"I lit the fire in the lounge," Edan said. "While you were still in the land of nod. So I'd say, in there."
"Sounds good." Athol opened a cupboard door. I'm sure there are biscuits somewhere. I hide them so I don't eat them all at … ah ha. Chocolate digestives. Great stuff." He put the packet down on the table, just as the noise of a car crunching over the gravel of the driveway reached them.
"Oh, crap. This is so surreal. The three of us together, after so many years."
"Four," Edan said as he looked out the window. "If this is Sina, she's got a bloke with her.”
"Oh, shit. With a hosepipe and rubber truncheon?"
Edan raised his eyebrows. "Are we into that now? I never knew." He laughed. The doorbell rang, and Edan laughed. "Only you would have 'the boys are back in town' for a chime. Answer the door, and I'll check the lounge."
Athol nodded and cleared his throat.
"Love you."
"Ditto, now answer before they think we've run away."
Athol nodded and went out of the kitchen and across the hallway. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Edan go into the lounge, and then Athol swung the door open.
The man standing next to the woman with hair the color of a post box glowered at him. Athol thought he looked vaguely familiar, but couldn't place him. The woman dug the guy in the ribs and smiled. Athol would have known the smile anywhere. Without a second thought he gave her a hug, which he was pleased to feel returned, and then looked at the man standing next to her. The guy had his hands clenched into fists and the expression on his face was anything but welcoming. Athol couldn't have cared less. With a grin he know both Sina and Edan would recognize as reckless—and warn him about—he gave the guy the once over.
"Ohh, now who is this?" He said in his best coo-ey stereotypical camp manner. "Nice, Sina. V-e-r-y nice."
"Behave. Both of you," Sina added as the man beside her muttered something under his breath. It sounded like 'fucking poof', but Athol reckoned if it was, his very bad acting deserved it.
"Sorry, love," he said and meant it. He nodded to the guy. "Athol Donaldson." He held his hand out and after a second it was taken in what was, if Athol hadn't reckoned it would come, a knuckle breaking grip.
"James McGinley. Sina's husband."
Well, that was a turn up for the books.
"Since yesterday," James added. "It's taken me ten years to persuade her. In the end, Seonagh and I got together and persuaded her."
"They ganged up on me." Sina let him take her coat. James shrugged out of his and put it on top of Sina's on the cloak stand.
"Well, let's face it… a ten-year engagement is more than long enough," James said as they entered the lounge. "And the bairn might as well be born in wedlock as out of it."
Athol looked at Sina's flat stomach and she blushed. "Yes, well. It seems we're never too old to learn. And blimey, Edan Murdoch. You look almost just the same."
****
Edan ran his hand over his head. "I do wonder if I should cut it," he said as he hugged Sina and then shook hands with James. "But at least this way I can get a brush through it. Last time it was short the curls were so tight I lost two combs and a hairbrush trying to unknot it. So what's this, married and a baby on the way?"
Sina nodded. "I still keep pinching myself. Seonagh loves the idea, James is picking names and rubbing my back for me, and I'm trying not to feel ill at the smell of cheese, and not remember how bloody much labor hurts. And I'm too old for this morning ritual with the toilet and huey." She grinned. "And I can't stop smiling like an idiot, and I want to tell everyone, I'm pregnant. I'm having a wee boy, and I'm soooooo excited."
"Take the weight off your feet," Athol waved to the settee. "Er, how are you with coffee?"
She sighed theatrically. "I'm allowed one cup a day and I haven't had it yet. And well, cups can come in very different sizes, can't they? No one said how big a cup I can have, but I bet you have a nice enormous one." She winked.
Athol sputtered at the innuendo in her voice, and James smothered a grin. Edan shook his head. "How do you cope?" he asked James.
"I'm not sure I do,” James replied. "Let your conscience guide you, love," he said to Sina.
She sighed. "A medium cup then, please. No sugar and a wee bit of milk."
"James?" Edan asked. "I'll get them."
"The same please."
"Two secs." Edan left the room. Before the silence became uncomfortable he was back, with, Athol noted, the biscuits neatly arranged on a plate.
