Saturday December 21st

 

Cate woke up far too early the next morning. She wanted to get down on her hands and knees and pound the carpet with frustration because Kian was still asleep in their bed for the first time in what felt like ages and she couldn’t just relax and go back to sleep because her Christmas to-do list was weighing heavily on her mind.

Nate was leaving for Sacramento this afternoon and she hadn’t finished wrapping the gifts she’d bought for him and his family. She was close friends with his sister, Layla (who worked as a live-in nanny for their next door neighbour, Eric) and it was his mom, Abby that Cate had started 33 Rocks with.

Her own mum, Irene was arriving from England tomorrow and she had a Mount Rainier-sized stack of washing to get done before then.

Kian and the children were still asleep so she changed out of Kian’s navy-blue t-shirt, pulled on an oversized, soft grey sweater to go with her grey sleep shorts and to keep her cold feet happy, a pair of knee-length grey and black striped socks. She grabbed the supplies from their wardrobe and tiptoed downstairs to hers and Kian’s office.

Although they shared the space, Kian kept all of his football memorabilia in there and so Cate was surrounded by his professional achievements.

Usually, she liked being in there – she was proud of the framed shirts on the walls signed by some of the biggest names in world football and the glittering trophies on the shelves. She’d been by his side for most of his career and so they each held a special memory for Cate. She traced the bottom edge of the frame which held a Brazil shirt and remembered how excited Kian had been when he’d played for England against one of his heroes and they’d swapped shirts at the end of the match. He’d played it cool with everybody else but he’d been full of childish excitement when he’d called her afterwards.

The trouble was that she was still unsettled about her own career choices after the conversations she’d had with Brandon and then Marisol and Amber. When you married a professional footballer, you had to accept that you were always going to come second to his football career and would spend large swathes of time as a de facto single parent while he was away with his club and international teams. Kian had always been driven so perhaps she’d been foolish to expect once he retired from the game that he’d be content to just sit back and enjoy life with his family.

She couldn’t stop thinking that maybe Brandon, Marisol and Amber were right though. Kian didn’t need to work so if staying home and being a full-time husband and father wasn’t enough for Kian, what did it say about Cate that she’d spent the last fourteen years doing exactly that?

Ugh, she shook her head, frustrated for letting other people’s opinions make her question herself again. She forced herself to consider the facts. Kian had always supported her one hundred percent with whatever she decided to do so if she’d really wanted to continue with her education or get a job, she could have done. She was fortunate that she’d always had childcare options firstly with Kian’s mum, Jean back in Manchester and then with Nate so that wasn’t an obstacle. It might not have been the right choice for some people but she’d wanted to take the opportunity Kian’s career had afforded them and stay at home with their children. She looked again at the framed shirts and shiny trophies. When she wasn’t being a supreme grump, she acknowledged that she didn’t need a long list of impressive professional achievements or an array of shiny trophies, her rewards came from her children’s hugs and smiles and the thank-you notes they had pinned up at the offices of 33 Rocks.

She’d just finished wrapping her gift for Layla – a copy of one of their favourite books signed by the author - when her cell-phone vibrated. “Hey,” her sister-in-law, Erin said quietly. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be awake yet.”

“I really wish I wasn’t,” Cate said, thinking of her husband all lovely and warm upstairs in their bed, “but I’ve got a gazillion things to do, you know how it is.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. I’ve spent all night curled up on the bathroom floor with Ollie, he’s had food poisoning.” Her nephew had started vomiting yesterday afternoon hence why Ben and Erin had skipped Miles’ party.

“Poor Olls, how is he now?” Cate asked, dragging the shiny purple ribbon along the open blade of a pair of scissors, just like she’d watched her mother-in-law, Jean do a thousand times, to create a festive spiral that she could then attach to Layla’s gift.

“He’s just gone to sleep. I thought I’d call you before I go and wash the vomit out of my hair.”

“Aw thanks, I’m so flattered that your vomit-encrusted hair immediately made you think of me.”

Erin chuckled, “I’m really hoping that it’s just a twenty-four hour bug. He’s so looking forward to Christmas.”

“Lo, Mats and Sierra are the same. Is it wrong that I’m not looking forward to it yet?” Cate whispered. “All I can think about are all the things I’ve still got to get done.”

“Not at all. Is there anything I can do?” Erin asked.

“Thanks for the offer but it’s mostly housework.” She rolled her shoulders. “It’s fine, I just needed to have a quick grumble.”

“What time’s Irene arriving tomorrow? Ben isn’t coming back from D.C. until Christmas Eve but as long as Ollie’s OK, I could pick her up from the airport; give you an extra hour or so?”

“That would be awesome; you’re definitely my favourite sister-in-law just don’t tell Sinead.”

“I hate to say it but I’m really glad that there isn’t enough room in our two-bedroom apartment for anybody to be staying with us over Christmas.”

“OK, you’ve officially just dropped down the rankings,” Cate teased, “since you can’t see me right now, just know that I’m shooting daggers at you.”

“Love you, Cate. I’ll see you tomorrow when I drop Irene off.”

“Thanks again, now go wash that vomit out of your hair and I hope Ollie’s feeling better soon.”

 

“Hey,” Kian brushed his lips against her cheek. She’d finished wrapping gifts and was on a rogue dirty laundry hunt through the house before she made a start on the huge pile that needed washing, drying and her absolute favourite, ironing. “I missed you when I woke up this morning. The bed was too cold.”

“I missed you too,” Cate squeezed his hands which were resting on her shoulders. “Are you going into the office?” He was all dressed up in a pale-blue shirt, navy-blue flat front trousers, tie, brown oxfords, waistcoat and jacket.

