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brother’s regaling Cassie with embarrassing stories from their youth. Now they were all packed into the living room with Antiques Roadshow on in the background and talking and laughing animatedly. Today really was something special. Today was Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve wrapped into one.
    ‘What’s going on?’ teased Adam. ‘Has someone kidnapped my middle brother and replaced him with a Teasmaid? Lukey boy has never made tea in his entire life. I’m not even sure he’d know how without looking it up on the Internet.’
    ‘Ha! Ha! Very funny!’ replied Luke. ‘I’ll have you know that I actually make a damn fine cup of tea for my Cassie every single day.’
    The family looked at Cassie in disbelief. ‘Is it true,’ asked Adam. ‘Does Boy Wonder here really bring you tea every day in bed?’
    ‘Every morning without fail,’ said Cassie, winking at Luke. ‘He’s completely and utterly under my thumb!’
    Luke’s mum stood up decisively. ‘You boys and your teasing, when will you ever stop?’ She turned to Luke. ‘Come on son, you count up the hands and I’ll give you a hand putting the kettle on.’
    Luke knew what that meant. Mum had been asking questions about the wedding all afternoon and this offer of tea-making assistance was her opportunity to ask a few more questions away from prying eyes. Luke counted up the hands: two teas, two coffees and a whatever his mum was having. He made his way to the kitchen to face his grilling and found his mum at the kitchen counter setting out the ‘only for best’ teacups.
    ‘I’ll get the milk out, shall I?’
    ‘No, son, you leave it,’ she replied. ‘I’ll get it when I’m ready.’
    There was a long silence.
    ‘So are you pleased then?’ he asked. ‘You know, about me and Cassie?’
    ‘I’m thrilled,’ she replied. ‘Cassie is a wonderful girl. And she really loves you, you know. You only have to look at her to see that.’
    ‘I know, Mum. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’
    Joan smiled. ‘I don’t think I could have picked a better girl for you.’ She looked down at the empty teacups. He could tell straight away that she was thinking about Megan, his daughter from his first marriage whom he no longer saw.
    Of all his family the one person who knew how he felt not having Megan in his life was his mum. He put his arms round her as she began to cry. ‘I know you miss her, Mum,’ he said. ‘I miss her too. I miss her more and more each day. The only thing that keeps me going is that one day she’ll be old enough to come and find me. And she will come, Mum, she’ll come and find me and we’ll talk and we’ll get rid of all the years of poison that her mum’s filled her with and we’ll start something fresh and new. What do you think about that then, Mum?’
    ‘I think it’s lovely,’ she said. ‘You’ve got to have hope, haven’t you? That’s what life’s all about: hope, love, family. Those are the important things.’
    Luke was as uncomfortable with strong emotions as any of his brothers. Did his mum want to ask more questions? Should he give her another hug? Should he just leave her to get on with making the tea? Luke took the last option as it was the one he knew would benefit himself the most.
    Back in the living room, there had been a change of pace. The TV was off and Adam and Cassie were either side of his dad on the sofa. Luke looked over Cassie’s shoulder to see that they were flicking through his parents’ wedding album.
    ‘I haven’t seen that thing for years,’ he said. The wedding album was one of those childhood objects that had acquired a near-mythical status. He could count on one hand the number of times he had seen it and yet he could recall it with perfect clarity: a cream padded album with a built-in wind-up musical chime, pages and pages of photographs of his young parents protected from dust and grime by the most delicate tissue paper. The last time Luke had looked at that