"So, where do we start?" Now the moment had arrived, Athol was impatient to get on and discuss whatever they had to. "Who goes first?"
"I guess I do," Sina said. She picked up a biscuit and dunked it in her coffee. Just as Athol wondered if the biscuit would emerge in one piece or be a soggy mess at the bottom of the mug, she pulled the biscuit out and sucked it into her mouth. "Yum, I'm glad munchkin hasn't put me off these, they're so good. Right, I'm going to start with now, then go back years and then come forward again."
"As ever convoluted," James said. There was only affection, no irritation in his voice. "But actually it'll work best like that."
"If I don't get interrupted. Anyway, last week I got a letter. Postmarked Dundee. I've got it here, but all it said was, 'Does your fiance know who the father of Seonagh is? Do you? Do they? I bet they'd like to know who really is daddy.' That was it. Well, I'd told James everything, but I rather thought you two had no idea I was pregnant. I'd always been open with Seonagh, but just said her dad didn't know I was pregnant and I didn't think it was right to tell him now. I'd always told her I'd loved her dad very much, but we weren't able to be together. She accepted that, and well, James has for all intents and purposes been her dad since she was at primary school." She paused for another dunk and drink.
"Then Seonagh came to us and showed us a letter she'd opened. And we knew someone was shit stirring big time. We didn't know why, and I had no idea how to get in touch with either of you. Then I remembered that if you'd qualified, Athol, you'd be traceable. Well you can imagine my astonishment when I found you were working in Glasgow. And living here." She giggled. "I teach R. S. at a high school about fifteen miles away, and James is head of your local Grammar. We met on a course. How the hell we've never run into each other, I've no idea."
Nor had Athol. "Well, I guess I don't socialize much around here, and I'm a bit away from the village anyway. However, nice to know now... I hope."
James smiled. "Well, we need godparents, and Sina and I hoped we’d find you and ask you both. And that you don't change your mind once you hear all the story."
"Right, so now I'm going back to our uni days. James knows all about us, how we were all one big, happy threesome until I stopped it. Well, you both know that. What you don't know is why." She twisted her cup in her hands. There's one reason and it's Affric. He called on me one evening pretending to be you, Athol. Then when I hit him with a thick heavy box file he said if I told anyone what had happened, he'd say I'd egged him on. Or that I'd mistaken him for you, and you were the one who tried to assault me. I did my best to call his bluff, but then he pulled out what might be the trump card. He added if I didn't split from you both, he'd make all our names mud, and make it clear he was nowhere near me that night, and you were. I daren't take the risk. I'd just found out I was pregnant. And I had no idea which one of you was the father."
****
The expression you could have heard a pin drop fitted the moment perfectly. Edan watched as Athol lost all his color and visibly shook. He moved quickly to hold him tight. At the same time, he willed himself not to tremble.
"You mean?" Edan found it hard to form the question. "Affric?"
"What?” Athol shouted. "Affric raped you?"
"No, oh lord no, not that. He didn't get past trying to kiss me. I'd've known you anywhere, Athol. Affric, well apart from the fact he acted differently from you, his scent wasn't yours either. I had my knitting needles handy and threatened to
shove one up his cock and bend it over. I might have also made unfair comparisons between his size S and your and Edan's XL. With hindsight not the best thing to say, but I was mad."
"And you all paid," James said. "Now all these years on it's my luck, but I know we need to find where and why these letters have occurred now, to have a happy ending."
"We've got to," Sina said. "I'd like to be open and honest with Seonagh as well. She deserves to know who her other dads are."
"That's one of the nicest things I've heard," Athol said.
"I thought she should have the choice whether she meets you or not," Sina said. "But as the letter writer stirred things up, and almost introduced her to a side of life I don't think she's ready for, then we need to make some good come out of all of this."
Edan interpreted the swift glance Athol gave him correctly. It sounded as if Seonagh hadn't mentioned she'd tried to get into Dommisimma, or that she'd met Athol.
"So," Edan said slowly. How's the best way to go about it? I mean we'll do anything you say, but you know her, and you'll have to start the conversation."
