Page 13 of All Yours

‘Morning, boys,’ she chimed and they giggled in delight.

‘Right, what needs doing first?’ Robyn asked Fox and he handed over George’s school uniform with a thankful expression while tending to the spilled milk.

Half an hour later, Fox’s phone began to ring. He looked at it in panic. It was the office – time for his first call of the day – and the kitchen still looked like a bombsite, the boys didn’t have their shoes on and the dog was eating someone’s breakfast. Robyn seemed oblivious and was laughing at something George was telling her. Fox waved his phone anxiously at her.

‘I have to . . .’ he said, grimacing.

‘Take it!’ she insisted, with a reassuring smile.

‘But . . .’ He motioned to the clock. ‘You have to . . .’

‘We’ll be fine,’ she said with a shrug, wrapping a free arm under Willow and bouncing the baby against her.

The phone buzzed again between them. He glanced at the clock again, as if he could change it. He’d been really clear in the WhatsApp message about times to leave and how to get there, as well as other things he did during the day. Normally he’d have the boys completely ready by now, the table wiped and the dog on his lead. He’d just stack the dishwasher and then they’d set off. Adding Robyn and Willow into the mix had complicated things, rather than simplified them, but she looked calm and relaxed. Happy even.

‘Take your call,’ she repeated, pushing him gently towards the door. ‘Say bye to Daddy, boys,’ she encouraged and they chorused a response as if they couldn’t care less if he stayed or went. He paused, half in, half out of the door. What was he doing, leaving the boys with a stranger? The phone rang again and, making up his mind, Fox waved goodbye as he shut himself in his new office to answer the call.

Ten minutes later he finally heard the front door close. He knew it was ten minutes later because he had checked his wristwatch every minute since leaving the kitchen. Hanging up, he moved to the window to check everything was in order.

Both boys had their jackets on, which was good because although the October sun was out, it would be cold. The dog was on his lead, turning circles beside Robyn, and he hoped she had poo bags in her pocket. He had put that in his message. George skipped along quite happily beside her, but she wasn’t holding his hand as they neared the pavement. Normally, Fox would be holding tight to those little fingers. And then Reggie whizzed out, cheering. What the hell was he doing on his scooter? At least he had his helmet on. But how was she going to manage coming home with a dog, a baby and a scooter? She obviously hadn’t thought that through at all. He lifted his hand to knock at the window, just as they passed the hedge line and were gone. Too late.

His phone rang again. He glanced at his screen. Millie, Meg’s sister. His sister-in-law who he’d updated by message the night before about the curve ball in the nanny plans. He answered quickly.

‘How’s it going?’ Millie asked without preamble. She’d been almost as nervous as he had at the thought of getting a nanny in for the boys. A strange woman looking after her nephews.

‘I’m not sure,’ he answered truthfully, running his hand through his quiff and staring at the spot where they had just been.

‘Does she like the boys?’ she asked and he could hear the worry in her voice.

‘Seems to,’ he replied, thinking of the way Robyn had knelt on the floor to talk to them.

‘And do they like her?’

‘Definitely,’ Fox reassured her, thinking of the way the boys showed off in front of her, horsing around and trying to get her attention. The kitchen had been far noisier that morning than it had been in ages. ‘Although, of course, it’s early days.’

‘Great! She sounds perfect. Then what is it?’ Millie asked. ‘I can hear hesitation in your voice.’ He could imagine the crease between her eyebrows as she waited for him to answer. Meg had looked very much like her older sister, that same little frown line already in evidence when she died.

‘George’s hair had a side parting,’ he said disconsolately. ‘And she let Reggie ride his scooter to school.’

The silence grew down the line. Then she broke into laughter.

‘Well, that doesn’t sound like the end of the world!’

‘It’s just . . . different,’ he said. How to explain? The fact that he knew his boys inside out and upside down. How could anyone else look after them like he did? He sighed down the line.

‘So, she’s got her own way of doing things,’ Millie teased. ‘And it’s not how you or Meg would do it?’

He sighed again. She’d hit the nail on the head.

‘And it’s making you wonder if you’ve done the right thing?’

Now she was hitting it with a bloody big hammer.

‘S’pose so,’ he acknowledged.

‘Fox, relax,’ Millie said. ‘Sounds like they’re in good hands.’

Fox turned away from the window and sank into his chair, spinning it to face his desk.