The Accidental Family

by Rowan Coleman

  “Excuse me, but I think kissing an older woman is probably quite impressive,” Sophie protested.

  “And so does my James,” Carmen added with a nod.

  “It depends on the older woman, love,” Cal said. “Anyway, in the great scheme of things, even though kissing your fiancé’s son is potentially the worst thing you could have done, it’s not that important. Just go home to Louis in a few hours and act like nothing’s happened.”

  “Like I didn’t have Seth here at all?” Sophie asked him.

  “Probably for the best,” Carmen agreed. “Think of it all as a nightmare …or maybe a dream, talking of which—how was that kiss, you looked like you were enjoying it.”

  “How many times do I have to say this! I was in shock, that’s why I didn’t pull away immediately.” Sophie’s voice rose sufficiently to cause her friends to shush her. “And anyway, you’re not supposed to lie to your fiancé. If it was okay to lie to your fiancé, then I would never have told Louis about Seth in the first place.”

  “You do still want to be engaged to him,” Cal said, “don’t you?”

  “Of course I do!” Sophie said. “I love him.”

  “Then go round later, act like nothing has happened, don’t say anything, and play it by ear.” Cal cocked one eyebrow. “And try not to snog any other of his relatives on the way.”

  Sophie paused outside Louis’s front door, just as she had six months ago when she’d decided to come down here from London and see if she could make things with him work.

  She had hesitated then, unsure of what her reception would be, unsure of how he felt about her. It was strange, given all that had happened and the ring on her finger, that she felt exactly the same way now, six months later.

  Taking a breath, she slid her key into the lock and let herself in.

  It was early, barely five A.M., and the house was dark and quiet.

  Sophie had tried to stay at the B & B until later, to act as if this morning was a perfectly normal Saturday morning and that nothing untoward had happened last night, but she couldn’t. After trying to fall asleep for over an hour and failing, spending several minutes instead tossing and turning and looking at the darkness where her ceiling ought to be, Sophie had got up and stood in the tiny shower in her bathroom, her forehead pressed to the textured tiles, the warm water running in rivulets over her shoulders and buttocks. When that didn’t seem to calm her, she tried reading a book, even watching what little TV she could find on in the early hours of the morning for a bit, but nothing calmed her, she felt restless and anxious and desperate to see Louis. So she’d woken up Cal and told him where she was going.

  “You didn’t have to wake me up too,” he complained, shoving his head under his pillow.

  “I did just in case you wanted to talk me out of it,” Sophie whispered to the pillow.

  “Okay, don’t go now. It’s far too early, it will look weird, and anyway, I thought you weren’t supposed to be there when the girls woke up until after you’re married.”

  “No, I have to go,” Sophie said. “I have to see him, I just have to. Everything is wrong and all pulled apart. If I wait until the sun comes up and it’s officially another day, then everything that happened tonight will seem like a dream. It will seem unreal, only it is real. I need to be with him now. I need to be able to touch him and put my arms around him and hear his heart beating and know that we are still just as close as we’ve always been. I’ll get up before the girls do, like I did the other morning. I have to go, Cal, I have …Cal?”

  “Whatever,” Cal mumbled. “Just please let me sleep.”

  Carefully Sophie set her bag and keys down on the hall table and crept up the stairs. Ever so carefully she pushed open Bella’s bedroom door and peeped round to check on her. All she could see was a fluff of dark hair above the duvet, her small body curled up beneath it.

  In Izzy’s room all was quiet too, although Izzy had flung her covers off and lay there with her arms above her head, knees bent up, one toe pointed, as if she had fallen asleep mid dance step, which, knowing Izzy, was entirely possible.

  Then ever so slowly Sophie crept into Louis’s room. The room that would one day be their room. He was lying facedown. His clothes were strewn around the foot of the bed as if he had just climbed into bed and fallen right to sleep. Sophie watched him for a second or two in the half-light, sorting out his features from his son’s. As she looked at him, her heart in her mouth for fear that he’d wake up and find her there, Sophie realized that the two men actually looked quite different.

