From The Heart Read Online Free Page B

know.’
    How could I ever forget, thought Laura. Caroline banged on and on about it often enough!
    She took a deep breath. ‘OK. How about my mother does three days and yours two?’
    Caroline said that she was perfectly happy to divide it the other way round, but in the end Laura got what she wanted. Angela looked after Kirstie Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Caroline had her Thursdays and Fridays. Both Laura and Jim agreed that they were actually very, very fortunate to have mothers who were prepared to mind their child at all. Most grandparents, Jim said, were silver surfers these days, wanting to be out and about having a good time and not worrying about things. Very few would commit themselves to looking after a baby. Laura agreed. Sandra Hannigan, her supervisor, was paying a fortune for a crèche for her two small children. She said that she was pretty much working to pay the crèche fees but that, in the end, they were a little bit better off if she kept her job. Though it was marginal at best, she muttered, and they were keeping the whole thing under constant review.
    So even though balancing the desires of the grandmothers could occasionally be traumatic, and even though it sometimes caused Laura and Jim to flare up with each other (which always reduced Laura to tears – she wished she didn’t cry so much, but ever since Kirstie’s birth she couldn’t help herself), both of them were very grateful to their mothers for being so helpful and supportive.
    At least, that was how it was until they started talking about Christmas.
    It was Angela who brought the subject up first. Angela had always been very organised about Christmas, buying the children’s presents every October and hiding them in the attic so they couldn’t be accidentally discovered. She used her Credit Union account to save for the festive season every year, starting each January and putting aside a fixed amount, so that they always had enough money to buy what each child wanted. (And if any of them asked for an outrageous present, Angela somehow managed to persuade them that they didn’t want it after all.) No matter what, every Christmas was magical and exciting in the McIntyre household, and Angela’s careful budgeting meant that there was always plenty to go round.
    She first spoke to Laura about it at the end of September.
    ‘Oh for God’s sake, Mam,’ Laura said impatiently. ‘It’s months away.’
    ‘Good to be organised, though,’ said Angela. ‘You and Jim will be having dinner with us as usual, I’m sure.’
    ‘I haven’t talked to him yet,’ Laura said. ‘On account of the fact that summer is only just over.’
    ‘It’ll be great,’ said Angela. ‘The girls will just love having Kirstie here.’
    All three of Laura’s sisters still lived at home. She supposed it would be a novelty for them to have a baby in the house. She didn’t say anything to Jim. He would have freaked if she’d mentioned Christmas to him even before the clocks had gone back. He was already shouting at the TV over the Hallowe’en ads.
    It was at the start of November when he told her that Caroline had asked them to Christmas dinner. Laura looked at him in dismay.
    ‘But we never go to your mum’s,’ she said.
    ‘We haven’t until now,’ he agreed. ‘But she so wants to be part of Kirstie’s first Christmas.’ He smiled. ‘She says she feels more like a second mother than a grandmother to her.’
    Laura looked horrified.
    ‘ I’m Kirstie’s mother,’ she said firmly.
    ‘I know. I know.’ Jim hugged her. ‘I was touched by what Mum said, that’s all.’
    ‘My mother assumed we were coming to her,’ said Laura, deciding that she’d better come straight out with it. ‘I didn’t say no because I . . . well, I assumed so too.’
    ‘Oh.’ He frowned. ‘But your mum won’t mind, surely? After all, she has three other girls. My mother only has me and David.’
    David was Jim’s younger brother.
    ‘And,’ continued Jim,