Coming Around Again (8 page)

“I’m in the right place for it? All right, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Hold
on, I’ll let you berate me in a minute. God, it’s like someone’s ripping me up
from the inside out.”

“Do you want to stand up?” he asked. She nodded, thinking it might feel
a lot easier. He curled his arms around her and pulled her to her feet,
ignoring the fact she drenched him with water. He cradled her until the pain,
which seemed to last for an hour, passed.

Niels leaned back and looked at her. His expression pretty much
destroyed her.

“Oh, please don’t!”

“I hate seeing you like this,” he muttered. “When I can’t even help you.
And you keep trying to distract me by making me cross.”

She grinned, before the next wave of agony took over. “Just hold me. And
don’t go anywhere.” Her words rushed out.

“You have me. Always,” he said into her wet shoulder, clasping her to
him. “I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”

***

Niels put his arm around Stella’s seat and said to both boys. “Take your
stuff inside and get yourselves ready for bed.”

“Dad, we’ve slept so much.”

“You know I don’t like repeating myself. Off you go.”

Danny leaned forward first and kissed his father’s cheek, shortly
followed by Will. “Are you coming in to say goodnight?” Will asked.

Niels glanced briefly at Stella, who simply nodded. “Five minutes. Go
on.”

Their children rushed out back into their mother’s house, leaving the
two adults inside the vehicle. The silence threatened to suffocate them,
forcing Stella to intervene. “What time’s the flight to Denmark?”

“Midday, or thereabouts,” he answered. “I thought the boys could stay
with me, so there wouldn’t be a scramble for things. Is that all right?”

“No, no, of course. Not like I have a choice. It’s court approved, isn’t
it?”

Niels rested his head against the steering wheel. “
F
or helvede
. I can’t argue about this with
you anymore. If you don’t want me to go, we won’t go.”

I didn’t want you to go without me!
“And make me the bad
guy? No, thank you. I just said a fact, I wasn’t having a go.”

He turned his head from the wheel to look at her. “Indeed? I didn’t
think you’d miss the opportunity.”

“You just looked after me and two kids, sick, for three days. Take
things with a fucking pinch of salt. God.”

“You’re not the easiest of patients,” he reminded her.

She wanted to reach out and stroke his hair. Tell him he’d done such a
good job. That she hadn’t even dreamed how good of a father he’d be to their
children. How much she missed being under his care.
“I’m not used to being incapacitated, you know that.”

“All too well.”

Stella leaned forward, her arms wrapped around herself and inhaled the
scent of Niels on the jumper he’d stuffed her into. “I should go in. Make sure
they don’t set the house on fire.”

“One of your better ideas,” he answered.

She opened the door and paused. “Thank you. For looking after us all.”

He caught her back briefly, his hand warm through the fibres of the
jumper. “Whatever you need. I’m here.”

“Are you, though?”

“Always.”

His actions the last few days proved his statement in a thousand ways.
He stroked his hand over her arm to catch her hand and brush his mouth over her
knuckles. “If you feel ill again, let me know.”

Without saying anything else, she got out of the car. Just when she’d
reached a stage of acceptance, he confused her. Made promises he’d inevitably
keep, when she knew she couldn’t rely on him. To do so would mean the rug would
be pulled from under her feet.

God only knew how she’d get back up a second time.

A glance out of the window made Stella close her
eyes in weariness. Niels’ mother. She’d seen a text message from the ex about
his mother and rather than reading it, she’d simply deleted it. She didn’t want
to know.

Alwine Strøm had never been a fan of Stella.
According to her, Niels worked himself into a state to provide everything
Stella wanted, only to eventually turn him away and leave him with no choice,
but to form his own family without her. Stella called fundamental bullshit on
that. Of course her precious golden-haired son couldn’t do any wrong.

The one good thing Stella had done in Alwine’s eyes
was to give Niels not one, but two sons. Her grandchildren were insanely
beautiful things, with hair bordering on blond and midnight blue eyes in creamy
coffee skin. They were charming, delightful, and the apple of their
grandmother’s eyes.

Shame about their mother.

Stella braced herself and allowed her former
mother-in-law into the house. The boys came chasing in, leaping on Stella with
kisses and rambling tales of their time with their father.

“Good evening, Stella,” Alwine said formally. “How
are you?”

The older woman turned her cheek slightly for a
kiss and Stella grudgingly obliged on both. “I’m well, thank you. My darlings,
can you take your bags to the laundry room?”

Will and Danny did as they were told. Stella shoved
her hands into her jeans pockets, looking at Alwine expectantly. “Is there
something I can get you?”

“A coffee would be nice, thank you,” she murmured, stepping
around Stella into the house.
Come in,
Stella mocked silently, closing
the door and heading into the kitchen.

“Remind me how you take it?”

“Milk and one sugar, please.”

“Fine. Do you want to go into the living room and
I’ll bring you the drink?”

