The Last Day of Winter

by Shari Low

  The laughter started as a low hum of incredulity, then swept around the room until all of them caught the bug, tears streaming down faces, hands holding hands, heads shaking.

  ‘Josie bloody Cairney,’ Senga said, blowing her nose. ‘Only she could make all of us laugh like this even when she’s gone.’

  Stacey leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her mum’s shoulders, squeezing her tight, letting her know that she was there for her. She just wanted to hold on to her forever. It felt like life was way too fragile to let her go.

  It took Michael a moment before he was able to speak again. ‘I think she knew she was going to go sooner than the doctors said. Or at least, she wanted to be prepared. And I think that if you’d asked my mother how she wanted to leave this world, she’d have said peacefully, in her sleep, after a rip-roaring party with everyone she loved. We all know what she was like. She was the most brilliant woman I’ve ever known. She loved life, and all of us here, and she lived every day on her own terms. I think that she died that way too. And she wouldn’t have had it any other way.’

  Just at that, the door opened and a very respectful manager took one step into the room. ‘I’m so sorry again for your loss,’ he told them. ‘Is there anything we can get for you? Anything at all?’

  Glances shot between them all, subliminal messages being passed from one to another. It was Val who articulated their meaning.

  ‘Some champagne, son,’ she said. ‘Can you send up a couple of bottles?’ She turned from the shocked hotel employee to her husband Don. ‘And, Don, love, if you could sort out my phone and get a bit of Tom Jones on it, that would be grand. Josie would expect nothing less.’

  ‘Yaaassss!’ That came from Avril, and set the tone for the others.

  As the manager backed out of the room and Don fished Val’s phone out of her bag, Stacey took her turn to speak.

  ‘Last night, Aunt Josie said goodbye to me too. She said she loved me and she told me to live my best life. I keep hearing her say that now.’

  The others nodded, the truth of that statement resonating with them all.

  Live your best life.

  That had come from a woman who had led by example.

  Epilogue

  Nine Months Later

  The gardens were busy with members of the public, but the group of family and friends had congregated in a quiet area round the back of the Kibble Palace, by the pagoda.

  Caro handed her daughter to Seb, who beamed with the kind of happiness that he could never have believed he would ever feel again. The last nine months… well, they’d been the most wonderful adventure. He’d gone back to Spain after Josie’s funeral, but when Caro had called a couple of weeks later to tell him she was pregnant, he’d come to a decision. He’d handed in his notice, sold up everything he possessed and moved back to Scotland. By some stroke of magnificent timing, he’d managed to get a job at the club he’d worked at when he first met Juliet. He had a sneaking suspicion that she had something to do with that. Ever since Caro’s wedding, he’d felt Juliet’s presence around him, caring for him, protecting him. The drinking had stopped – he had no need for it now and he wanted to be sober to enjoy every moment of this new life.

  There had been no more mention of DNA tests or doubts over paternity. As far as both he and Caro were concerned, he was her dad. And a grandad now too. He had a ready-made family and it came with a group of friends whose acceptance had helped him put together the pieces of a new life.

  ‘You’re good at that,’ Senga teased him as she wandered to his side. He’d got to know her well since he’d moved back. It wasn’t long since she’d lost her husband, so they understood each other, knew what it took to readjust to life without the person you thought you would grow old with. For now, they were friends, but lately he’d come to contemplate a future in which she could be something more. It would take time, but like everything else that had happened since he set foot in Glasgow just before Christmas, he truly felt that Juliet would approve.

  Caro watched Seb gaze at his granddaughter with pure adoration and the sight of it made her heart swell. ‘He’s so good with her,’ she whispered to Cammy, who was pouring drinks at the picnic table in front of them. ‘How lucky are we to have him? Although, Auntie Pearl is still taking all the credit for tracking him down. She says she deserved a medal.’ Caro caught Pearl’s eye a few metres away and blew her a kiss. If Pearl wanted the credit, she was happy to give it – even if she still felt that there had been a whole load of divine intervention.

  She was so glad that Pearl and Bob had travelled back from Spain to be here today.

  They’d considered having a formal naming ceremony, then decided against it because it wasn’t their style. This was their idea of the perfect day – sun, fresh air, everyone they loved, and drinks and food on rugs on the grass.

  ‘I still can’t believe that eight months ago, we didn’t even know that she was coming,’ Caro said. It had been the shock of her life, and that was saying something given everything that had happened to her over the last few years. She’d started to feel exhausted at the start of the New Year, but she’d put it down to transitioning from the stress she’d felt before the wedding, to the grief she’d felt afterwards. Christmas had been a tough time for them all, but they’d made an effort, knowing that Josie wouldn’t have wanted them to mope. They were a couple of weeks into the new year, when Chrissie had noticed her pushing away her favourite dessert. ‘Are you okay?’ she’d asked.

  Caro had nodded. ‘Yeah, just not feeling like it. I’ve lost my appetite a bit. Think it’s just with everything that’s been going on.’

  Chrissie had thought about that. ‘And yet, you borrowed my size fourteen jeans last week because you said your size twelves were killing you.’

  She had a point. Caro hadn’t really made the connection, but now that she mentioned it…

  They had both reached the same place and blurted out their thoughts at the same time.

  ‘Could you be pregnant?’

  ‘Could I be pregnant?’

  She’d skipped back in her mind. Her periods had always been irregular and she hadn’t had one for a while, but she’d put that down to pre-wedding nerves. Could those same pre-wedding nerves have been influenced by raging pregnancy hormones? So much made sense now.

