the back of the kitchen door. ‘I’d better get back to your dad,’ she added through a stifled yawn.
‘All right.’
Liam followed Barbara out to the front door and hovered in the doorway, shuffling his feet while she put on her coat and scarf.
‘What’s up, love?’ she asked.
‘Nothing. Why?’
‘You’re all nervous and on edge. What’s going on?’
Liam swallowed. ‘Do you think Emily’s up there watching down on us all? Do you think she sees Cassie growing up? Does she see … me?’
‘I’m sure she does, love. If there’s a way she can look down on you both, she will be.’
Liam looked at his feet.
‘What’s this really about?’ Barbara asked.
‘Nothing. I just think about her sometimes and wonder what she’s doing.’
‘That’s only natural.’ Barbara reached a hand up to his cheek and kissed him on the other one.
‘Do you think if it had been the other way round, Emily would have …’ Liam considered the right way to phrase his question. ‘Moved on?’
Barbara thought about her response for a moment, making eye contact and looking deep down into Liam’s soul – the way that only mothers can. ‘Would you have wanted her to?’
‘You know, I genuinely don’t know the answer to that question. I would want her to be happy but the thought of her and Cassie being part of a family with someone else … it breaks my heart.’ His throat ached as he spoke, and his eyes pricked with tears.
‘No one will become part of the family in the way that Emily was, love, no one. But families shift and they change. They evolve. But only after enough time has passed. And when enough time has passed, that evolution comes naturally.’
Liam nodded as he processed what Barbara had said.
‘Come here,’ she said, pulling him into a hug. ‘The fact you’re even asking means you’re healing, that you’re moving forward. You don’t need to forget. You don’t need to even get over what happened. But moving on with your life, bringing what you and Cassie need into it, that’s important.’
‘You’re right.’
‘I know. It’s my job to be right.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘Are you going to be OK?’
