Here's the epilogue. Thanks to everyone who's kept reading.
Epilogue
Saturday 25th August 2018 , Lough, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland
It was a warm day, the sun was shining and everyone was happy as they sat on deck chairs on the pebbled beach, watching the kids play together along the shore. The younger cousins were giving Evie her unbirthday bumps, and she couldn't stop laughing as Leo threw her tiny frame high into the air.
"He doesn't know his own strength" Paddy observed, laughing, nudging Marlon, "gets it from his dad".
"Do you want me to get them to stop?" Aaron asked his mum, worried about how roughly the kids were all playing. Evie had always been a tiny thing and he was very protective of her.
"Nah, she's fine," Chas assured him, "she loves rough-housing with her cousins. She's not shut up about playing British Bulldog with Soph and Molly at Christmas. Taught it to all her friends at school".
All of the adults laughed. Aaron went to back to the garden, where the older kids – Noah, Samson, and Sarah – and some of the younger adults – Aaron, Carl, Belle, Adam and Victoria – were kicking a football around.
It was the annual Unbirthday get together, which was a relatively new Dingle family tradition. It had started the August after Evie was born, when Belle insisted on spending the summer holidays with Chas and her newest cousin. Gennie heard about this and booked a week off work to take Sophie over to meet her Auntie. Aaron heard their plans and brought Carl over to meet some of the clan, it being much easier to get across the border to Ireland than chancing travelling to Emmerdale. Adam heard that Aaron was going over and talked his girlfriend, Victoria, his mum and her new fella – Cain – into a visit of their own. Chas had been overjoyed to have all the visitors, making sure all the rooms in the house were ready for their stay, and turning one of the old outhouses into a den suitable for sleeping in.
The year after, more Dingles came over; Sam brought Samson, Rachel and Archie. Lisa and Zak came along with Belle, and after much nagging, Charity let them take Noah as well.
Each year, more and more people came. It was named the Unbirthday get together because Evie didn't see her family on her actual birthday, so it was a good excuse to have a big party in warmer weather. Everyone brought tents or campers and slept out in the garden in the night-time (apart from Zak, Lisa and Diane, who were allowed beds because of their age, and Cain, who was allowed a bed because of his grumpiness).
Chas hadn't been back to the village since she'd left six years ago, but she'd allowed Evie to visit on a couple of occasions, staying with Gennie, Nikhil and their little girls, Sophie, Molly and Meg. She'd made tacit amends with Charity not long after Evie was born, but it had taken three years before they'd made up properly. Now, they spoke once a week on the phone and they saw each other regularly.
On Cain's suggestion, Chas used the money from her half of the Woolpack to start up a furniture business. Her hand-painted children's furniture was a hit both in Ireland and the UK, thanks to some clever online marketing, and she was able to distribute it on the cheap by striking a brilliant deal with Emmerdale Haulage. Once every three months, Charity took the largest truck of the fleet and delivered a shipment of Sharma and Sharma produce around the main cities of Southern Ireland. She'd then spend three days in Lough, drinking, eating and gossiping with her cousin. Then she'd load up the truck with all of the orders Chas had produced and dropped them at local warehouses on her way back.
The business made enough for Chas and Evie to live comfortably, and Chas couldn't have been happier with the set up as it meant she worked from home, to her own schedule, not having to put Evie into nursery. And now Evie was older, at school, she had more time for herself, which she quite often spent missing her daughter.
Aaron visited his mother and sister whenever he could, often bringing his boyfriend, Carl, who adored Evie and spoiled her rotten. Cain and Moira visited regularly through the year, as did Gennie and Nikhil. It took Debbie a lot longer to cave. She'd started allowing Cain to take Sarah and Liam over a few years ago, but hadn't felt ready to face Chas until last year. It had been tense at first, the two women going for a long walk together so they could chat in privacy. When they hadn't returned after two hours, Cain had started to worry that Debbie had killed Chas and buried her in the woods.
As they walked, Chas offered a repeat of the apologies she'd already offered several times over the years. But face to face, Debbie saw they were heartfelt. So much time had gone by, and Debbie had rebuilt her life without Cameron, found herself a new partner, one she could trust completely. Sarah was healthy and Liam, despite being a little terror, was her second joy. She found she could no longer hate her Auntie. And once the hate had gone, all that remained was love. They agreed that Cameron had fooled them both with his promises of love, and drew a line under all of the bad feeling that had existed. And then they chatted about children and families and fellas and the previous six years turned to dust. They returned back to the house smiling, and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Aaron raised the giggling five-year-old high in the air and ran into the sea, shivering as the cold water hit his shins. He threw her up in the air and laughed as she seemed to hang there for a moment, before crashing into the water screaming. He heard a noise behind him and turned to see all of the kids racing towards him, shouting and screaming a collective war cry as they pelted into the sea and jumped on him, dragging him under the water. When he found his feet and lifted his head back out of the water, he found himself staring into the bright blue eyes of Evie.
"You don't wanna be messing with my gang Mr, sure you don't" the little girl told him, her cute Irish lilt making him slightly jealous – he'd always wanted an Irish accent. She grinned cheekily at him, and he couldn't help pulling her into a hug, she made him smile whenever she opened her mouth.
"Hey, Evie Rose" he murmured into her ear, noticing Chas walking on her own along the edge of the shore, "let's pretend we're sharks".
She nodded straight away, "who's the bait?" she asked, looking around at her cousins swimming in the water.
Aaron pointed at their mother and they shared an evil grin. Aaron went one way and Evie the other. They surrounded Chas before she'd noticed them and she could tell by the look on her youngest's face that she was up to something. She only had time to say "No!" before she was being thrown into the water and jumped on by her offspring, to a large cheer from everyone watching.
Chas was soaking wet, her hair was a mess, her makeup was running, but life couldn't have been much better.