The Garden on Sparrow Street: A heartwarming, uplifting Christmas romance

by Tilly Tennant

  He sat across from his daughter now, fingers knotted together on the table, legs bouncing beneath it, his gaze flitting back and forth between the street beyond the window and the restaurant interior. He was wearing a shirt and tie. Nina had only ever seen him wear a tie for weddings and funerals, and she didn’t want to dwell on the latter because it would bring back too many painful memories that would hardly help her today of all days.

  ‘She’ll be here soon, I expect,’ he said. He’d said the same thing at least four times since they’d arrived.

  ‘Perhaps the traffic’s bad,’ Nina offered. ‘An accident maybe?’

  ‘I expect that’s it. I should have gone to pick her up.’

  ‘Then you’d have both been stuck in traffic.’

  ‘Yes, yes… but she’s very independent, you know. Self-sufficient. No bother to anyone at all.’

  ‘Mum used to be like that,’ Nina said.

  ‘Yes, yes she did…’ Winston gave an uneasy laugh. Nina hadn’t meant to send him on a guilt trip but perhaps, inadvertently, she had. ‘I suppose I must have a type.’

  ‘I suppose you must,’ Nina said with a smile that she hoped would put him more at ease.

  Winston’s eyes went to the window again. ‘I’m sure she’ll be here at any minute.’

  ‘Maybe you should phone her?’

  He shook his head. ‘She’d never answer if she’s driving; she’s good like that. You’ll like her,’ he added, though he seemed to be convincing himself of that rather than Nina. As far as Nina was concerned, it didn’t really matter whether she liked Pam or not in the end, because only her dad got to choose who he might spend his twilight years with. Pam would have to be abominable to provoke a reaction from Nina that might make her question her dad’s choice, because she was determined to tolerate a lot from anyone who made her dad happy, no matter how she might personally feel about them.

  And, Nina thought vaguely, if things continued the way they were going with Colm, Winston wasn’t the only one who was going to have to seek approval for a new partner. He and Winston had met before, of course, and they seemed to like each other, but that was when Nina had introduced him as someone who was simply helping them to repair their community gardens, rather than as a partner.

  ‘Ah!’

  Winston almost leapt from his seat as he spotted someone out on the street. Nina followed his gaze to the woman who’d just pulled up and was currently getting a ticket from a parking meter. From this distance it was hard to tell much about her, save that she looked quite short and what Robyn would have called a bit on the cuddly side, though she was wrapped in a thick, padded coat that might well have been adding a few pounds to her frame. As Winston was watching attentively, and as she was the only new arrival on the street, Nina had to assume that this was, indeed, Pam, the woman who’d recently accepted her father’s proposal and was now her new stepmother-to-be.

  Nina’s stomach did a curious and unexpected cartwheel, and so she could only imagine how nervous Pam might be. When she thought about it, perhaps Pam had every reason to be more worried than Nina about whether they’d get along. Nina had a whole lifetime’s worth of love and loyalty from her dad to fall back on, whereas Pam was the new woman trying to fit in somewhere. For her dad’s sake, Nina was determined to make a good impression regardless, because life would be a lot easier if everyone could get along.

  She and Winston watched together in silence as the woman crossed the road to the restaurant. It wasn’t until Winston spoke that Nina realised just how silent they’d been.

  ‘I feel sick,’ he said faintly. It was almost as if he’d forgotten Nina was there. She looked over and her heart went out to him. She’d been so wrapped up in how she and Pam might get along that she hadn’t fully appreciated just how nervous her dad was about this meeting, but now she saw more clearly than ever just how important it was to him. It was testament to how much he cared for Pam and how badly he wanted his daughter and his new fiancée to get along. Nina reached for his hand across the table and gave it a gentle pat.

  ‘She looks lovely, Dad.’

  In the next moment, the door to the restaurant opened and Pam bumbled in. Her cheeks and nose were rosy from the cold, the skin of her face soft and plump, her eyes bright and good-natured. She smiled broadly as she hurried over to their table. Winston stood to greet her with a light kiss. Pam returned it and then turned to Nina, who stood up too.