"I can see problems, well not problems, but sticky points," Athol said. "It's no use saying," he paused and coughed. "Er, whom does she look like? Is it…?"
Edan thought that wasn't what Athol intended to say. He knew what Seonagh looked like.
Sina put her cup down. "Athol, Seonagh told me she'd tried to get into the club, but the guy on the door stopped her. Was that you?"
"Busted, yeah. Hell, Sina, no way could I have let her in. She was well underage for a start, and you could tell she had no interest whatsoever in the club. When she mentioned Affric's name I was gobsmacked. I knew he was dead and…"
"Dead?" Sina went grey and took hold of James' hand. "Dead? The bastard's dead? Oh, thank goodness." She began to cry. James cuddled her and shrugged.
"She's worried herself sick that he might turn up and shit stir. He sounds, sounded," he corrected himself. "A nasty piece of work. I apologize, that comes over so awful and it's your brother I'm talking about, but he does."
"He was. He was my brother, but I couldn't love him. I admit to feeling relieved when he died. He was warped and troubled, and caused so much grief you'd never believe it. He cost me my parents, and my lovers. Now though, well, hopefully we can move on."
Edan left the room silently and ran upstairs to his bag, where he'd put a bottle of single malt before he'd left his home. He returned to the lounge and held it up. "I think we could do with this. Sina, I reckon you can sniff the bottle, and James? A tiny one and then coffee?"
"Why not. Come on, love, it's all going to work out." James took the box of tissues Athol offered him, and handed one to his wife. "Remember, this is the start of something good."
Sina gave a watery smile, sniffed and blew her nose. "Pregnancy hormones," she said. "Hand me that bottle." She took it from Edan and inhaled. "Yum, peaty and smoky. Okay, that did me good." She returned the bottle to Edan, who poured drams and handed them out among the men.
"I have an idea," Sina said once Athol and Edan had sat down. "There's no time like the present. Seonagh's at home. She came back for the wedding and is staying a few days until the semester starts again. Bless her, she said newlyweds didn't need a grownup daughter around, but as we said, we night be newly wedded but not newly bedded. So, what do you say I ring her? Ask her to come over? It's not far, and she was thinking of visiting a school friend later on. This is really not far out of her way." She looked from Athol to Edan. "It's up to you two, but we need to start somewhere."
Edan watched Athol's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. As his own skin tingled and goose bumps had risen on his arms, he reasoned that Athol would be in the same state. "Up to you, hon. He was your brother."
"What if she wants DNA tests?" James asked. "Would you?"
Edan felt bile rise in his throat. He'd tried not to think of that. Of course he'd do it if it was necessary, but he'd prefer to be in the 'it could be me' state. Cowardly, maybe but, he owned, truthful.
"If we had to," he said. "But … I quite like the thought of being a joint dad."
Athol nodded. "When I saw her, I had a niggling feeling she reminded me of someone. Then I realized it was my mum when she was younger. But that's no help, because Ede and I had joked years ago that if you looked at photos of our respective mothers when they were around Seonagh's age, they could have been twins. However, it's Seonagh's call. We'll respect it."
"Right, then I'll phone her and see if she'll come over." She rummaged in her handbag. "Where's the bloody thing? I swear handbags are bottomless and they swal … ah ha." She pulled out a smart phone and pressed the screen. "Here it is."
"I feel sick," Athol muttered. "Mega wussy and scared."
"Join the club."
Chapter Nine
Athol wished he smoked, or chewed gum, anything to occupy his mind. The butterflies in his stomach were having a party, and he wanted them to stop. "Hell, I knew I should have taken up crochet. Or origami," he said under his breath as Sina waited for her call to be answered. "This is worse than waiting for my exam results to see if I'd deluded myself through all those years of hard graft and clean living."
"Clean living?"
"Yeah, well okay, I did delude myself there. But, Ede, this is scary."
"I know."
"Right, she's on her way," Sina said as she dropped her phone back into her bag. "I just said we'd called on some old friends and they'd love to meet her. She'll be about half an hour." She struggled to her feet. "I'm sorry, but I need to use the loo."
