Free Snow Angels, Secrets and Christmas Cake by Sue Watson Page A

the door.
    Heddon rushed to the passenger side and hugged Tamsin, before rushing round to me in the driver seat. I wound my window down and he clutched emotionally at my shoulder; ‘That woman is a bloody saint... she’s moving me to tears,’ he gasped.
    ‘Mmm me too,’ I said under my breath before setting off through the late afternoon snow.
    Hugo and Hermione hitched a ride with Gabe and I took Tamsin, who didn’t utter a word all the way to mine. On arrival we helped her inside and I told Richard what had happened while we moved furniture in the flat upstairs to make room for everything.
    ‘Will you be able to live with her?’ he whispered, his brow furrowing.
    ‘Yeah... well, no.’
    ‘You’re the most easy-going person I know, but she’ll drive you up the wall. Why don’t you and Jacob move in with me, and Tamsin can stay here?’
    ‘Thank you, but no, Richard,’ I smiled. He asked me to live with him on a daily basis, and it was now becoming a bit of a joke between us. I cared about Richard and there were days when I thought it would be nice to live together with Jacob, just the three of us in out own home. But I couldn’t allow another man into my life – what if I lost him like I had Steve?
    Richard shrugged. ‘Oh well. You can’t blame a man for seeing a chink of opportunity and giving it another go,’ he said.
    ‘You know how I feel.’
    ‘I do,’ he enveloped me in his arms and it felt good. After all the chaos of the last couple of days he was my safe harbour and he understood me so well, which made it even harder to say no to him.
    ‘It’s not just me, it’s about Jacob too. We’re both still healing,’ I said, but then we heard people coming up the stairs and I pulled away. Richard went downstairs to help Gabe unload while I explained to a very excited Jacob (who’d just been delivered from his friend’s house after tea) that his auntie and cousins were doing a sleepover. I tried to make Tamsin and the kids comfortable and kept telling them it was all a big mistake and it would be over soon. And while I was saying it I was really thinking what the hell is going to happen to them? I couldn’t imagine a life where Tamsin wasn’t rich and didn’t live in a big house in a life of utter luxury. My sister oozed money and glamour, breathing in designer labels and French perfume – her whole life was spent worshipping at the altar of money – it was her religion. How would she survive in any other life?
    I suggested Tamsin lie on my bed and I’d bring her some tea. The kids both had sleeping bags on the living room floor, but said they’d stay with friends if this ‘homelessness’ went on more than one night. ‘It’s not fair on you, Auntie Sam,’ Hermione said. She was tearful, but brushed everything off with ‘it’s going to be fine, it’s all fine,’ just like her mum. Hugo was older and more independent from the family, he’d been at university for two years (unlike his sister who had only left home for university three months before) and apart from the financial implications, his life wouldn’t be affected as much.
    I went downstairs and opened the front door where Richard and Gabe were still standing by his truck, they’d unloaded lots of stuff and filled the upstairs with it, but there was still so much more.
    ‘It’s a good job I’m not a tidy person, I’d be driven mad with all those shoes and clothes lying around. We’re going to have to climb into my little rooms.’
    ‘Is she okay?’ Richard asked. I shrugged.
    ‘Shame, she loved that house,’ Gabe sighed, lighting a roll-up.
    That was an understatement, but then Gabe seemed to be king of those, nothing seemed to faze him. I considered myself to be laid-back, but even I was amazed at his calmness and ability to just go with the flow. The rest of us were all traumatised and Tamsin’s stress was infectious, but he was immune, just leaning against his truck taking a long, slow drag of his