  ‘Hello,’ Nina said, extending her hand. ‘I’m so pleased to meet you – Dad’s told me all about you.’

  ‘Oh, it’s so lovely to finally meet you too!’ Pam exclaimed, forsaking the hand and pulling Nina into an unexpected hug. ‘Oh, and your dad was right – you’re absolutely beautiful! What gorgeous hair! You’re just lovely!’

  Nina threw a bemused smile at her dad.

  ‘Oh yes… he’s always talking about you…’ Pam shrugged off her coat to reveal an embroidered needlecord dress. She wore her grey hair short while tiny pearls hung from her ears.

  ‘I like your earrings,’ Nina said, sitting down again as Pam took her seat next to Winston.

  ‘Thank you. They belonged to my grandmother. I suppose that makes them terribly old by now, doesn’t it?’

  ‘They might be but the thing about pearls is they’re classic – they never go out of style.’

  ‘Oh, I agree!’ Pam beamed, and Nina smiled back, glancing at Winston as she did to see him relax a little. Nina felt more relaxed too – so far, so good. She already liked Pam and perhaps today wouldn’t be too much of a test after all.

  The waiter came over to their table. ‘Would you like your drinks now?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, yes please,’ Nina said. ‘And do you want a jug of water for the table too, Dad?’

  Winston nodded. Nina ordered herself a gin and orange while Pam asked for lemonade. Nina’s dad said he’d make do with water.

  ‘It’s lovely in here,’ Pam said as the waiter left them again. ‘I used to come here with my Bruce.’

  Nina frowned slightly.

  ‘My ex,’ Pam said.

  ‘You’re divorced then?’

  ‘Yes. When he told me he wanted to leave me it was a shock, I can tell you. But it was a good few years ago now so I don’t think about it all that much any more.’

  ‘That’s good,’ Nina said, not knowing what else she could say to that.

  ‘It’s his loss and my gain,’ Winston said, giving Pam a fond look.

  Pam laughed. ‘I’m sure he wouldn’t agree. Anyway, I think it was me who had the lucky escape in the end. You should see how he’s let himself go. Not like your dad here who’s stayed lovely and trim and handsome.’

  Winston batted away the compliment, almost giggling like a teenage girl. He looked so giddy, so happy, that Nina couldn’t help but smile. If this was the effect Pam was going to have on her dad, then she loved her almost as much as he did already. The waiter returned with their drinks.

  ‘Are you ready to order your starters?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh goodness, we haven’t even looked at the menu yet we’ve been so busy chatting!’ Pam said, throwing Nina a broad smile. ‘Could you give us another minute?’

  ‘Certainly,’ the waiter said.

  ‘Oh dear,’ Pam said as he left the table again. She picked up a menu and stuck her face into it. ‘We’d better decide what we want before we get told off again.’ She looked at Winston. ‘What are you having?’

  ‘I’m not sure… perhaps I’ll have the little ball things.’

  ‘That sounds lovely; I might have those too.’ Pam looked at Nina.

  ‘I don’t think I’ll have a starter.’

  Pam nodded. ‘That’s why you’re so slim, I’ll bet. I’ll always have the starter. Pudding too. A meal feels lopsided if I don’t have the whole set – I can’t help it. That’s why I’m shaped this way.’

  ‘You’re shaped perfectly,’ Winston said, and it was Pam’s turn to giggle like a schoolgirl now.

  ‘Oh you!’
she said.

  Nina looked between the two of them and smiled again, though a bit of her was wondering when the pet names were going to come out. If they did, was it something she really wanted to hear? She was all for her dad being happy but there was such a thing as too much information.

  Winston raised his glass. ‘A toast,’ he said. ‘To new beginnings.’

  Nina raised hers too, touched glasses with the both of them and repeated: ‘To new beginnings.’

  There seemed to be a lot of those going on right now.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nina had wondered whether their regular curry night would become a thing of the past. Robyn had been spending more and more time with Peter over the last couple of weeks, not to mention that she was keeping a closer eye on Toby these days too – and Nina was spending more time with Colm. All this meant that Nina and Robyn had had very little time to see each other. They’d been in regular contact, of course, as the requests and donations for their memory project had started to come in (in part as a result of the radio interview with Sammy that Robyn had managed to make hilarious and entertaining), but that wasn’t the same as having proper time to sit and talk about what was going on in their lives, which, when Nina thought about it, was quite a lot these days.