“No, I can come with you.”

Stella quickly turned on the coffee maker and set
up a new filter, even though the woman didn’t deserve it. “How was everything?
I thought Niels was going to drop them off?”

“Niels had to deal with some sort of crisis. He’s
still in Denmark.”

Stella’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh? Must be serious.”
Actually, she was really irritated that he hadn’t called her and told her that
his mother would be dropping off the boys. He knew she hated being on the back
foot.

“I’d have no idea about it.” Alwine dismissed her
words with a brief wave of her hand, easing herself onto a chair by the centre
bar. “I wanted to talk to you.”

That could never bode well. “What’s the problem?”

Alwine paused as Stella placed a cup of coffee in
front of her. She hadn’t seen that Stella had put three heaped tablespoons of
coffee granules into the machine. The cup would have her former mother-in-law
bouncing off the walls for the next year.

“The boys’ birthday is coming up soon,” Alwine
began, taking a sip of her drink. Her face paled immediately and she started to
cough.

“Too strong?” Stella asked innocently.

“You and I don’t have to be friends,” Alwine
retorted angrily, “but we can respect each other as mothers.”

“I let you in my house and you are drinking my
rather expensive Kenyan coffee. What more do you want?”

“For the fighting to stop. All this can’t drag on
for years and years.”

“I’m not dragging anything. I’ve said what I want
and it’s your son who isn’t seeing it the same way. Talk to him.”

“I have. But I’m talking to you as well. The boys
want to go to Disneyland for their birthday and I wanted to ask you to let
Niels take them.”

IS THIS BITCH FOR REAL?
“For someone who wants the fighting to stop, you’ve
got a funny way of showing it,” Stella said softly. “How dare you come here and
make demands on me? Make promises to my children, excluding me from their
birthday and it’s not even a milestone and expect me to just what? Agree?
They’ve been to Disneyland before. They’re not going again. They are not going
to use this situation that
your
precious prince caused to their
advantage. I’ve told them no. Their father told them no. You advocating on
their behalf like I’m some terrible mother is doing nothing for our
relationship. Now if you’ve finished your coffee, you may leave.”

Alwine got to her feet, immediately protesting,
“That’s not the way it is. Stella, why do you have to be so stubborn? You know
William and Daniel are upset about the divorce. Why not try and make things
better?”

“A holiday to fucking Disneyland isn’t going to do
that,” Stella snapped. “I didn’t do any of this. Niels did.”

“And what have you done to stop it? Try to keep
your family together? I’ve seen no effort from you. You’re willing to let
everything go over pride. I thought you loved my son.”

“You’re appealing to the wrong person. Have a look
at the petition. It’s not me. It’s him.”

Alwine’s eyes filled with tears. “You’re not
blameless in this, you know. It takes two to break up a marriage. And talking
to you now, I understand. And I don’t see how Niels is at fault.”

“Your son isn’t the Messiah,” Stella retorted.
“He’s the naughty boy that gave up on ten years. Twelve, if you count our
relationship before. So…have a nice flight back. You can see yourself out.”

She turned into the kitchen and closed the door.
Vaguely hearing the murmur of conversation as Alwine said goodbye to the twins,
Stella snatched up her phone and rang Niels. He answered on the third ring.

“Stella, is everything all right?”

“You,” she hissed, her voice trembling with such
rage, “set your mother on me. You can’t fight your own battles, you’ve got to
hide behind your mother? What. The. Hellish. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You?”

“Start again as if I wasn’t privy to a conversation
you’ve just had from where I am across the continent,” Niels drawled.

“Your mother came barging into my home—no, that’s
not debatable, it’s
my
home—and demanded that I let you take the twins
to Disneyland for their birthday.” There was silence on the other line. “Did
you hear me?”

“I heard you, Stella,” he replied. “I will call you
back.”

He ended the call before she could say anything
else, leaving her holding the kitchen phone at a complete loss. What did that
mean? The boys came barrelling into the kitchen, both talking over each other.

“Do you want some hot chocolate before bed?” she
asked them, desperate for a distraction that didn’t involve looking into their
Niels’-cloned faces.

“Yes, please,” they chorused.

“Muma, you should have seen it,” Danny began, chatting
over his brother. “We went fishing and swimming and we stayed in this cabin…”

“I thought you stayed with your grandparents?”

Will glanced at his brother. “I told you Muma
wasn’t listening. Dad got us a cabin by the sea. We saw Nana and Grandpa yesterday.
Then Dad got a call about work and he did that worried face, you know that face
he makes when he sees the bills, and then Nana took us to the airport and we
got to lie down on the flight and then we came home.”

And then bitch Stella comes along and tells him to
stay out of her business. Fair enough, Alwine had no right to make demands on
her children, but Niels wasn’t the sort of man whose mother did the fighting
for him. It was one of the many things that stung her during the divorce. Not
once did Alwine call her to give her even the briefest word of comfort. But now
it seemed to be a free-for-all and Stella could jump however high Alwine wanted
her to.

