“Hello. It’s nice to finally meet you,” I say, extending my hand. He exchanges a look with Avi before he reaches out and shakes it.
This is Avi’s son. I knew I’d meet him eventually, but it’s surreal. When I slide my gaze to her, there’s a softening in her features as she watches him shake my hand, and her shoulders fall away from her ears.
“Did I miss the memo that you were all coming up for the weekend?” I ask. “I thought Avi was making the trip to Glasgow.”
The Stewarts trade furtive glances and I wonder what I just stepped into, especially when Lennox drops his chin to look at his shoes. Wellies. Of course she has him in wellies.
“We had a wee change in plans. Lennox has an”—Avi hesitates on a breath before continuing—“unexpected week off school and he wanted to come spend it up here. Right, buddy?” She runs a hand along the back of his head and he looks up with a nod—something passing between them that I don’t understand. “Angus, Aileen, I hope you won’t mind him hanging around while I’m working.”
“Och, no, we’re thrilled to have him,” Gran pipes in, looking elated at the prospect, and Avi’s shoulders drop a little further, her posture softening.
“Dinner?” Grandad asks, clapping his hands together. “You’ll all join us, I hope?”
“Oh, we wouldn’t want to impose on your family dinner, but if you’ve got an extra table tonight, we would greatly appreciate it,” Fiona says.
“Nonsense, you’re all family. Come on.” Grandad leans into his cane and motions for the whole group to follow him into the pub.
Dinner is an event of raucous laughter and easy conversation. Lennox keeps mostly quiet, taking in his surroundings and leaning toward Avi most of the night. This past month must’ve beenhard on him, being away from her… And I wonder if the shiner on his eye—that’s getting more and more purple as the night progresses—has anything to do with his impromptu week away from school. But it’s not really my place to ask.
“Can I see the kitchen, Mum?” Lennox asks when we’ve all eaten our fill of sticky toffee pudding.
“You don’t mind, do you, Angus?” she asks Grandad.
“How many times do I have to tell ye, lass? That’syourkitchen. Stop asking me for permission to do whatever the hell you want with it.”
“Angus,” Gran chides with a smile.
“What?” he says, shrugging.
“There’s a child present.” She nods toward Lennox and offers an apologetic smile to Avi.
“It’s alright, Aileen. I’m pretty sure he’s heard worse.” Avi ruffles Lennox’s hair and he rolls his eyes. It reminds me of her at his age. “Okay then, bud, let’s go. I can show you the garden too, if it’s not too dark.”
Who is she kidding? We’re so far north and it’s nearly the summer solstice; it won’t be dark for a few hours yet.
“You coming?” Lennox says.
At first, I’m unsure who he’s talking to. His grandparents? But they’re looking expectantly at me, and I realize, so is he.
“Oh, I can. If you want me to. But…” Will Avi want me to crash their alone time?
I glance at her, but before she can do or say anything, he says, “Okay.”
And that’s how I end up on a tour of the kitchen and grounds of a place I called home for half of my life. It’s entertaining to hear about it from Avi’s perspective, so I mostly hang back, just listening. She introduces Lennox to the staff in the kitchen, showing him around and giving him the location of the secret stash of biscuits she always has on hand. Something I’m personally glad to know as well.
I follow them outside into the garden and, when she sits on the swing, I’m flooded with the memory of our kiss last week and the many many kisses we shared before it. Lennox snuggles down into her side, eyes roving around the space.
“Would you like a picture?” I ask, pulling my phone out. It’s a habit I picked up from Rory who, being a photographer, is hardly without her camera. The colors of the garden along with the slowly fading light has Avi and Lennox lit in a perfect golden glow. They should have this memory together.
“Oh. Aye, that would be great,” Avi says, so I frame them in—smiling faces, freckled cheeks, bright eyes. There’s a familiarity that goes beyond the two of them, but it’s gone as quickly as the flicker of the flash. “You know, there used to be a really cool tire swing out here that we played on when we were your age.”
“You knew each other that long ago?” Lennox asks, surprise coloring his tone. He makes it sound like it was eons ago that his mum and I were his age… but I guess to a ten-year-old, eighteen years does seem like a long time.
Avi laughs and shakes her head, then pulls him in to ruffle his hair. “Aye,thatlong ago. We spent a lot of time in the gardens around the inn.”
“And up on the roof,” I say without thinking, and then cringe. Fuck. I shouldn’t have said that.
Lennox’s eyes track over my shoulder to the ladder bolted to the side of the inn. The curiosity in them is the same I used to carry in my own at the prospect of climbing up there. I guess all ten-year-old boys are the same.
