‘You’re in a difficult situation, I’m sure. I don’t get it though. Moving and letting you know on holiday that she’ll need even more help seems a bit odd. I know she’s family. But what about your life?’
‘Stop going on about it,’ she snapped.
He waited a moment before he said, ‘That’s my cue to leave.’
Her hand on his arm stopped him. ‘I’m sorry, you’re being nice and I’m being a total cow.’
‘Well…’
She managed a smile but it soon faded. ‘Connie is sick. She has cancer, that’s why the change and the urgency. And it’s not all of a sudden for her – she’s been keeping it to herself for a while and now she’s panicking about everything.’
Reality dawned on him. ‘It was her on the phone in the café, wasn’t it?’
‘That’s when she first told me. She’s been trying to sell the house for some time and suddenly got a buyer who wanted to move fast. She’s renting a smaller place right near me so I guess she’s giving me time to get my head around everything before we get back to England. We’ve talked a lot and we both know the move is a good thing for Kyle. It’ll get him away from those so-called mates of his, they’ll both have support.’
‘They’ll both have you.’
‘Yes.’ Her voice came out small and he noticed a tear escape but she swiped it away before it could run down her cheek. ‘She feels like she’s failed Kyle over and over again and now she thinks she’s failing him again by getting sick.’
‘But it’s not her fault, she must see that.’
‘She doesn’t. Never mind the illness, her head is a mess.’
‘How did she keep the cancer hidden from Kyle?’
‘I’ve no idea. Probably the same way she kept it hidden from me. By pretending everything was fine, or claiming to have tummy bugs, the flu, whatever it took to shield us from the reality.’
‘I don’t know what to say, Amelia.’ He wanted to put his arms around her and tell her she’d be OK, but how could he? ‘So, Kyle really did hear it wrong.’
‘Connie has been thinking about him in all of this, which is why she hid her illness and why this holiday was good. It took him away from it all and she could take care of herself a bit, knowing he was in good hands. She has a friend with her, which I’m glad about or I’d be going out of my mind with worry that she had nobody there right now. She’s still planning on going away with Kyle to Wales when we’re back, before she has to undergo more chemo, and she’s excited about it.’ She smiled then. ‘I could tell how pleased she was to hear how happy Kyle’s been since he met Scarlett.’
‘It sounds as though things are changing. In some ways not for the better, in others…’
‘Let’s hope so. But what if she dies?’ A blanket of fear fell across her face. ‘What if Kyle loses another parent? What if I lose my sister?’
He had no words to say otherwise, no words of comfort, no platitudes that would quell her fear. Cancer was a bastard that took whoever it wanted, whenever it liked. The disease had no reasoning. It had its own schedule that they’d be forced to follow.
‘How could I not notice my own sister had cancer?’ Her voice demonstrated the pain she felt, the turmoil she had yet to come. But now, instead of looking at him, her face drained of all colour and she was looking past his shoulder.
When he turned, Kyle was standing there.
‘Mum’s sick?’ was all he said.
And in that moment Kyle was stripped of his teenage years, left a vulnerable little boy who had to face far more than losing his home. He could lose his mum.
Chapter Eighteen
Amelia
Over the years in her job Amelia had seen kids she worked with progress from children into teens and adults and she knew it didn’t always happen on a reliable timeline. For some, they grew up when they moved through their education; with others, it happened the second they got a job and had to stand on their own two feet. They were all different, and managing the transition was fraught with angst for them and everyone around them.
For Kyle, his movement from a wayward teen to one with maturity and an outlook unlike ever before happened last night, the second he heard his mum was sick. Amelia expected him to flip out, upend the furniture and wreck the place, or find more alcohol, maybe break into a car and steal it. But he’d done none of those things. Instead, he’d hugged her tight and she’d held on to him, looking at Nathan standing there not knowing what to do.
When Kyle finally let her go he picked up his phone to call his mum, no matter the time difference. And Amelia and Nathan had stood by the Christmas tree, in contemplative silence, until he came back from his bedroom a long while later. That was Kyle’s moment. The moment they could all see the irresponsibility ebb away and the hint of the man he would become emerge on the horizon. He’d begun talking about pulling his weight, being there for his mum with her hospital appointments, getting a job. Nathan pitched in and emailed a friend with a cleaning business on the outskirts of London and lined up work for Kyle in less than an hour. And the boy stepped up by accepting it on the spot, no questions asked.
This morning Scarlett and Nathan had turned up at the apartment bright and early, leaving Amelia and Kyle no time to wallow. They’d handed them coffees and ushered them out of the door and into an awaiting cab that took them up to Central Park and the Wollman Rink. Scarlett and Kyle had shown off their superior skills while Nathan did his best to show Amelia he could do this. A welcome zip of excitement zigzagged up her body when his hand reached for hers. It was only for balance, but the feeling she got told her she was right to end things with Paul.
She hadn’t mentioned Paul to Nathan, and Nathan hadn’t asked. Since last night all the focus had been on Connie and Kyle, and Christmas Eve in New York City. And they’d all been keeping themselves so busy with festive activities that Amelia kept her personal relationship details to herself for now as she reluctantly left them all to it while she did one final stint at the Garland Street winter markets.
