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‘Actually, no,’ Heather replied honestly. ‘He remembered it was Ryan’s birthday, and I suggested he did something special, but the actual plan was all his.’
‘He asked me about the cake.’ Daisy sounded faintly horrified that she might have aided and abetted the plan.
‘He wanted to get it right. For Ryan.’
‘Why?’ Daisy sounded honestly confused by her uncle’s efforts. ‘He never cared about us before Mum and Dad died—we barely saw him except at Christmas, and not always even then.’
‘Things are different now.’
‘Like I don’t know that,’ Daisy huffed.
Heather tried to find a different tack. ‘He’s your guardian now,’ she said gently. ‘He might not know how to be that just yet, but I reckon nobody does when they start. I mean, think about your parents. They were just handed you one day, and suddenly they were responsible for a whole human being. That’s got to be kind of scary.’
‘They had nine months to get ready for me,’ Daisy said sceptically. ‘I do know how pregnancy works, you realise.’
Heather noticed almost too late that she had one hand clutched around her middle, as if she were protecting her secret. She tried to drop her arm casually and hoped Daisy didn’t know as much as she thought she did. Until she’d had her twelve-week scan she and Cal had agreed it was better not to tell the children she was pregnant.
How they were going to tell them after that was a whole different question they hadn’t answered yet.
‘Even with preparation time it’s a huge undertaking, and I don’t think it’s one you can really prepare for,’ Heather went on, feeling the truth of her words in the weight on her shoulders.
She definitely wasn’t going to be prepared in six months’ time. Right now she didn’t even know where she would be living.
‘I suppose Uncle Cal didn’t have those nine months...’ Daisy said thoughtfully.
‘Exactly!’
‘So this summer...this is sort of like Uncle Cal’s pregnancy,’ Daisy went on. ‘I mean, he’s figuring out how to look after us and you’re helping him, right?’
‘Right. At least, I’m trying to.’
Daisy didn’t look at her as she answered. ‘I don’t think you’re doing too badly. At least not as bad as some of the others.’
Then she raced forward to catch up to Cal and Ryan without even glancing back.
Heather stopped by the edge of the stream, watching after her, as Daisy swung on Cal’s arm and made him drop the picnic basket. She waited, tense, for Cal to complain, or even shout—but instead she heard his laughter, echoing back through the valley.
Ryan had had a good birthday. Daisy had opened up to her a bit. And Cal had laughed.
Maybe she wasn’t doing too badly after all.
Now she just needed to figure out how to fix things for herself and her own baby before it arrived. Starting with Wednesday’s scan.
Heather followed the others towards the setting sun and the car, and hoped that things were on the right track now.
They were all due a little bit of luck, she reckoned.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TRAFFIC WAS BAD driving into Edinburgh on Wednesday morning. Cal wished he’d put the radio on or something when they’d set out—anything to distract them both from the awkward silence and the thought of what was ahead. But they were nearly at the hospital now, and putting it on at this point would only draw more attention to the awkwardness.
‘Are you okay?’ Heather asked from the passenger seat, a small line forming between her copper brows.
‘I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be the one asking you that,’ he pointed out. ‘You’re the one with a hospital appointment in twenty minutes.’
‘It’s a scan. I’m not scared.’
Cal shot her a disbelieving look. He could hear the nerves in her voice.
‘Much,’ she amended, obviously reluctantly. ‘I just don’t want to be late.’
‘We won’t be,’ Cal promised, silently cursing the traffic ahead.
In the end, they almost were.
Cal wheeled into the hospital approach, a little faster than was probably advisable, and reached across her to open the passenger door. ‘Go on. You go in and get registered. I’ll park up and meet you in there.’
