Where I Found You

‘Not much really,’ James said, trying to disguise the anxiety in his voice. Liam and Sam had been excited when first told the news but that had been a month ago and the novelty had quickly worn off.

‘That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It means they don’t feel threatened.’

‘I hope so, Maggie. They spent most of the journey talking about their new puppy.’

‘I should have known they’d opt for a Labrador in the end. So when will they get it?’

‘The pups haven’t even been born yet but the plan is to pick up Hartley sometime in the summer,’ James said.

‘Hartley?’

‘So they say. Very imaginative, don’t you think?’

Maggie’s aim was perfect as she smacked James’s hand, which was poised over the mixing bowl. ‘You’re as bad as the boys,’ she scolded. ‘Why don’t you go and help them unpack. I need to finish this cake while I’ve still got enough butter icing to cover it.’

‘You’re the boss.’

James was retreating out of the kitchen when the phone rang. The house phone had been programmed for specific callers and this ringtone had a persistent chirp that would not be ignored.

‘Judith must have a sixth sense when it comes to locating her grandsons,’ Maggie said wryly.

‘I’ll get it,’ James said as if there had been any dispute.

Maggie began scraping her spatula against the bottom of the bowl as she sought out the last pockets of cocoa powder that hadn’t been incorporated into the mix. A quick taste test confirmed that the icing tasted as good as it smelled and she could almost forgive Sam for giving into temptation. But these thoughts barely registered and her stirring slowed as Maggie listened to one half of a conversation between mother and son.

‘Yes, the traffic wasn’t bad for a bank holiday weekend,’ James was telling her.

Maggie used the spatula to push the mixture towards one side of the bowl as she heard James answer more questions about his early morning journey. It took a couple of minutes for Judith to get around to the real reason she had phoned.

‘I’ll have to check with Maggie first. We wanted to spend as much time with the boys as we can.’

Maggie didn’t need to hear the other side of the conversation to know that her mother-in-law was trying to engineer some time of her own with the boys. Judith would be persistent; she liked to get her own way and with James she usually did. It was this apparent hold on him that terrified Maggie. Fixing gates and trips out with the grandchildren were one thing but Judith had views on James’s future too and Maggie suspected she wasn’t a part of that vision.

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