"Argh" I said, putting the remote control on the coffee table and standing up from my warm, comfortable spot on the sofa, and stretching. "I don't think I like all this being fat business right now." I said, placing one hand on my small but ever-increasing potbelly. I looked at Cola and grinned.
I... no WE, wanted to make Cola feel happy...about anything. We knew that she was aware that she was extremely young to be pregnant, but we wanted to let her know that it wasn't going to stop us being family, or being friends, and it wouldn't stop us caring.
Cola nodded, smiling, from where she was sitting in front of the fire, eating ice cream and gherkins. I hoped that wouldn't be me in a month or two.
Nick came over to give me a hug, and I looked at the twinkling lights on our Christmas tree. I loved that it was real, I loved the smell in the house... but I hated the mess it left.
"Hasn't the year flown?" Nick said, as he picked up Lily who was pressing her soft back against his ankles.
"Yeah." I said absent mindedly scratching Lily under her chin. She purred and I began to laugh softly.
"I'm going to go and check the horses, ok?" I said, going over to the coat rack-thingy and grabbing a jacket.
"No, they'll be fine. It's cold out there. You should stay inside, near the fire. Hey, tell you what. Let's go through the photo box." Nick said, heading upstairs. I took a longing look at the door, but decided that I had already checked on the horses when I gave them their night feed, and the fire did look so warm.
Nick came downstairs with the big box full of photo upon photo upon photo. We spent ages looking through every one. There were photos of me and Cola when we were little, of friends, and when I went travelling. There were some of Nick's photos, of Leisl, and of his other sister, Amy.
Nick explained that he wasn't really Leisl's brother, they were step-siblings, and that his mother had left his father when Amy was four, and he was 13.
"I never knew that about you" I said, with a suprised expression.
"I guess I don't really talk about it much" Nick said with a shrug. "I still have to meet your parents." He pointed at me with a smile.
"I still have to meet your parents." I said with a laugh, sitting on his lap, filing through piles of photographs.
"Who is that?" I asked, pointing at Nick around age 10, holding a small baby, smiling at the camera, with his mother's arm around him.
"That was James." Nick said in a monotone. I turned to face him, my eyes increduous.
"Was?" I said, searching his face, looking for some sign of a joke or something, but nothing.
"James was my younger brother. He was four when Amy was born. He was playing mock football with my dad when he tripped and fell down the side of this cliff. It wasn't that large a drop compared to other cases, it was about 5 or 6 metres. But he shattered is skull and he died. Dad couldn't cope with it- he started drinking, then he started abusing mom, so she left just a little less than a year later. Then two years later she met Leisl's dad. And yeah...that's it."
I put my arms around him. "That's so sad." I said, looking at Nick's face, then at the photo. I looked at the next one, it was at a Christening. James again. I put the photos away.
Holly~ })I({
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