The phone rang just as Stella placed the
marshmallow topped mugs in front of her sons. “Take it to the living room and
sit quietly for a moment, please? That’s your dad.”

They agreed and left the room for her to answer the
call. “Niels?”

“Stella, I can only apologise. I didn’t ask my
mother to say anything to you.”

“So you’re not planning on whisking our children to
a place they’ve been to—twice already—for a birthday we’ve yet to discuss?”

“Not at all. I told them no grand gestures for
their birthday, especially since they’ve had two holidays this year.”

Now she felt infinitely foolish. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t
have a go at you like that. It’s not fair.”

“No it isn’t. There needs to be a time when you can
control those knee-jerk reactions where you believe everything I do is
motivated in taking the boys away from you.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Then why fly off the handle?” Stella heard some
voices in the background. “Look, I have to go, but it wouldn’t hurt you to call
my mother and apologise.”

Stella’s eyebrows nearly shot off her forehead.
“You realise that’s not going to happen.”

“It should do. For the boys, if nothing else.”

“I apologised to you, isn’t that enough?”

“No,” he replied. “I’ll talk to you later.”

He ended the call, leaving her staring at the
phone. Crap. And she hadn’t thanked Alwine for flying over with the boys in
their father’s place. Picking up her mobile, she saw her ever-present
ex-husband had sent her his mother’s mobile number. Dialling, she felt a
sinking feeling, which worsened when a hoarse-sounding Alwine answered.

“Hi, Alwine, it’s Stella.”

“I don’t want to fight with you,” the older woman
blurted, sounding tearful. “You don’t understand how difficult this has been
for me and Niels’ father.”

“You’re right. I wouldn’t, because you haven’t told
me,” Stella reminded her. “Look, I just called to say sorry. The boys are a
touchy subject. And if you spoke to Niels, you’ll know that he’s told them no
more holidays this year. Definitely not abroad and certainly not for their
birthday. It’s taken us a while to be on the same page when it comes to the
twins. So you making broad statements about what they want and when they should
get it…you can’t do that, Alwine. It undermines both me and Niels. That’s all
it is, and I was annoyed, but I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. I appreciate the apology,” she
whispered.

“When is your flight back?”

“Tomorrow. I was going to stay in a hotel…”

“Don’t be silly. Come back here. I doubt after a
flight I’d be able to get those two monsters to sleep any time soon. Come here,
have a good sleep, something to eat and I’ll get a cab to drive you to the
airport.”

“Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t offer otherwise. I bought this amazing
salted beef from the butcher around the corner from my salon. I can’t have it
all myself.”

Alwine softened. “Well, thank you. That’s very kind
of you, Stella.”

“Not to worry. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Stella ended the call and sent Niels a text.
Your
mum’s staying the night. So there. I apologised very nicely.

In a few moments, she received a text message back.
Thank you. You always surprise me with your generosity. Even when it’s not
deserved. Xx

Kisses? Cheeky bastard. Although putting his mother
up for the night did warrant kisses. Putting his mother up for the night
warranted a whole lot of things that as an ex, Stella wasn’t entitled to any
more.

When Alwine arrived back, Stella had a rum-filled
hot chocolate for her and a salt beef open sandwich. Alwine’s eyebrows
retreated somewhere into outer space. With a shrug Stella explained that Niels
told her years ago that salt beef was Alwine’s favourite. It was always a treat
in the house if Niels’ family enjoyed one or four.

“You know, no one’s made me smørrebrød in such a
long time,” Alwine sighed in delight, devouring the sandwiches. “It’s
delicious. I didn’t think you knew…”

“Anything about Danish food?” Stella concluded.
“When I wasn’t being an abysmal wife to your son, he’d guide me around the
kitchen.”

Guide… Sometimes, irrevocably smack. Mostly fondled
her at any given opportunity. “That’s one of the nicer things about being with
someone from a different culture to you.”

“He said you liked to eat,” Alwine admitted,
cradling her hot chocolate. “He talks about you. Frequently.”

Stella cleared her throat. “Complaining, no doubt?”

“No…”

She didn’t really want to hear it. “Why didn’t
you
call me?”

Alwine bit down on her bottom lip. “You know I was
in a difficult position…”

“I’ve been part of your family for the better part
of a decade. I had your first grandchildren. When your mother died, I flew with
Niels to Copenhagen. For you. While I was six months pregnant. Your son decides
to leave me and you can’t even call me to ask me if I’m all right?”

“You’re point-scoring,” Alwine chided.

“No, I’m upset. I know he’s your son, but didn’t I
deserve a call? Was I so disappointing to you as a daughter-in-law, I didn’t
even warrant a little bit of compassion?”