  It wasn’t just a case of new relationships and the garden project – Nina still had to find a job. The search wasn’t going quite as well as she’d hoped. She’d discovered, as she’d suspected, that retail jobs weren’t quite as plentiful as they’d once been, that seasonal work had been all but snapped up by the time you got this close to Christmas and that on paper, as capable as she might be in real life, she wasn’t qualified for a lot else. The only one very promising lead was the pub where her dad had put in a word, but that was yet to yield anything definite.

  However, Robyn had phoned earlier that day to see if Nina was free in the evening and Nina had gladly confirmed that she was, Colm having to go to parents’ evening with Polly. Though she was enjoying time with Colm, she’d missed Robyn too. Things were new and strange right now, even though they were a good kind of strange, and Nina couldn’t help but reflect that it would be nice to settle back into an old comfortable routine every now and again. It would certainly help to keep her grounded.

  ‘I’m afraid it’s sauce from a jar again,’ Nina said as Robyn chopped the onions. Robyn always chopped the onions when she was there, because they made Nina cry so much that Robyn said it seemed cruel to make her do it.

  ‘Tastes just as good,’ Robyn replied airily.

  ‘Yes, but I did promise myself I was going to start making more things from scratch – I’ve just been a bit busy lately.’ Nina dabbed at her eyes, which were watering from being in close proximity to a particularly potent onion, despite the fact that she wasn’t even chopping it.

  ‘So,’ Robyn asked as she glanced up with a wry smile. ‘Lots to tell me?’

  Nina smiled. ‘You could say that. I suspect I could ask the same of you too.’

  ‘Hmm, you could. But you first. How’s that hunk of Irish beefcake?’

  ‘He’s good.’ Nina’s smile became a broad grin. The merest mention of Colm had the power to warm her from the inside out. Whenever she thought of him, life looked suddenly brighter. ‘How’s your hunk of council worker?’

  Robyn frowned. ‘Hunk of council worker? Now, that doesn’t have the same sex appeal at all, does it? Remind me I’ve got the boring one, why don’t you?’

  ‘You don’t mean that at all.’

  It was Robyn’s turn to give a soppy, faraway grin. ‘No, I don’t. He’s fantastic. You know how they say the quiet ones are the ones you need to watch? Well, boy, does he need watching!’

  ‘OK – stop right there! If we’re going down a mucky path here I don’t need to hear it.’

  ‘Isn’t that the only path worth going down?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know.’

  Robyn looked up and paused her chopping. ‘But you must be at that stage now? I mean, you and Colm must have…’

  ‘No,’ Nina said. ‘We’ve agreed that there’s no need to rush it and we’re happy as we are right now. We’ve only been together a couple of weeks and we barely know each other really, so why do we need to think about other things yet?’

  Robyn fixed her with a shrewd, piercing look. ‘It makes you nervous,’ she said. ‘Guilty for desiring someone else – and looking at him, there’s no way on this earth you wouldn’t be thinking about it. Even I think about it when I look at him, and I’m not going out with him! And let me hazard a guess that there’s a bit of you that’s scared you’ll even like it better with him—’

  Nina shook her head. ‘It’s too soon, that’s all. There’s time, and Colm’s happy to wait. So am I.’

  ‘OK…’ Robyn said slowly, her tone announcing that she respected Nina’s wish to leave that particular topic, though she hardly bought Nina’s excuses. ‘So how’s the great love affair that is Winston and Pam?’

  ‘Oh, well Pam’s lovely…’

  ‘I sense a but coming.’

  ‘No, she is. She’s just… enthusiastic.’

  ‘That’s good, isn’t it?’

  ‘Well, yes, of course, but I just feel a bit overwhelmed by her sometimes. Of course, she makes Dad very happy and I’m sure I’ll get used to her in time. She’s not Mum, I suppose, and perhaps, at the end of the day, that’s all it is.’

