I Do, I Do, I Do... by Josie Eccles

Author:Josie Eccles [Eccles, Josie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-12-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

We could hear Bethany and Rory sniping at each other the moment that they walked in the door.

“Mummy and Daddy are here!” Carol announced to the boys, smiling in that way where you ignore the obvious and pretend everything is pretty much OK.

Harry and Josh didn’t seem to take the blindest bit of notice and Rory and Bethany seemed so engrossed at getting a dig in at each other even to acknowledge anyone else in the room.

After David made a show of opening his cards and presents (for the boys’ benefit, apparently) Carol announced that she thought it would be a good idea if we went out for something to eat, mainly because she had the boys at home and basically admitted that she couldn’t be bothered to cook (I am so with her on that one).

“Where are we going?” Lewis asked.

“Well, we haven’t boked anywhere so we thought keep it local, have some pub grub down at The Fox,” David shrugged. “And the boys do like the garden there.”

“Yay!” the boys started jumping up and down, cheering. They were obviously easily pleased: a pub garden with a couple of slides and swings.

I cringed at the thought of The Fox, especially as I had only been in there the night before with Bethany. I remembered Bethany had declared that we definitely had not been recognised, as Terry the landlord had been way too nice to us.

“Let’s walk,” Carol announced, “It isn’t far.”

I would have made a bit more of an effort if I had known we were going out, even if it was just down The Fox.

Once we had bundled out of the door (after Carol repeatedly had to remind the boys to bring their coats if they wanted to play outside) the boys decide they wanted to play tag, running up and down the path up in front. Occasionally they would run back, wanting to tag Grandad or “Uncle Lewis” who were in conversation, half-playing with the boys. Bethany and Rory were following behind them, still bickering, which left me with Carol, walking at a leisurely pace at the back.

“They’ve been having a few ups and downs just lately,” Carol half-whispered as I watched the argument unfolding in front of me. “I just keep out of it. I try to help out by just having the boys when I can.”

I nodded in response.

“Rory thinks Bethany has been having some sort of meltdown about turning thirty, and losing her job earlier in the year isn’t helping,” she nodded knowingly. “But I suppose you know all about it; you two are close.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s all part and parcel of being married; you’ve got to take the highs with the lows.”

“I guess,” I finally managed to answer. What could I say to that? There seemed to be an awful lot of lows at the minute. I didn’t say that, though, of course.

When we got there it was decided that we would grab a table in the conservatory, that way we were out of the way and we could keep any eye on the boys playing outside.

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