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‘If I recall, the last one I bought you got tangled in a tree.’
‘Well, I’m older now. I know what I’m doing.’
She laughed.
‘The two don’t always go together.’
We stopped at the café, bought hot chocolate. Sat on benches blowing steam off the top, watching the world go by.
I let out a puff of air, the condensation swirling in front of my mouth.
‘Like a dragon,’ I said.
‘I love you,’ she replied.
I smiled into my coat collar, couldn’t remember when she’d last said it. Couldn’t remember when I’d last said it to her either come to that.
We sat awhile pressed together against the cold. For the first time in a long time, neither of us mentioned Matty. A man and woman swinging a little girl by the arms gave me a twinge, but only for a moment and then it was gone.
I slipped a hand into my mother’s.
‘I love you too,’ I told her.
A spaniel raced past, ears flapping, a pain au chocolat in its jaws. Then an old guy in a Barbour and flat cap giving chase.
‘Come back, you swine! That’s my breakfast.’
My mother caught my eye, the corners of her mouth twitching. We both cracked up, not because it was that funny so much as it felt good to laugh together.
She put an arm around me, pulled me close.
‘We’re okay,’ she whispered.
‘Yes,’ I said.
The red light was blinking on the answerphone when we got home. My mother hit ‘Play’ at the same time as suggesting Scrabble, ‘Or maybe a movie.’
The voice coming out of the machine guillotined her sentence—
It’s Matty. I’m back.