  Louis’s jawline was square, his cheekbones were a little more pronounced, and he had a bump on the bridge of his nose that Sophie loved to run her forefinger over, tracing a path to his beautifully shaped mouth. Seth’s face, in comparison, was soft, not yet fully formed, his face more heart shaped, like Wendy’s, his nose straight and narrow. He did have his father’s coloring though, and his father’s beautifully shaped mouth. Sophie took a breath, running her hands through her hair, unsure of what to do next. Should she wake Louis up and try to talk to him? Explain what had happened with Seth? Or perhaps Cal was right. Perhaps she should just turn around and go back to the B & B and wait to see what the dawn would bring.

  Then Louis moaned a little in his sleep, the flicker of a smile briefly lighting his face, and he rolled onto his back, exposing his torso. Sophie found she did not want to leave.

  Slowly, quietly, she slipped out of her jeans and pulled her T-shirt over her head, shaking her hair out over her shoulders. After a second she unhooked her bra and slipped off her knickers.

  In all the times she had been with Louis in this house she had only gotten into this bed with him once, although he’d begged her to join him several times. Sophie had always told herself and Louis that she was waiting for them to be married, waiting for the children to get used to the idea, but as she stood naked on the verge of getting into his bed, she realized that it had been about more than that. This place was a symbol, a final sign of commitment. And recently, when she should have been feeling so close to him and yet felt so far away, it was the only place where she knew how to reach him.

  Sophie held her breath, uncertain of how he’d react, and then slowly, gingerly, as if there might be monsters lurking beneath the covers, she eased her way under the duvet, lying on her back next to him, the smooth sheet feeling cool against the heat of her body. Slowly she turned her head to look at his sleeping face, half obscured by the pillow. Wherever he was now he was probably far from the son who didn’t want to know him and she wasn’t sure he would thank her for taking him back to that world. Sophie bit her lip and looked at the ceiling. She’d never done this sort of thing before, woken a man up for sex. She wasn’t exactly sure of the etiquette or procedure. Should she give him a quick prod, she wondered, and then pounce? The shock might give him a heart attack. Should she whisper sweet nothings in his ear until he opened his eyes and smiled at her? Except that despite her lack of experience in spending the whole night with him, Sophie knew that when Louis was out, he was out for the count. Once Bella and Izzy had treated him to an early morning serenade with their Barbie guitars and a set of drums made out of a tin that Bella had found in the garden shed. Louis hadn’t turned a hair. He had snored through the whole of their hard-rock rendition of “Love in an Elevator.” It had fallen to Bella to fill the toothbrush mug with cold water and tip it over her father’s head in a bid to get her audience’s attention.

  The first thing Bella had said, Louis told her later, when he’d finally stemmed the shocked stream of expletives that had burst out of his mouth, was “Daddy, you are not supposed to swear in front of us.”

  Sophie tensed as Louis shifted his position again, rolling once more onto his stomach, one arm trapped awkwardly beneath him. At least if she pounced on him now, she’d save him from a terrible case of pins and needles.

  There was nothing else for it, Sophie told herself sternly. After all, she was here now, literally naked and in his b
ed. The only alternative to trying to wake him up was to slip back out of bed and secretly put her clothes back on and leave; and although in the past Sophie could have been fairly accused of being emotionally cowardly at many points in her life, she was determined that this was not going to be one of them. Sex was the thing that she and Louis were best at. It was the cornerstone of their love for each other. Here in his bed was the place where she would find the intimacy with him that had somehow slipped just ever so slightly out of kilter.

  Sophie Mills braced herself for seduction.

  Rolling onto her side she slid her hand down his back, stroking her palm gently over his buttocks. She watched his face as a frown flickered between his eyes and faded again. Sidling a little closer so that her breast brushed against his bicep, she repeated the action, stroking his back and bottom and this time softly kissing his shoulder and neck.

  Louis’s eyes flickered open.

  “Wassat?” he murmured, hunching his shoulder against her kiss.

  “It’s me, Sophie,” she whispered. “I missed you. I came to see how you were and whether or not you felt like having sex with me.”

  Sophie screwed her eyes tightly shut for a second. She really was going to have to work on her sexy-talk skills. Still, as hackneyed as they were, they were effective. Louis was now wide awake.

