Summer’s Song
Summer sings her soothing song,
Her breath a soft and gentle breeze, She whispers warmth o’er everything, Making real our winter dreams.
She casts her spell throughout the land, Over meadows, woods and crystal streams, All nature smiles as she arrives
And what was brown becomes so green.
The birds sing melodies of joy
While flowers bask in summer’s grace, The blue sky comes to greet us all,
The sun shows off his golden face.
And as she passes through the land, Her summer song floats in the air Until it’s time to drift away,
If only it would linger there.
Lily Christie.
“Can I buy you a coffee in the canteen?”
Izzy agreed gratefully. It was over two cups of grey cappuccino that Nicholas explained about being at the party and seeing the early edition of the newspaper.
He had known he had to switch off his phone and keep a low profile.
“But it isn’t what people think,” he finished.
“What do you mean?” Nicholas raked his hand anxiously through his hair.
“When I employed you to look after the children, I explained that Miranda had gone to America for work.
“What I didn’t tell you was that we’d already broken up.”
Izzy gasped.
“There were reasons for that.
“For a start, we agreed that telling the kids about Miranda going off to America was enough to handle in one sitting.
“It would have been too much for them to hear that we were splitting up, as well.
“So, if we weren’t telling the children, then we couldn’t risk telling anyone else. Not even Sam, my agent, knew.
“The only people we shared it with were Tobias and Beatrice.”
“Miranda is fearless,” Nicholas continued.
“She doesn’t care what people say about her and she wasn’t bothered if folk judged her for putting her career ahead of her kids.
“In any case, she didn’t see it that way.
“As far as she’s concerned, there are lots of ways to be a good mother, and building a creatively fulfilling life is one of them, even it takes you away for a while.”
He sighed.
“I’m more traditional. I didn’t want the whole world knowing our family had come apart, so it suited me to keep up a charade.
“And then, there was the possibility that a nanny would consider me ‘available’.
“I know I’m well past thirty and you probably think I’m over the hill, but apparently some women do find me attractive.
“I didn’t want that kind of complication emerging with someone who was supposed to be looking after the kids.”
Izzy blushed as she remembered the fuss she’d made inside her own head over that kiss.
Of course Nicholas wouldn’t have been interested in her – he was probably having to fend off women all the time.
“So what happens now?” “I’ll sit the children down and explain. They must hear it from me first. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”
Izzy anticipated a lot of noisy crying on Cassie’s part and a more subdued, held-in response from Freddie.
But that wasn’t how it happened. Cassie, still with her leg in plaster, withdrew to a silent world, barely playing, eating little and not crying.
Freddie was the weepy one.
“They’re both breaking my heart,” Nicholas confided in Izzy.
After a miserable 10 days, she felt compelled to make a suggestion.
“Maybe if their mum could come and see them – so they’d know she wasn’t gone for ever – it would give them some reassurance?”
“I can try her,” Nicholas replied.
That night, he told Izzy he’d called Miranda and urged her to fly back, even for a couple of days, and she’d agreed.
“Thanks for the suggestion,” he said with a weary smile.
****
“Snap!”
Cassie shrieked with laughter and scrabbled about on the table-top for the cards.
“Mummy, I’m winning!” Freddie was equally ecstatic, leaping about in the Jedi costume Miranda had brought him.
Molly was napping.
“Shall we make a start on dinner?” Nicholas asked
Izzy. They slipped into the kitchen and Izzy opened the fridge.
“We’ve got chicken, but that’s not very exciting.”
“I just wanted an excuse to get away.
“Miranda’s had a free ride for months – let her watch the kids for a while and we can sit in here with a glass of wine and pretend we’re toiling.
“You like rosé, don’t you? I put a bottle in the cooler earlier.”
Izzy was touched. She hadn’t thought Nicholas would notice what she preferred to drink.
She hadn’t often touched alcohol since taking this job, as she could rarely be sure her services wouldn’t be needed for the children.
They sat at the kitchen table.
“Is it all right, having the family back under one roof, or is it painful?” she heard herself ask.
Nicholas shrugged. “Miranda and I stopped loving each other a long time ago.
“I might miss the sense of togetherness, but not Miranda herself.
“I admire her still. She attacks life head-on, and the world needs people like that.
“But we found we weren’t a match. Still, we’ve got three great kids to show for our time together.”
“They’re thrilled to have her back. They’ll be devastated when she has to leave again,” Izzy said. Nicholas shook his head. “Don’t kid yourself that everything was sweetness and light when Miranda lived here!
“She seldom even saw them until the afternoon.
“Then, she made a lot of noise and created much amusement, but don’t ask her to freeze batches of puréed vegetables or stay home for a week for toilet-training – that was down to me.”
“Still, how can I replace that sort of excitement when she’s gone?”
Nicholas looked at her oddly.
“You don’t have to replace it. You’re a completely different sort of person, Izzy. Miranda’s a firework, but you’re an anchor.
“Here, let me top up your wine.”
****
As expected, the children crumpled a bit at Miranda’s departure, but not as much as Izzy had feared.
“They’re probably exhausted,” Nicholas observed as he and Izzy sat in the kitchen again after the kids had gone to bed.
“It was good she reconnected with the children, but I’m glad to have the house to ourselves.”
“Would you like me to clear out for a few days? Give you and the kids some space?
“I’ve always got my room at Mum and Dad’s.” Nicholas looked amazed. “No! The kids adore having you here.”
He looked into his glass. “I love having you here, too. I was less than honest with you over Miranda in the beginning, and now I need to prove to you that you can trust me.”
He stared Izzy in the eye. “It’s time to draw a legal line under my marriage. I want to be free to start again – to offer my heart to someone else.
“Someone reliable and kind, someone to build a home with, a life together.” Izzy nodded thoughtfully. Nicholas banged the table with his hand.
“Help me out here, Izzy
– I mean you!”
In that moment, he stopped being Nicholas Graves, famous actor, and became just Nicholas.
Nicholas, who came down in a crumpled T-shirt in the morning to boil the children’s eggs, who sang “Five Little Speckled Frogs” badly to help Molly get to sleep, and who cut himself shaving in a hurry because he’d promised to help Izzy with the shopping.
“Nothing must happen until your divorce is final,” she warned.
“OK. But then?”
Izzy smiled.
“Ask me again.”
The End.