“Your turn!” Laura nudged Camilla as they sat at Jackie’s table that Sunday afternoon.

“Pardon?” Camilla shook herself as she realised she’d been staring into space.

“I said it’s your turn, Auntie Camilla.”

“So it is!”

Camilla shook the dice, rolled them, then counted the four spaces along the snakes and ladders board.

“Ha ha! Down the snake!” James clapped his hands. “You lose!” He held up his left hand making the shape of a backwards L.

“James, that’s the wrong hand.” Laura rolled her eyes at Camilla.

“And we told you not to do that didn’t we?” Dawn said as she walked into the room to find her son now holding up his right hand and making an L shape at Camilla.

“It’s only a bit of fun,” Camilla said as she winked at her nephew.

“You might think that but his teacher doesn’t. She rang Rick last week to say that James had done it to her when she couldn’t find her glasses.”

Camilla bit her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing. James was an adorable little boy but he definitely had a wicked side.

“Your turn then, James,” Laura said and James shook the dice then moved his small blue figure along the board.

“You want a cuppa?” Dawn asked Camilla.

“That would be lovely, thanks.”

“I win!” James shouted suddenly then jumped up and pulled his t-shirt over his head.

“James, be careful!” Dawn called as he bounced around the room then tripped over a chair leg and landed facedown on the floor.

“I’ve got him.” Camilla got up and hurried around the table. She gently pulled his t-shirt back down and peered at his face, afraid that he’d be in tears but instead he was grinning up at her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes thank you, Auntie Camilla. I won!”

She shook her head then helped him to his feet.

“Come on, Dawnie, I need that tea. Or perhaps something stronger.”

Dawn nodded and they went through to the kitchen.

Jackie was standing in front of the sink gazing out into the garden and Laurence was at her side, where he always seemed to be since his return to Heatherlea, and they were crooning along to Ella Fitzgerald’s version of Let it Snow. As Dawn and Camilla watched, Laurence moved behind his ex-wife and slid his arms around her waist then they rocked gently in time with the music.

Camilla turned to Dawn and they shook their heads at each other then Camilla went to the kettle and switched it on.

“Hello girls.” Jackie slipped out of Laurence’s embrace and patted her hair self-consciously.

“Hey Mum.” Dawn smiled. “Dad.”

“Where’s Rick gone?” Camilla asked. “I thought he was helping with the dishes.”

“He was but now he’s outside fixing that new bird feeder to the fence.” Jackie gestured at the window.

“I let him do it,” Laurence said. “Didn’t want to impose seeing as how he brought his drill over.”

“I could have done it, Dad.” Dawn said, resting her hands on her hips.

“What and shake that baby up?” Jackie shook her head. “Don’t be daft, Dawnie. Let your husband crack on with it. He’s done a fine job, anyway.”

The kettle clicked as it came to the boil and Camilla dropped teabags into the pot then poured water over them.

“I’ll just see how he’s getting along.” Dawn slipped out of the back door leaving Camilla alone with their parents.

As Frank Sinatra took over from Ella Fitzgerald, Laurence grabbed Jackie’s hand and started waltzing her around the kitchen. Camilla pressed herself against the worktop to keep out of their way. Jackie was soon laughing and breathless and Camilla had a lump in her throat. It was good to see her mother so happy, so relaxed and so… different.

As festive music filled the kitchen, the sounds of drilling came from outside. Her parents giggled like teenagers in front of her and Camilla started to laugh herself. It was wonderful to see the people she loved enjoying themselves, being close as a family and just doing what she classed as normal things on a Sunday. In the past, she’d always felt guilty leaving Jackie on a Sunday afternoon, wondering how her mother would fill the lonely hours until she went off to work early on a Monday morning, but now she didn’t need to worry. Her mother had someone. Her mother had her father.

It amazed Camilla how people could transform over such a short space of time, but Jackie really had done. She had fallen into a new pattern since Laurence’s return and here they were, moving in synch, anticipating each other’s dance moves as if it had always been this way. As if the twenty plus years they’d been apart had merely been a glitch in their relationship that sent them in different directions, but now they had found their way back to each other again. But perhaps that was human nature. Perhaps this was how people could repair, restore and progress. Perhaps love really was that powerful.

An urge flooded through Camilla, starting in her belly and spreading out to tingle in her fingertips and toes. She needed to speak to Tom and she needed to speak to him immediately. In fact, she knew she couldn’t wait a second longer!

She pulled her mobile out of her back pocket and went through the hall and into the lounge where she scanned her recent contacts until she found Tom’s name.

Then she pressed call and waited for him to answer.

* * *

Camilla dropped her mobile onto the carpet and stared at it as if it had burnt her fingers.

How could this be?

Her heart pounded and nausea climbed up her throat, threatening to choke her.

She’d been such a fool!

She left her mobile where it was and went into the hallway then pulled on her coat and boots with trembling hands.

“Camilla?” Her father stood in the kitchen doorway frowning. “Where are you going? I thought we were having tea?”

She stared at him, willing herself to stay strong, not to break down and sob on the stairs as she felt like doing.

“I need to go home.”

“But why? I thought we were having fun, angel.” He tucked his hands into his brown corduroy trouser pockets and tilted his head. “Hey… you don’t look at all well. Eat too much pudding did you?” He laughed. “Come on, have a cuppa with us and you’ll feel better.”

“No I won’t!”

Laurence pulled his hands from his pockets and raised them slightly as if to calm her.

“Something else has happened hasn’t it? But what? How?” He shook his head and looked around as if the answer was on the gold tinsel looped around the banister or the mistletoe pinned to the hallway mirror.

“It doesn’t matter.” Camilla tugged her hat down over her ears. “I’ll see you in the week.”

Her father stepped closer then glanced into the lounge.

“Is that your mobile on the floor? Let me get it for you, Camilla. At least take that with you.”

He went into the lounge and Camilla turned quickly and let herself out, pulling the front door shut behind her.

Then she ran and ran and ran until her heart felt as if it would burst from her chest and her cheeks were wet and cold.

When she opened her own front door, she locked it behind her and pressed her forehead to the smooth hard wood. She’d been so stupid to let herself get caught up in romantic fantasies. And look at what had happened. Now her heart was broken and Christmas would not be the joyous occasion she’d anticipated.

But she had no one to blame other than herself.

And there was no way she’d ever let herself open up to love again.