Three Wishes(131)

But Laura did and her face paled at the sight.

* * * * *

Tash

Natasha Roberts McAllister Jacobs was thankful that Mummy had sent Fazire with them to Bath.

Daddy, Tash found, was not very good at doing a seven year old girl’s hair and making it ultra, super beautiful for a very special day.

This, Tash thought, was okay considering her Daddy was good at everything else. No one, she allowed, could be good at absolutely everything.

And anyway, Fazire had magic. He just snapped his fingers and Tash’s hair had all sorts of fun, bouncy curls and was pulled back at the sides with pretty, sparkly clips. When he did this Daddy stared at Fazire in a funny way that looked both exasperated (Tash liked this word and knew what it meant) and amused. It was a look that made Natasha giggle.

Daddy, Tash found out, now knew that Fazire was their special genie and he didn’t mind. Tash knew he wouldn’t and thought they should have told him ages ago. He was the best Daddy ever and since Fazire was one of the family even though he was a little strange, Tash always knew her Daddy wouldn’t mind.

Mummy was making her wear pale blue, like the colour Daddy had used in Mummy’s new, now old bedroom. Tash had not been happy about the blue, she wanted pink. Until she’d seen her pretty, frilly blue dress. Once she’d seen the dress, she didn’t mind at all.

“Now that I’ve seen to Natasha’s hair, I need to prepare,” Fazire said in his I-am-a-genie-all-bow-to-me voice and he disappeared in a poof of grape-coloured smoke that drifted towards his bottle until it was gone.

Tash looked at her father. He looked more handsome than anyone she’d ever seen in her whole life. And she remembered everyone she’d ever seen in her whole life, she remembered everything, though she’d never told anyone that. He was wearing a dark suit with an ivory shirt and a pretty tie the exact colour of Tash’s dress.

She moved to her Daddy and, even though she was no longer a baby but now a big girl, her Daddy was strong and he picked her up, just like always. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and nuzzled her nose against his. And, again, just like always, he nuzzled hers right back.

Then she pulled back, just a bit, and she took a deep breath because she had to ask what she’d been thinking about for days, for weeks but had always been too scared.

“Daddy?” she said, her voice timid.

“Yes, sweetheart?” her Daddy replied and Tash felt something funny in her heart because he’d never called her sweetheart before and she liked it a whole lot.

“You’re not um,” she stopped then rushed on, “ever going to leave again, are you?”

She watched her Daddy’s handsome face turn stunned then hard then soft and then he said, “Never,” in a way that she really, really believed him.

She took one of her arms from around his neck and put her hand on his cheek and said something else she’d been too scared to say, “Today’s a happy day and once it’s over, do you think you’ll hurt anymore?”

He blinked slowly and then said, “Hurt? Tash, what makes you think –”

“I see it in your eyes,” Natasha interrupted. Mummy wouldn’t like that Tash interrupted but she suspected Daddy wouldn’t tell.

Her Daddy’s arms became tighter than ever and his hand went to the back of her head, his fingers sifting into her fun, bouncy curls and he pressed her cheek against his strong neck.

What he didn’t do was answer.

“You’re too sharp for your own good,” he muttered and Tash had heard that before. She had the suspicion that she wasn’t too sharp for her own good. She was too sharp for everyone else’s good.

“I don’t want you to hurt anymore,” Tash told him quietly, thinking they should get back to the subject because it was an important subject.

Her Daddy pulled back and looked her directly in the eyes, and looking at him she saw her eyes for she and her father had the same exact eyes.

“The hurt’s gone, Tash,” he told her.

She stared at him closely, trying to see any of the hurt there, in his eyes, his face, anywhere.

She couldn’t find any so she smiled her quirky-sweet smile.

Then she cried, “Yipeeeee!”

And then she got her bestest, best gift of the day.

Her father smiled back at her.

* * * * *

Maxine

“I do not believe this is happening,” Lily stood seething in her sitting room.

Maxine couldn’t believe it was happening either. Time was ticking away. They should have left ten minutes ago. Instead these odious creatures were standing in the sitting room saying things to Lily, things… things… things… such things that Maxine was worried her ears were bleeding just hearing them.

It had been a fun, happy morning full of giggles, tears and champagne and they’d tackled the food they’d barely touched the night before (to Maxine’s delight, she liked her food). Lily was Lily again, fully Lily, the girl Maxine had met nearly a decade before, happy, giddy, full-of-life, smiling and open-hearted for all to see.

All was finally well in the world.

Then, watching Lorna, Emily and Susan drive away, Maxine had felt Laura stiffen by her side. She’d turned to see what Laura was looking at and she spied Alistair walking toward them, a man and woman with him.

“Alistair what are you doing here?” Maxine smiled at him.