‘Ah, Patrick,’ Bronagh said as he appeared behind them. ‘You’re just in time to help my mammy here down the stairs.’
‘It’s been a long while since I’ve been on the arm of a handsome young man. Hello, Patrick. The last time I saw you, you were still in short pants.’ It was an exaggeration but they all laughed nevertheless and Patrick played the part of gallant escort to the hilt.
Tom was the next to arrive, a bottle of wine in each hand, which left him defenceless when Moira grabbed his backside by way of greeting. She said she was checking his pockets for her Christmas present but they all knew better. It earned her a telling off by Mammy but she wasn’t deterred and homed in on him for a very merry Christmas kiss. Nina followed closely behind Tom. She’d brought a plate of sweets with her. ‘They are called turrón,’ she told them in her accented, precise English. ‘It’s a traditional Spanish nougat made with almonds we always have at Christmas.’
‘It looks delicious, thank you.’ Roisin said taking the plate from her and hoping by the end of the afternoon Nina would have lost the sad look that always lurked in her eyes. Bronagh exclaimed over the table and the decorations. Mammy fussed around seating Mrs Hanrahan and fetching her a cup of mulled wine.
It wasn’t long before they sat down to a feast and Patrick kicked the festivities off by clinking his glass with his spoon and announcing he’d like to say a few words.
‘Brown nosey fecker,’ Aisling mouthed at Roisin, making her smirk. She wondered what he would have to say.
‘Here’s to O’Mara’s, not just a family legacy but a family home. To O’Mara’s.’
‘To O’Mara’s,’ everybody chimed, and Roisin kept her whirling thoughts about her brother firmly under wraps. Nothing was going to spoil today, nothing.
THERE WERE CRIES OF that was delicious and oh, I’m so full as Roisin carried through the last of the dinner dishes to the kitchen and adding it to the mounting pile declared, ‘I say the men do the washing up.’
‘I agree,’ Aisling said, soaking the oven dish, that had cooked the turkey to perfection.
‘Here, here,’ Moira piped up from where she was scraping leftovers into the bin.
‘Ladies, away with you, I’ve a plum pudding to be sorting.’ Quinn herded them out and sitting back down at the table Roisin looked down the length of it at the Christmas crackers that had been pulled. The lame jokes had been read out to groans and laughter and the Santa hats abandoned in favour of paper crowns. The conversations bouncing up and down and back and forth as they all awaited the arrival of pudding were full of laughter and she could feel the love in the room. She leaned back in her chair, tempted to clasp her hands over her belly. She felt for the first time in a very long while, content. This had been her year of second chances. She’d had a second chance at life, love and now today this was her second Christmas. And it had been a very good Christmas indeed.
‘CAREFUL YOU DON’T SET fire to the paperchain!’ Maureen exclaimed. ‘Where’s the fire extinguisher?’ The plum pudding was alight with blue flames and Quinn stood back triumphantly while everybody clapped.
‘He knows what he’s doing, Mammy,’ Aisling said, offering to help dish the dessert as the flames died and he began doling the pudding into bowls along with a healthy dollop of cream. He was quite sharp with her, Roisin thought frowning, as he told her no, he could manage passing the first of the bowls down the table.
Aisling looked a little put out too as she sat back down. Quinn never took a tone with her.
‘Is there money in this, Mummy?’
‘I think there might be, Noah,’ Roisin replied, tucking in.
‘Mammy, watch your false teeth, we don’t want any accidents,’ Roisin heard Bronagh say as a jubilant shriek went up from Maureen who’d found five pence. Noah too was victorious but Aisling’s reaction was a bit extreme, she thought, looking across the table at her sister who, annoyed at Quinn, had tucked in with gusto. Now her mouth was opening and shutting at a rate of knots as she said, ‘Oh my God, I don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it.’
Was she crying? Roisin looked at her incredulously. Sure, it was only five pence!
‘Oh, Quinn!’
This was getting ridiculous.
‘Aisling, what’s gotten into you?’ Maureen demanded, pointing her spoon at her. ‘If you’ve money worries you only have to say.’
Roisin didn’t look at her brother.
‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’
Was that a yes to the money worries? she wondered as everybody else stared at Aisling as though she’d grown a second head. What on earth was going on?
‘Look! Look what was in my pudding!’ Her cheeks flushed a pretty pink and her eyes flashed with excitement as Aisling held up a sparkling solitaire diamond ring for them all to see.
Roisin didn’t know who screamed the loudest out of them all, Moira, Mammy, herself or Bronagh as the penny finally dropped. She pushed back her chair and raced around the table to hug her sister.
This really was a Christmas they’d never forget.
THE SOUND OF A BIN lid clattering to the ground startled Roisin from her sleep. It took her a moment to figure out what it was that had
