“Yes and no.”
“Explain.”
“Bossy.”
I spread my hands and positioned myself against the wall. “You might like it one day.”
“Promises, promises.” Rami winked. “But to answer your question, I’m enjoying my phone being silent, but I’m angsting about the offenders in my care. Dante Pope was going to ask his brother to spend a day with him at Christmas and not knowing how that turned out is killing me.”
I whistled. “Wow. That’s progress.”
Rami swung his gaze from the window and blazed his red-hot stare my way. “Yeah, well. If you want something enough, you keep trying.”
* * *
I stayed for dinner. And not just because Rami was there, but because I was a greedy sod who never refused a plate of food I hadn’t had to cook myself.
And it turned out, Rami was pretty fly in the kitchen. He made a chicken pie with Paddy’s home-cured bacon, roast potatoes that were better than my mum’s, and because he was my soulmate—stop it—baked beans.
I sat next to Addie and helped him eat the stack of potatoes he’d optimistically piled high on his plate—I was good like that. Rami was opposite me, his foot touching mine under the table. We didn’t talk much, but it didn’t matter. He wasright there. And he could cook. This day was panning out to be magic.
Safia had Charlie on her lap. He seemed happy enough, but by the time Paddy brought mince pies and ice cream to the table, that little boy wanted the closest thing to a father he had left.
He moved suddenly, climbing over the table to get to Rami and he threw his tiny arms around Rami’s neck as if they’d been separated for years, not however long Rami had spent in my dad’s treetop office.
Rami chastised him for clambering across the dinner table, but there was no irritation in the gentle admonishment. Only a deep affection that made my soft heart swell.
I had to look away. It brought my gaze to Safia. I found she was watching them too, and I knew what she was thinking—that this was a bond that could never be broken. She could mother Charlie as much as she liked, he’d always want Rami more. They came as a package now. Where Rami went, so did Charlie, and god, if that wasn’t beautiful too.
Eating my body weight in mince pies was my greatest achievement of the day. Addie dared me to eat just one more, but I knew my limits. “I’ll go pop,” I told him. “Then your mum will have to clean me from the ceiling.”
Addie laughed and dragged me away from the table to show me the galaxy model he’d made from some kindling sticks I’d carved into globes for him. “Uncle Rama said he’d help me paint them now he’s staying for Christmas.”
“That’s nice.” I spun the model around. It was pretty intricate for a kid so young, but nothing about these kids surprised me anymore. They had Paddy’s ability to turn their hand to just about anything and the will to do it right that was apparently a Stone trait, though it had skipped Damon.
“You’re coming for Christmas Day, aren’t you?” Addie blurted out of nowhere.
On the spot, I took a breath to contemplate my answer, but a voice from the doorway beat me to it.
“Of course he’s coming. Unless you have somewhere else to be, dear friend?”
I threw a glance over my shoulder at Safia. “The only place you’d find me otherwise is crying into my wood chipper after the last day at the market.”
“So you’ll come then? You never gave me an answer last year.”
I winced, glad Rami was elsewhere. Last year, I’d been too worn out by the business and consumed by despair to give much thought to a turkey dinner and Christmas crackers. And the years before that, I’d worked at the prison, spending the New Year with my parents instead. They’d passed on now and I’d resigned myself to sleeping through Christmas Day. Or getting drunk by myself, seeing as my sister lived in Australia and I hadn’t heard from her in years. A family Christmas with the McCadesandRami? Damn. It was the best offer I’d ever had.
Somehow, though, I still found myself unable to give Safia an answer.
I shrugged and she rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just show up on the day. There’ll be plenty of food.”
She turned to go. I stood fast and caught her arm, pulling her into a loose hug. “Thank you. I’ll let you know, okay? You know you guys mean the world to me.”
“You mean the world to us too. All of us.”
Her stare turned meaningful. I ignored it and let her go, slipping out of Addie’s room and down the hall. I wasn’t exactly looking for Rami, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I found him creeping out of Mae’s room.
“He likes her better than Addie. Don’t know why when all she does is boss him about.”