  Cammy had been absolutely delighted. It hadn’t been planned and they hadn’t been trying, but they hadn’t been doing anything to avoid it either. They’d always thought that what was meant to be would be. Apparently, what was meant to be was an eight pound baby girl, six months later. They could hear Josie singing ‘Que Sera Sera’ the day she was born.

  Stacey wandered over to the table and picked up a glass of Prosecco. ‘Well, did you watch it?’ she asked, wide-eyed and giggling. Both Caro and Cammy nodded shamefully, before Caro spoke. ‘Yes! We couldn’t help ourselves. God, it was tragic.’

  ‘I know! But somehow…’

  ‘Yep, we’ll be watching it again tonight,’ Caro said, in fits of laughter as she read Stacey’s mind.

  Stacey grinned, loving the relationship that she’d built up with this woman. They shared so much – interests, opinions, love for the same man and an obsession with the new reality series Heartbreak Hotspot. It was their guilty pleasure – a show that put a dozen people (six men and six women) who’d had their hearts broken, on an island in the sun and left them to it, the viewers lapping up the drama and voting one person off every week. The most notorious by far had been one Lila Anderson, who had got the gig after a video of her gatecrashing her sister’s wedding had gone viral. Lila had become an overnight celebrity, the reality bad girl, falling out of nightclubs, dating a different guy every week, and having so many headline grabbing beauty procedures, she now had lips like a sink plunger and her boobs were a 34GG.

  ‘Nope, I’m not doing it. I’m going to find something far more intellectual. Like footie,’ Cammy announced, grinning, knowing he had to change the conversation. When these two got
on to the subject of that show, they could gab for hours. ‘How’s the flat?’ he asked Stacey.

  ‘Yeah, we’re loving it,’ Stacey said, her eyes flicking over to Zac, who had managed to tie in a business trip so that he could be here today. It was his third visit since Christmas, but this one was special because it was their first time in the flat that Stacey was renting from Cammy and Caro. They’d moved into a bigger place on the floor below after the baby came. Stacey, meanwhile, had taken Josie’s advice and was now splitting her time between LA and Scotland so that she could spend more time with Senga. It was made easier by the fact that she’d been inundated with offers of work in the UK after the video of her tossing Lila out of the wedding had become an internet sensation. People still used the hashtag #putthetrashout.

  ‘I like him,’ Cammy said, following her gaze.

  ‘Yeah, me too,’ she admitted, gleefully. This was a different kind of love to the one she’d felt for Cammy. It felt more… right. More real. And it definitely helped that he felt exactly the same way at the same time.

  As she made her way back to him, she heard Cammy shout over to the woman in the bright pink suit with a hat the size of a satellite dish.

  ‘Val, would you do the honours please?’ They all watched as Val gently lifted the sleeping baby from Seb’s arms.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, could I have your attention please?’ she said loudly, before being swiftly interrupted.

  ‘Auntie Val, is that a real baby?’

  ‘Yes, it is, son,’ she answered the wide-eyed gaze of Josie’s grandson, Harrison.

  ‘We’ve got one of those too,’ Harrison cried with wonder, pointing at his dad, Michael, and his mum, Mel, sitting cross-legged on a rug nearby. Mel was holding baby Daniel, born just a few months before Caro and Cammy added to the family. ‘But Auntie Avril says that if he doesn’t stop crying we can send him back.’

  ‘Oh, you’re such a grass, Harrison Cairney!’ Avril had chided, swooping up her nephew and tickling him until he squealed. After years of being away, she’d been based in Glasgow for the last month, working on a new BBC drama. It was so bittersweet that she’d landed a contract here after her mother was gone. She and Michael had kept Josie’s house, so that they’d always have a connection to their mum and that’s where Avril had been staying. Every day, she ached with the loss of her, but sometimes she felt like Josie’s spirit was so vivid there that she could hear her popping on the kettle and cracking open the biscuit tin.

  Val took back control of the proceedings, refusing to give in to the tears that she knew were sitting right behind her eyes, ready to flow. She wouldn’t let them. Josie would kill her if she crumbled now. She missed her best friend every single day, but she knew that Josie would want her to be strong, and take care of everyone who meant so much to them both. Starting with this little one in her arms right now.

  ‘I’d like you all to meet my beautiful god-daughter,’ Val began, beaming at all the people she loved. This was a special day. Josie would have loved it. ‘This is Josephine. And if she’s anything like the last Josie in our lives, then heaven help us all.’

  Acknowledgements

  Once again, my thanks to the fabulous Hannah Smith at Aria for her encouragement, patience and unfailing calm in the face of any crisis. Thanks too to the wonderful Vicky Joss for spreading the word with such skill and enthusiasm, and to Rose Fox and Jade Craddock who worked on the manuscript along the way.

  Huge appreciation to all the bloggers and reviewers who have been so incredibly supportive of my work. And my love to all the amazing readers who continue to buy my books and who make my day, every day.

  As always, gratitude to all my gal pals, who are never far away and who make my kitchen just like Josie’s – a hive of tea, caramel wafers, drama, chat, support, scandal, occasional tears and a whole lot of laughter. I love you all.

  And finally, to my guys, J, C & B – I never forget how lucky I am.

  Love,

  Shari xx

  About the Author

  SHARI LOW is the No. 1 best-selling author of over 20 novels, including A Life Without You, The Story Of Our Life, With Or Without You, Another Day In Winter and her latest release, This Is Me. And because she likes to over-share toe-curling moments and hapless disasters, she is also the shameless mother behind a collection of parenthood memories called Because Mummy Said So.

  Once upon a time she met a guy, got engaged after a week, and twenty-something years later she lives near Glasgow with her husband, a labradoodle, and two teenagers who think she’s fairly embarrassing, except when they need a lift.

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