legion
She doesn't like staying at Granny's in the holidays. She understands that Mummy and Daddy have to work, of course. But with Granny comes Max and Lily and they are both far older and wiser than she is. They make it painfully obvious, playing games they know she won't be able to participate in and locking themselves away in their bedrooms, up stairs Granny doesn't like her climbing alone despite her age and her balance and her insistence that she is fine.
She's a pain because of it. She claims that she's bored and tired and hungry. Very, very hungry, Granny. She knows what she's doing and, as always, Granny plays right into her hands. She can't help herself. Not when it comes to her youngest and most needy grandchild.
"Shall we go to the bistro for lunch, then?"
The two of them go. Max is old enough to mind Lily for the odd hour or two. All she wants to do is see Daddy and she checks the time, one o'clock, and knows that Mummy will be there, too. Mummy and Daddy always joke about the fact that Mummy cannot leave Daddy alone at work. She hears them discussing it. Every lunchtime in which Mummy's schedule is free from meetings finds her at the bistro bar with a glass of red and an insistence that her husband serve her, and only her, for the duration of the hour.
"Mummy!"
She is the first person she sees upon entering, her hand tight in Granny's. She lets go to be picked up by Mummy, who sits her on top of the bar and passes her a straw to mess with before she does her usual thing of reaching over too far for one and taking a slight tumble in doing so. Her knee is still heeling from the last time, the tights she had been wearing bloodied, laddered and in the bin.
"Hey, you." Mummy tucks some hair behind her ears. "What are you doing here?"
"Sorry," says Granny before she is able to speak for herself. "She wanted to see Nick."
Mummy smiles in the direction of him, one of her proper smiles, the ones that are rarely seen outside of the house. It doesn't matter to her that he is looking in the opposite direction and cannot see. "Oh, it's fine." She takes the straw out of her daughter's mouth before she chokes on it, throwing her a warning look as she takes the girl into her arms. "Come on. Let's go and see Daddy with his legion of adoring fans!"
They approach the table that he is serving. It is a large one - a pensioner's outing. The women fawn over him, naturally; the men grumbling at their wives' behaviour and thanking Daddy for his service. He turns only when his shoulder is tapped. He would recognise that tap anywhere and his demeanour immediately brightens upon seeing his daughter. She jumps from Mummy and Daddy, very lucky in the fact that she is caught.
Mummy is breathless and apologetic after that, awkwardly saying, "I'm really sorry," to Daddy's customers, but Daddy doesn't seem to care.
Daddy says, "Hello, my angel," and bounces her up and down in his arms. Her legs are locked around his middle and she is smiling.
"Can I stay here with you?" she asks.