Chapter 22

"What do you think she is going to do?" Kim asked Roman as they watched their little sister mingle.

After all the talks they had had of late it felt strange to be doing something normal, to just be at the party and Kim couldn't do it. To her it felt as if everything she did had to be geared towards going back to America. To getting her own life back.

So for reasons entirely other than her birthday neither of them could help but focus on Kayla. She had a big decision ahead of her and she couldn't make it soon enough for them. Neither of them were surprised she had a quiet day - what else could be on her mind? Roman was always going to feel slightly guilty that they had told her that day – but she had had to know.

"If she does not decide to come you do not think she is going to give us away, do you?" Roman asked. It was a foolish question and one he knew was least like Kayla to do.

Kim gave him a slightly withering look.

"No, she would not," Kayla was very loyal. And Kim would defend her and that quality to the very end. "but she has only just found out what we are doing. At least give her time to get used to it."

Roman nodded. That was the difference between the three of them. Whilst he and Kim had got to use to the facts of life quiet early on, somehow Kayla had been raised a bit more gently. Thus, she was far more inclined to see the good in people. But Victor had less good him than she thought. And they both knew it would hurt her to find that out, though that day was soon to arrive now.

"Well, we have had a bit more time to get used to the idea – and I think we have both had the urge to go for longer than she has," Kim said to her and then she felt a presence by her side.

"Sister, if you had the urge to go then you know where the bathroom is," her younger brother said to her.

Trust Bo to lighten the mood.

The two of them turned to their younger brother, change the subject to have a laugh with him and across the room, Kayla felt her shoulders drop a little. It had not seemed to matter who she had been with that day within their family, she had felt as if she was under surveillance. But just for that moment she wasn't. And it felt wonderful.

X x x

"Can we dance?" asked Victor. Having come in from seeing Kayla, what he wanted to do was settle his own nerves he thought to himself.

So he had sought out Caroline. To dance with his wife was going to be just the tonic.

He had found her talking with Justin. No doubt if Roman had been asked, he would say that his mother took no more joy in these occasions than Kayla did. Victor was not sure why the young man's opinion were rankling so much right then, but there they were. He turned his mind back to the matter in hand.

Caroline smiled and acquiesce as soon as he had asked. It was going to be no great hardship, and Justin slipped away, quietly to allow his uncle and aunt the time they required.

"Are you having a good evening?" he asked her as the two of them put their arms round one another.

"Oh yes – I think I can say with some certainty that I am doing that." She had had a lovely time seeing their friends and catching up with people and seeing her beautiful children enjoying herself. That was always what gave her the most pleasure in life.

"It looks to me as if all of our little ones are having fun." He said as he looked around the room.

Kayla had come back in and gave a nod to Roman and Kim before she had broken off to see some friends. She did seem as if she had brightened up considerably, and was talking animatedly at that moment.

He did not know if he was imaging it but he had to say he did think there was a moment of tension between the siblings but if there was, it passed quickly.

"They are not so little anymore," Caroline said and she did not know if it was him or her who needed the reminder.

"It is not going to be so long now and they are all going to be grown and off ours hands."

Caroline sighed. She did not know how she felt about that if she was honest. She thought if – if her life had turned out differently, she would not be sorry to see the kids grow and fly the nest… but she could not imagine the two of them knocking about the villa with just the them to fill it. In fact she thought if they got to that eventuality then she was going to be lonely.

This had been a place for kids. It had been a wonderful place to bring up there family, he had been right about that. But she did not think it was going to be such a good place for just a couple on their own.

It was going to be too – big.

"Well, we have still got Bo," she said – he was not such a big boy yet.

And just because they were all growing up it did not mean that they were going to be flying the nest any time soon. He did not want any of the children to go just yet. He was sure they still needed the two of them.

That was tempered with the fact that they were all adults. He did not know if they felt they still needed him but he felt that would be the time they did the most. As they established themselves… Terrifyingly, he realised in that moment that family life was changing before he wanted it too. And there was very little he could to change that.

And Victor did not like things he could not change.

X x x

The blonde walked outside of the fish market in her bare feet to find her husband looking up at the stars in the night sky. It was a truly beautiful night.

If he thought she had forgotten what that day was, she was sure as hell she was going to prove him wrong but then that day was not about proving anyone wrong. It was it seemed to her about the act of remembrance more than anything else.

She was wrapped in a big cardigan over a simple working dress which hid her body from the world.

If the world saw under it though, they would have seen an average sized women, who had lived, birthed a child and enjoyed pudding frequently, as so many did.

"The kids are in bed – well, asides Frankie, but the little ones are," she said as she came to his side and took his hand softly in her own.

There was no response.

"Shawn?" she murmured softly. The Irishman looked down on his second wife tenderly.

To think her had nearly missed all of this, Shawn thought – life with her. He had met Niamh a decade ago now. She had come to work in the fish market as a Saturday girl. His sister had been the biggest support to him but she had her own life to lead. So it was time to get someone new in.

That was when Niamh had walked into Shawn Brady's life.

She was so full of life which was not he had been at the time of their very first meeting. He had been trying to block it – life and the joy it could bring - out ever since Caroline and the kids had left. All he had been doing was trying to survive day but very slowly she had set about trying to convince him there was another way for him to be and in the end he had believed her and made the bravest decision of his life.

To let go and fall in love with her. It was never quite going to be as it had been with Caroline for he did not think he could ever forget what had happened. Nor could he ever be so completely open – there were parts of him which had closed forever.

But slowly he had learned to let go. Later on in their marriage, he would come to realise that was the very reason he had so fallen in love with her – her own wholeness - but at the time of their meeting her character had almost scared him.

She had seemed reckless. Now he just knew she was still young enough to be free with her affections, being a good decade younger than he was.

He saw all of that and more when he looked at her.

"That's good lass," he said with a soft smile which said he was not really listening.

It was so hard for her to know the right thing to say sometimes.

But it did not always seem right to ignore the very obvious.

So she put her head on his shoulder and held his hand.

"I hope she has had a good day – happy birthday - wherever she is."

Shawn smiled softly. "Aye." So did he. With his whole heart.

Please review!