  ‘He’s been on his own a long time too. I’ll bet it seemed as if he was going to stay on his own forever.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose that’s true too, so maybe a bit of me had got used to the idea and never imagined I’d have to get to know a new person in his life. I mean, this is the first time he’s even introduced me to a lady friend, and now it’s engagement parties and wedding planning…’

  ‘Engagement party?’ Robyn raised her eyebrows. ‘I thought you said it was going to be low-key.’

  ‘That’s what Dad wanted, but now Pam’s got all excited and it’s turning into the royal wedding or something. And she wants to do it straight away – she’s even talking about before Christmas.’

  ‘Before Christmas! But that’s, like, less than three weeks away! So, excited could be an understatement then?’

  ‘Bless her – I suppose I ought to be glad because it means she’s as keen as Dad is.’

  ‘But you’re not?’

  ‘Yes, yes I am,’ Nina said, but the doubt in her voice said otherwise. Though it was out of her power to do anything, no matter how she felt, she couldn’t shake a nagging doubt that her dad might be falling into marriage with Pam just a little too quickly. But to say it out loud seemed churlish, so she didn’t. ‘It’s just going to take some getting used to. Which reminds me, Dad said I should invite you to the engagement party. And Peter and Toby too, if they want to come.’

  ‘I doubt Toby would but I can ask Peter. Tell your dad thanks. Where is it?’

  ‘The Old Apple Loft. At least that’s where she said she wanted it when I last saw them – I’m not sure if she’s actually managed to book it yet.’

  Robyn pulled a sympathetic face. ‘Ouch.’

  ‘I know,’ Nina said. ‘Pam’s idea, and I can hardly phone her and tell her to change the venue because I used to go there with Gray, can I? Apart from anything else it sounds so maudlin.’

  ‘I’m surprised your dad didn’t say something.’

  ‘I doubt he’s even remembered there’s anything significant about the place.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s silly anyway – I need to be a big girl and get over it. I can’t spend the rest of my life avoiding places I used to go with Gray.’

  Robyn gave a nod of approval and Nina could tell what she was thinking. Things had changed over the past few weeks: once upon a time, Nina would have taken great care to avoid the places she’d gone to with Gray because of the memories there. It had hurt to think about those times because they’d never be again, and it still hurt, but maybe a little less these days. Nina didn’t know how to feel about this. It
was progress, of sorts, but she wasn’t sure if it was the sort of progress that made her happy. Despite her growing feelings for Colm, there was still a constant war in her heart, the conflict between a love that could be and one that she wasn’t quite ready to let go of yet. She was scared that loving Colm would mean she’d forget about Gray, and she could never do that.

  ‘Is Colm going to go to the party?’ Robyn asked, her voice cutting into Nina’s thoughts.

  ‘Pam said to ask him. She said he could bring Polly too, but that would be the first time I’d be meeting Polly and the first time Pam had met either of them…’

  ‘Hmm, a bit awkward all round. Maybe more for you. Couldn’t you meet Polly beforehand? I’m a bit surprised you haven’t already considering how much time you’re spending with her dad.’

  ‘I think Colm is being a bit cautious, you know. Polly had a tough time getting over Jane – Colm’s wife – leaving them and I think he’s been a bit wary about introducing her to someone new. He thinks that Polly is still holding out hope that her mum will come back one day and everything will go back to the way it was.’

  ‘That’s hardly going to happen,’ Robyn huffed as she tipped the chopped onions into the frying pan. ‘How long has she been at that commune up in Scotland – five years, did you say?’

  Nina nodded.

  ‘Doesn’t sound like she’s in any rush to come back. Sounds to me like she’s made a new life there.’

  ‘Yes, but kids don’t see it like that, do they? Life’s a lot more black and white for them.’

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ Robyn said, and Nina wondered whether that was a reference to Toby. If it was, then she was sure she’d hear about it soon enough so she didn’t ask.

  The pan began to hiss and the smell of frying onions lifted into the air. ‘So they want it before Christmas? They don’t mess about, do they? Surely they’re not going to get the wedding in that quick?’