Read From The Heart for Free Online Page B

grinned.
    ‘Maybe.’ She grinned too. ‘Meryl Chambers told me he was gay! But I so don’t think so. Look at the woman sitting with him. She’s gorgeous.’
    Jim’s eyes narrowed. ‘She’s vaguely familiar,’ he said.
    ‘Well, fair play to Liam, and now I’ll be able to gossip about him.’ Laura chuckled, then picked up her bag and took out her mobile phone.
    ‘Are you taking a photo?’ asked Jim. ‘For evidence?’
    ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I thought that maybe my mother would have phoned. It’s Christmas, after all.’
    ‘Well, it did all get a bit heated last time we spoke.’
    Which hadn’t been at the disastrous dinner they’d had at Jim and Laura’s. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, both Angela and Caroline had begged Laura to reconsider, and as they were her child-minders and doing her a favour, she’d felt under an avalanche of pressure. Caroline had talked about being denied her rights as a grandmother. Angela had said that she was being shut out. And Laura had been forced to harden her heart and say that Jim had made up his mind and that was that. Angela had wanted to know where they were going and she’d refused to tell her, which had caused even more anguish.
    The previous day, Christmas Eve, when she’d arrived home from work, her mother had barely spoken to her. She’d left presents under the tree, which had made Laura feel an absolute bitch (even though she’d had a bag of presents to give to Angela).
    ‘The girls texted,’ she said. ‘They said that Mam and Dad were a bit subdued.’
    ‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Jim. ‘I haven’t heard from my mother either.’
    ‘I told Celine that we were having a wonderful time here, and she said “lucky you”. I bet the atmosphere at home isn’t great. Now I feel bad for wrecking their Christmas too.’
    ‘You’re not to feel bad,’ commanded Jim. ‘We’re shelling out a fortune for us not to feel bad. We can argue with them again afterwards, but let’s not think about it now.’
    ‘OK.’ But Laura couldn’t help feeling a little bit guilty all the same.
    It was after dinner before her phone vibrated with another text. This time it was from Angela.
    ‘Hope you’ve had a lovely Christmas,’ she said. ‘All fine here.’
    Laura felt a tear trickle down her cheek. ‘We should’ve stayed home,’ she said. ‘We should’ve done something . . .’
    ‘Would you stop!’ Jim grabbed the phone from her and switched it off. He’d had a text from Caroline saying more or less the same thing, but he refused to allow himself to feel bad. It was right, he thought, to put his foot down over this. The two grandmothers had been interfering more and more in their lives since Kirstie’s birth. He knew that they needed them to help with looking after her. He appreciated everything they’d done. But there had to be a line over which they didn’t cross. There had to be boundaries. He wished they’d been able to afford to put Kirstie in a crèche. Then their parents wouldn’t have felt such a degree of entitlement. But it was nice for Kirstie to have her grannies at home. He was exhausted thinking about it. Parenting was so bloody difficult, he said to himself. It really was. Especially when you ended up parenting your parents too.
    After dinner they went to the lounge and took part in the charades. They teamed up with a pretty young girl who said that she was from Poland, and an attractive, though slightly tired-looking man, who they originally thought was her father. Laura had remarked that he was probably divorced and it was his year to have her for Christmas, and Jim had nodded in agreement. They’d been startled to find out they were wrong. But they’d had a good laugh with the couple, who said they were having a great time at the Sugar Loaf Lodge and that it had definitely been the right thing to do this year. A shadow had crossed the man’s face even as he spoke, but it was fleeting and not mirrored in his