“Mm, I want to go over a couple of things with Ben before he leaves for D.C. this afternoon.”

Cate wrapped her fingers around his silk tie, “I like this tie.” She’d bought it for him last Christmas.

He brushed his lips against hers, “mm, my wife has very good taste.”

He was just about to leave when she called his name. “Just a reminder, I’m sure it’s illegal for you to spend the night at the office in the week before Christmas.”

He chuckled, “I won’t risk it then. I’ll see you tonight, angel. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Almost as soon as Kian had left for the office, Sierra came downstairs. “I’m bored,” she pouted. She was wearing her pale-pink Christmas party dress and her new favourite accessory, the glittery fairy wings she’d worn in the nativity.

“How can you be bored already?” Cate exclaimed. “It’s the first day of the Christmas holidays.”

Sierra shrugged, “I don’t know.”

The first load of washing was churning away in the machine so she led her daughter back upstairs. “Can I ask why you’re wearing your Christmas dress?”

“It’s pretty.”

“It might be but it’s not Christmas for another four days so why don’t you put something else on instead. You don’t want to spill anything on it.”

“I’m not a baby,” Sierra frowned.

“Still,” Cate pulled out one of Sierra’s favourite outfits – white turtleneck, black tights and a black and white chequered pinafore dress. “After you’ve got changed, you can help me get Granny Reen’s room ready for tomorrow.”

“Aw man,” Sierra sighed dramatically. “I hate chores.”

Cate rolled her eyes, “you’re the one who said you were bored.”

“What’s going on?” Lola asked as Sierra reluctantly followed Cate down the hallway towards the guest bedrooms.

“Your sister made the mistake of telling me she was bored,” Cate chuckled.

“You are young but you will learn, grasshopper,” Lola laughed, which just made Sierra scowl even more.

“Hey,” Cate said when they reached the guest room which would be Irene’s for the holidays. “You can do chores and still have fun, you know?”

Both Sierra and Lola, who hadn’t been able to resist following them so she could witness her little sister’s misery, looked at her sceptically.

Cate walked across to the dock which sat on the dresser and plugged in her iPod. She found the song she wanted and ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams played through the speakers.

It was physically impossible to hear that song and not want to dance so she swayed her hips as she removed the pillows from on top of the mattress and stacked them on the ottoman at the end.

Just as she’d hoped, Sierra quickly joined in, bouncing up and down as she helped Cate tug the sheets off the mattress so they could put fresh ones on.

When she looked across at Lola, even though her arms were folded across her chest, her lips were twitching as if she was trying really hard not to smile.

“Catch,” Sierra yelped before she threw the balled-up sheet at her sister.

Lola deftly side-stepped but unfortunately Mats was walking past the doorway at the wrong moment and it caught him in the hip.

“Hey!” he protested.

“Sorry,” Sierra was almost bent double, she was laughing so hard.

The next song that came on Cate’s iPod was ‘Best Song Ever’ by One Direction and even Lola, who if she’d been with anybody else apart from her mum and siblings would probably have protested that she was far too cool for what had once been her favourite band, jumped up and down and sang along.

‘History’ by One Direction came on next and Lola quickly rushed over to the iPod dock and shuffled to another song instead. “It’s still too soon,” she admitted. ‘History’ was the last song the group had released before going on hiatus and Lola had been devastated.

“Look, Mommy, I’m a ghost,” Sierra interrupted. She was twirling around wearing the new duvet cover.

Laughing, Cate and Lola helped untangle Sierra from the twisted bundle of cotton. The final song played was ‘The Miracle’ by Queen.

“Who’s this?” Lola asked.

Cate reached for her phone and found the video for the song on YouTube. “It’s Queen. Your grandpa, Eamon was a huge fan of them.” Eamon had passed away before any of them were born and they loved hearing stories about him. “I saw the video for this song for the first time when I was about your age and I liked it because the boys that were playing the band in the video were a similar age to me.”

Lola, Mats and Sierra watched the video on Cate’s phone.

“That’s cool,” Lola nodded after it had finished. “Are they still performing?”

“Two of them are,” Cate said softly, looking one last time at the insanely talented lead singer’s face on her phone before switching it off.

 

Later that afternoon, Cate was stood in front of the refrigerator, trying to work out what she was going to make for dinner when Nate came into the kitchen with his leather holdall slung over his shoulder.

Sierra was sat at the kitchen counter; she’d complained that she was bored again so Cate had put her to work polishing the fancy silverware.

“So it’s time for me to go,” he said hesitantly. Sierra immediately jumped down off the stool and rushed at him.

“No, I don’t want you to go.”

“Hey,” Cate tried to intervene. “It’s nearly Christmas. Uncle Nate should be with his family.”

Sierra pouted, “but he’s part of our family too.” He’d worked for them since before she was born and so she’d never known life without Nate.

“I’ll call you every day,” Nate promised.

“It won’t be the same,” Sierra grumbled.

“I know, sweetheart but I’ll be back before you know it.”

“When you come back, can I paint your nails?” Sierra asked eagerly. It was one of her new favourite things to do.”

“Sure,” Nate smiled. He didn’t like seeing her upset. “I’ll even let you choose the colour.”

“OK,” Sierra let go. “I love you, Uncle Nate.”

“Love you too, Sierra.”

Cate walked him to the front door. “Do you need a lift to the airport?” Layla had already left for Sacramento the day before.

“No, it’s OK. I’ve got a taxi waiting for me by the front gate.”

“OK,” Cate gave him a hug. “Have an amazing Christmas and give my love to Layla and your parents.”

“Will do, I’ll see you in a few days.”