me is more demands. I’m tired of it,” Richard said. “Go bother Agatha about using Tinder to date half this town, and leave me alone.”
And with that, he stormed out and slammed the door.
“My word,” Eleanor said. “I thought sixty was past the adolescent tantrum stage.” She pushed a minute silver bell wired to the coffee table. “I need a glass of wine, don’t you?”
“Gran, perhaps he’s right,” Nick said.
She fixed an eye on Nick. “You want him to divorce your poor mother?”
“Please don’t use her mental state against me,” Nick warned. “She’ll be my mother forever, but she hasn’t been his wife in a long time.”
The door opened. Eleanor held up a hand to Nick as two footmen rolled in a square dining table outfitted with three silver-domed place settings. They lifted the cloches to reveal three individual shepherd’s pies in ceramic ramekins.
“What, no sushi?” Eleanor sang at the footmen, who both looked alarmed, because this was the absolute first they’d heard about it. “Ah well, this will do nicely, thank you ever so much.”
Nick and I exchanged small grins, which we smothered when Eleanor turned her attention back to us and picked up her delicate gold fork.
“And you two,” she said. “How are you?”
“We’re great,” Nick said, scooping some mashed potato and meat into his mouth.
“Super,” I added. “I got a weighted blanket and I’ve never slept better. I feel so rested.”
“You do look good,” Eleanor said. “Glowing, even.”
“New face serum.” I swallowed my bread with an innocent smile. “I’m really racking up my Boots points.”
Eleanor blew out a breath through her nose. “Why is everyone being so recalcitrant with me today?” she said. “Are you pregnant or not?”
“Gran!” Nick said. I could tell he was trying not to laugh.
“What?” she said, a look of studied innocence on her face. “I’ve a vested interest in this, especially now that you’ve taken my suggestion regarding Frederick.”
“He has the biggest mouth. I can’t believe he told you that!” I said, dropping my fork with a clatter.
“He didn’t,” Eleanor said, dabbing at her lips with a cloth napkin. “But you just did. Goodness, you’re a bad secret keeper, Rebecca.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, “considering I kept almost my whole first trimester from you.”
Eleanor pointed her fork at me. “Don’t you dare toy with me, Rebecca. I am an elderly woman.”
“And strong as oak,” I said. “But you can exhale. It’s true.”
Eleanor set down her fork and beamed at us. “Congratulations, my darling,” she said, the picture of sincere delight, relief, and self-satisfaction. “I knew we could do it.”
“And how,” I said. “We got a real bargain. Two for the price of one.”
She froze. “Twins?”
“Surprise.” I could barely contain my glee. “Didn’t expect that, did you?”
Eleanor blinked very, very slowly, and then picked up her glass of Chardonnay and tilted it toward me. “Bex,” she said to me, my nickname sounding so right and wrong all at once on her lips. It was the first time I’d ever heard her say it. “You, my dear, have been nothing but surprises.”
CHAPTER FOUR
The first thing I saw at the construction site was a giant sign that read CONGRATS ON YOUR NEW PROJECT next to a photo of two people in construction gear onto which they’d pasted Nick’s and my faces. It was hilariously homemade, and heartfelt, and my own heart skipped a beat. It had been a long time since anyone had made such an enthusiastic hand-drawn sign for me in London; maybe since the day of the wedding.
“Are you crying?” Eleanor asked, next to me. She was wearing a hat that looked like a purple octopus, and her expression was alarmed.
“No,” I said. “Ish. I’m not in control here. You must remember how pregnancy hormones are.”
Eleanor eyed me coolly. “I can assure you, Rebecca,” she said, “I was always in control.”
Rather than breaking out the bullhorn at the more standard twelve weeks, Nick and I let things cook a little longer—partly out of paranoia, partly to let Freddie’s news breathe—before announcing that we were expecting twins. The world welcomed this news with wild enthusiasm (and a heavy amount of betting on both gender and names; the current front-runners were Albert and Arthur). Even the online haters had to admit that, no matter how derelict a mother I was destined to be, it was nice when people had babies. We were riding a tidal wave of public warmth, and with Freddie haring off to Europe, Richard and Eleanor doubled down on putting