  He rolled on his side to face Sophie, reaching out to trace the curve of her cheek with his fingers.

  “Are you really here or is this just a very vivid dream?” he asked her, his voice low and hoarse.

  “I don’t know,” Sophie said, hearing the smile in her voice. “Why don’t you pinch yourself and see?”

  Louis’s arm encircled her waist and he pulled her body flush against his, moaning as her breasts crushed against his chest.

  “I think I’ll pinch you instead,” he said into her neck, his hand cupping her bottom. “God, Sophie, it’s so good to see you. How did you know I was missing you?”

  “I didn’t,” Sophie said. “I just knew that I was missing you.”

  “I’m glad.” Sophie felt Louis’s mouth curl into a smile against her cheek. “Two nights in a row—does this finally mean you’ve declared a bed amnesty?” he whispered.

  “Yes—and it’s getting light, so you’d better make the most of it; I want to be downstairs and fully dressed before the girls wake up,” Sophie replied before kissing him so hard that she pushed him onto his back and then she rolled on top of him.

  “Oh, Soph,” Louis said. “This is the best ever way to wake up.”

  Sophie smiled into his eyes as she moved on top of him. Here in his arms, in his bed, among his kisses and caresses, everything was perfect, nothing could touch them, they were safe from harm and could keep the outside world at bay for a few hours. As her hand traveled downward between his thighs, she briefly considered that perhaps passion wasn’t the best basis for a serious relationship, but it was like Grace had said—as long as one of them died before they got bored with each other, everything would be fine.

  “Aunty Sophie, you are in Daddy’s bed.” Sophie sat up with a jolt, drawing the covers over her breasts, to find Bella, in her pajamas, staring at her in shock.

  “Oh god, I went back to sleep,” Sophie moaned, more to herself than Bella. She looked at her watch. It was well past nine in the morning, which was the very latest that the girls ever slept.

  “That is Daddy’s bed,” Bella repeated. “And you are not married yet—are you?”

  Sophie struggled to compose herself and, even more crucially, form a coherent thought.

  “No, no …um, yes, yes—I am in Daddy’s bed because I was so jolly tired last night, I didn’t think I could get back to the B and B without falling asleep on the way, and sooooo …Louis …Louis, wake up. Wake up now.”

  “What …again? Babe, you are amazing, but I am only a man—I need at least another half an hour …oh fu …flip— hello, Bellarina.”

  “Sophie is in your bed,” Bella stated again, incredulous, as if she couldn’t quite believe that no one else realized what was going on.

  “Yes, I know,” Louis said. “Sophie stayed for a sleepover.”

  “I’m sorry, Bella, it must be very strange for you to come in and find me here like this, but like Daddy said, I was very tired and decided to sleep over.”

  “A sleepover, but when?” Bella asked Louis. “Mrs. Alexander was still here when we went to bed and I heard you come in and Aunty Sophie wasn’t here then. She wasn’t even here when you went to sleep, and I know because when I went to the toilet, I checked on you and she wasn’t here then.”

  Sophie trembled under Bella’s concise interrogation technique, but Louis took it perfectly in stride, draping an arm around Sophie’s shoulder and smiling at his daughter.

  “No, she came for a late sleepover. Sometimes grown-ups have late sleepovers,” Louis explained. “It was really more of a practice for when we are married and Sophie will be sleeping in this bed every night and we will get to see her every morning, which will be brilliant.”

  “Well, it was a bit of a shock,” Bella said. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

  “I’m sorry, Bella,” Sophie told her. She reached out a hand, and to her relief Bella took it and climbed onto the bed, curling up against Sophie. “It must have been a bit of a shock to find me here this morning. I should have told you I was coming for a sleepover. I promise not to surprise you that way again. In fact, I won’t be sleeping over again until after Daddy and I are married, I promise.”

  “Do you?” Bella and Louis asked at the same time, both looking equally perplexed.

  “Apart from the surprise, I don’t think I mind you sleeping over,” Bella said. “I like it, and if you sleep over, then sometimes I can come and sleep with you like I did in London. Do you remember when we listened to the sound of the traffic and pretended it was waves?”