"Door on the left," Athol said. "Shall I show you?"
"Nope, I still remember left and right. Pregnancy hasn't robbed me of that faculty yet."
"So, it's weird that this isn't weird," Athol said once she'd gone. "Seriously, James, are you okay with it all?"
"Yes, why not? Let’s face it. I've known about you two for years. I also knew one day something like this might happen. Not in such a dramatic OTT way, but that either one of you might turn up. I was worried Affric might appear and do his best to cause trouble. But I'm one of the ‘no point in worrying until you have to’ brigade. I did try a bit of digging, but not very thoroughly. I was more concerned with making sure my girls were okay. What is strange is how close we all live, and our paths have never crossed. Mind you, it's no stranger than going into a bar in Thailand with Sina and Seonagh and meeting a couple who we both knew. I'd been at school with her, and Sina was at school with the bloke. So yes, I'm okay with this as long as we all act as grown ups. No spitting the dummy out, or childishness."
"Well damn, I'd got the dummy all ready." Athol was irritated James felt he had to voice that, but allowed it wasn't unexpected. After all, he didn't know them. "Sorry, you're right. I'm edgy."
"We all are," Edan stood up. "I'm going to be on coffee duty and make some more."
"Bring the rest of the biscuits, hon."
"And keep them away from me," Sina said as she reentered the room. "And can I have hot water please? I've got some ginger tea bags. I can't say I like them particularly, but my body does." She sat down again and stared at Athol.
"I feel like a bug on a slide ready to be dissected or something," he said. "Spit it out."
"Who do you think wrote the letters?"
"I've no idea. To my knowledge, I don't know anyone in Dundee. But then whoever wrote them only posted them there. They could live in Timbuktu or Tahiti for all we know, and have just been passing through. Not that Dundee is really on the way to anywhere. Well it is, but…oh shut up, Athol, you're rambling. In answer to your question, love." He glanced at James out of the corner of his eye to see if the endearment caused any comment. It didn't, so Athol continued. "I'm stymied."
"Your parents?" James suggested. "A friend of Affric's? Someone who wants to muck rake for you and Edan?"
"My parents? I've had no contact with them since Affric died. I don't know if he had any friends, he wasn't the sort. An enemy of his more like,
but then, whoever wrote the letters knows things that so few people would. I wonder if we'll ever find out?"
"We will," Edan said as he reentered the room. "There's a wee purple car turning in the drive. Who wants to answer the door?"
"I will," James said. "Let you three take deep breaths and calm down. You all look like you're about to dice for next to be executed."
"I feel it," Athol said.
****
"Hey, mum, what's this all about, eh?” Seonagh walked into the lounge and stopped dead in front of Athol, who leaned on the fire surround. "You? Why didn't you tell me you knew my mum?" she asked in a puzzled voice. "You never said a word, just called me out."
"I didn't know you were you. I was more concerned with explaining why you couldn't go into the club than life histories." He didn't dare go into any more detail. Would she accept that admittedly limp excuse?
After several seconds, she seemed to make up her mind and nodded. Athol was under no illusion she wouldn't go back to his omission at a later time. If she were anything like her mother, she'd be like a terrier with a rat until she found out what she wanted.
"Okay, then, hello. I'm Seonagh McMath, even though you know that."
Shite now's the time to be excommunicated from her world forever.
"I'm Athol Donaldson."
Seonagh blinked. "Athol Donaldson. Is that supposed to mean something? Oh and er, pleased to meet you, I think." She turned to Edan. "And at the risk of sounding rude, are you a blast from my mum's past as well?"
"Edan Murdoch, and yes."
Seonagh giggled in a nervous way. "Is this where I learn my mum was in a threesome?" It was clear she didn't really entertain that idea.
Athol shot a quick glance at Sina. She'd lost a lot of color, and the expression on her face showed how worried she was.
"Yes, and before you say a word, remember you're not here to judge, but to listen," Sina said. "That was then and this is now."
Seonagh swallowed and stared at her mother as if she had two heads. "You … them … shit … dad, can you go with that?"
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