Surprisingly, three people got out of the little rental car: Jaz; a very pretty girl Zoe realised must be Shanti, and one more.
Surinder walked towards Zoe and the girls hugged.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ said Surinder. ‘I . . . I really hoped this would be a good thing.’
‘It was,’ said Zoe, swallowing hard.
Hari came rushing up, his hair everywhere, panting and out of breath.
‘Hiya, Auntie!’ he said casually.
‘What?’ said Jaz. Zoe couldn’t help grinning as she saw his face. ‘WHAT?’
‘Och! Hiya, Daddy!’ said Hari turning around.
‘WHAT?!’
Jaz was so surprised he looked like a cartoon.
‘You’re talking!’
‘Aye,’ said Hari.
Jaz stared at Hari then back at Zoe and then at Hari again. Surinder burst out laughing.
‘I absolutely taught him,’ said Patrick.
‘He’s my brother,’ said Hari.
‘Yes, we met . . . Hi, bro,’ said Jaz rather awkwardly.
Patrick looked at him severely.
‘Thank you for coming to visit. But Hari and I have very important things to do with leaves. BYE!’
He turned round and went back to the garden, Hari in his wake. Jaz stood, dumbfounded.
‘Why don’t I make us all some tea?’ said Zoe. She came down and shook Shanti’s hand. She was, as Jaz had said, extremely beautiful.
‘Hello. Sorry. I’m Zoe. I realise it’s a lot to take in.’
Shanti was staring up at the house, absolutely hypnotised.
‘Wow, what a place!’
Surinder was taking pictures of the boys darting about in the low sun.
Shanti followed Zoe into the house. The polished wood smell of beeswax hung in the air; Mrs MacGlone had obviously been busy. The sun streamed through the windows onto the grain.
‘Oh my God,’ she said. She peeked into the drawing room, which had the sun shining in and was currently filled with a huge construction of an aeroplane that Shackleton and Patrick were working on. Pieces of balsa wood and old cut-up sheets were laid on the large table.
‘Look at this place,’ she said. The children’s voices could be heard on the air, laughing and chattering.
She followed Zoe through into the kitchen, and Zoe put on the kettle.
‘Or we’ve got coffee,’ said Zoe, remembering that night. When all she had wanted was to feel his hand on her . . . she shook the memory away.
‘Nice machine,’ said Shanti. ‘Cor. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this.’
She turned to Zoe.
‘I’m . . . I’m really . . . I hope it didn’t seem weird that Jaz started going out with me.’
Zoe was about to bat it away and say no, not at all, but she decided she might as well be honest.
‘Well,’ she said. ‘You’re the first woman I’ve known about since . . . me, but we’ve been broken up for a long time, really.’
‘But you’re the mum of his . . .’
‘Yes, all of that.’
‘He looks like an amazing boy.’
‘I don’t know about amazing,’ said Zoe, then she reflected. ‘Well. Yes. He is.’
Shanti nodded.
‘Thank you,’ said Zoe, ‘for making Jaz step up to his responsibilities.’
Shanti rolled her eyes. ‘I grew up without a dad,’ she said. ‘I threatened to kill him if he didn’t get his shit together.’
‘Well . . . thanks . . . So did I. I should have threatened him with that.’
Shanti grimaced.
‘I wouldn’t thank us just yet. He’s been to look at some flats . . .’
Zoe let that hang there in the air and busied herself with finding enough mugs and whether or not there was any shortbread to be had, which fortunately there was.