  “I do,” Sophie said, recalling how she and Bella had squeezed onto her two-seater sofa and curled up together whenever things got a bit too much for them.

  Bella twisted around to look at her, a smile playing around her lips. “Did Daddy snore?”

  “Yes.” Sophie nodded. “All the time. I’ve never heard anything so loud in all my life.”

  “Then sometimes you can come and sleep in my room, because I don’t snore. You snore, but only like a cat purring. Me and Izzy say that Dad’s snore sounds like a wolf growling!”

  “It does, or an elephant with a blocked-up nose,” Sophie replied, sending Bella into fits of giggles.

  “Hey, you two,” Louis protested. “I do not snore.”

  “You do!” Sophie and Bella giggled together.

  “So are you sure you don’t mind me being here?” Sophie asked her. “That you’re not upset or worried?”

  “I like having you for a sleepover,” Bella said, suddenly serious. “But it would be more fun if you were in my room. I’ve got a blow-up High School Musical bed, which is designed for the purpose of a sleepover. You wouldn’t fit in it, but I would, and you could sleep in my bed, except that Artemis probably wouldn’t want to share with you and if she got in my blow-up bed her claws might burst it, so we’d have to shut her in the kitchen with Tango.”

  “Don’t you worry, I’m sure we’ll work something out for my next sleepover,” Sophie said, kissing the top of Bella’s head.

  “But for now,” Louis said, his fingertip caressing Sophie’s thigh under the covers, “how about you run downstairs and get the Coco Pops out—it is a Coco Pops day today, isn’t it?”

  “No, Daddy, it is a Shreddies day, which you know perfectly well. You don’t have to worry. I don’t need Coco Pops to make me feel better about Aunty Sophie having a sleepover.”

  “Right—well, good,” Louis said, looking suitably chastened. “How about you run down and get the Shreddies out and I’ll be down in a second.”

  Bella stayed on the bed, nestling into the crook of Sophie’s shoulder.

  “I’m glad I’ve got you, Aunty Sophie,�
�� Bella said.

  “I’m glad I’ve got you,” Sophie said, putting her arms around the little girl and hugging her gently.

  “You are my BFF,” Bella told her.

  “And you’re mine,” Sophie said, utterly unclear as to what it was she had been told, only that whatever it was, it clearly meant a lot to the child.

  “I know,” Bella said. She cast a sideways glance at her father. “Daddy, can we just this once have Coco Pops today even though it is not, strictly speaking, a Coco Pops day?”

  “Go for it,” Louis told her.

  She hopped off the bed and ran into the hallway yelling, “Izzy, get up! Aunty Sophie stayed for a sleepover and it’s a Coco Pops day!”

  “Yay!” Izzy shouted as she thundered down the stairs after her sister a few seconds later.

  “That was tricky,” Sophie said, lying back on the bed and examining the ceiling. “I was waiting for her to ask me where my pajamas were …we shouldn’t have put her through that, or Izzy. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

  “I thought she was pretty cool about it,” Louis said, sliding his hand up across her belly and resting it on her breast.

  “I know she acts cool and together, but we shouldn’t do this. She’s only a little child, they both are. Children who have had a lot to deal with and precious little stability recently, they don’t need any more surprises.”

  “Do you mean finding out you had a sleepover or do you mean Seth?” Louis sighed, withdrawing the warmth of his touch from her body as he flopped onto his back.

  “Well …” Sophie hesitated. Until that moment the whole of last night had gone out of her head, except for the part where Louis’s body had been wrapped around her. Play it by ear, Cal had said. See what happens.

  “How did it go with Seth anyway?” she asked him tentatively.

  “Badly.” Louis rubbed his hands roughly over his face. “It went really badly. Wendy said we should come right out with it, no beating around the bush, she said. So he turned up to find me sitting in his living room—and when I saw him, Soph …it was so weird. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel, but I thought I’d feel something—like a spark of recognition, something in my chest, you know, that pulling feeling you get when you look at the girls. When I came back from Peru, I hadn’t seen Bella for so long, or Izzy ever, but the second I set eyes on them, it was there, that ache that tells you you love them. But I sat there and I looked at this …this man and I …well, there was nothing there. And he must have seen that in my face, he must have known.”