He turned back again at the sound of Nerea calling his name. He looked at her helplessly, his heart too full to be able to express even a fraction of it. He knew she understood, though. Standing, he crossed the room to where Jamie and Nerea were now curled up together in the chair, and wrapped his arms around them.
“I love both of you,” he said, his own voice threatening to break. “More than I can possibly say.”
CALLUM DIDN’T REMEMBER hey-Nerea’s-pregnant celebratory sex to be quite so celebratory. But then, the last time they’d had it had been a long time ago. And Jamie, of course, hadn’t been involved.
After, none of them could sleep.
“I’ve been thinking,” Callum said.
Nerea, the covers folded around her, said, “For a change.”
“What’s that?” Jamie asked.
“As you both know I made a lot of promises to Nerea a long time ago, and I didn’t exactly keep all of them,” Callum said. “I can’t do anything about the horrific timing of the press tour for this movie — although I’m going to try — but other than that, I do want to live up to those promises. And Jamie, your willingness to make sacrifices is noble — ”
“And the right thing to do,” Nerea interjected lazily.
“And the right thing to do,” Callum echoed with a smile. “But you also deserve to have your career. You have so much promise, so much opportunity — moments like this don’t come twice, and I can’t let you squander this one. So I want to take some time off. A year, two, maybe even three. Completely off,” he added, just to be entirely clear. “No projects, no press tours, nothing.” When the idea had first occurred to him, he had felt frightened and worried about how he was going to pick his career back up again after the break. But now, as he said it, it all seemed simple, a good and right thing he could only look forward to.
“That’s very thoughtful of you,” Nerea said. “And I’m certainly not going to say no. But what about your work? It’s not as if you don’t love what you do.”
Callum shrugged. “I have this movie coming out, other things in production — the projects will be rolling out for a while after I stop making new ones. No one will even notice I’m gone. And if they do — well, a baby at my ripe old age is a rather good excuse.”
“The media’s going to be way too interested in this, you know,” Jamie put in.
“Mhmmm,” Nerea agreed, running a hand back through Jamie’s hair. “I do know. And as I hope you can guess now, all the terrible things are going to be said about me.”
“That’s bollocks,” Jamie said, his face darkening.
“It is,” Callum agreed.
“And if you want me to do what you do, Callum, where you just sort of quietly terrify people who are awful to Nerea — I guess I can do that. But I also don’t want to be your friend, or whatever, forever. I’m okay with taking some time to figure out what the official story is, but I do want to be a part of it. The story is already trickling out, surely, and we should just get this done.”
“Jamie,” Nerea said. “I have been, in my neighbors’ words, flaunting you before God and everyone for the last week. What makes you think that’s going to change once we’re back in the real world?”
Jamie seemed to take a moment to absorb that. Then he nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Good.”
“Believe me when I say it’s going to be absolutely excruciating, when word of this does get out,” Nerea said. “It’s a minor miracle that the Tate show hasn’t had major fall out. We won’t get lucky like that twice.”
“Which is why we should make a plan now,” Jamie said. “So we can be prepared.”
“And control the message,” Nerea agreed.
“So,” Callum said, “What about my incredibly generous offer to take a few years off?”
He laughed in delight at the exasperated look his wife and his partner gave each other. Whatever else was changing — and rapidly — in their lives, the relationships between the three of them were only going to grow stronger and deeper. But the little everyday joys that had made him fall in love with Nerea and Jamie in the first place were still there.
“We think it’s very generous, entirely appropriate, and definitely appreciated,” Nerea said, turning back to look at Callum. “Was there some other response you were looking for?”
“No,” Callum smirked. “But if Jamie gets credit for being decent and noble, so do I.”
“Ugh, you’re both insufferable,” Nerea said, but she was laughing.
Jamie made a noise of protest. And then he squeaked as Callum rolled over on top of him, pinning him with his weight. Jamie wriggled happily under him.
“Oh no. No no. You’re not keeping him all to yourself,” Nerea said and draped herself over the both of them.
“Oi! Heavy!” Jamie protested, but Callum was pretty sure he’d never seen him look happier.
Chapter 36 - Nerea attempts to mother from a healthy distance
Once Jamie was down in the kitchen, the friendly clatter of dishes floating up the stairs, Callum scooched toward her on the bed, his curls a mess and the sheets tangled around his long legs.
“Nerea,” he said very gently, his big hand splayed over her heart. “Are you sure?”
Nerea didn’t hit him with a pillow only because she was too lazy and comfortable to move. “If you ask me that even one more time,” she said fiercely, “I will divorce you, marry Jamie, and move to — I don’t know where, but somewhere far away from you, your ego, and your need for reassurance.”
Callum didn’t draw back his hand or recoil, not that she’d expected him to. He just smiled the very gentle smile that had always been just for her. She felt her irritation melt.
“Just checking.” he said.
Nerea reconsidered hitting him with a pillow. “You’re impossible.”
“Yes.”
“But I love you.”
He smiled and leaned down to kiss her with a combination of such gentleness and thoroughness that she thought she might come apart in his hands. “I love you too,” he breathed into her mouth.
BEING IN LONDON IN the first days of the new year was a breath of fresh air; a return to real life after a strange, dreamlike interlude. Which was odd, because Spain had always felt the most real to Nerea. Except now, that seemed to be changing. Jamie kept most of his things at his flat in Lambeth and even stayed there for a night every so often when the cramped conditions of Callum and Nerea’s flat got to be too much for all of them. The situation provided plenty of impetus for looking through the dozens of property listings Jamie found after a protracted conversation about what their financial arrangements could reasonably be.
Leigh’s baby was born in the second week of January, a healthy, smiling boy named Daniel. Nerea hadn’t told Leigh or indeed any of her daughters that she herself was pregnant. There was no call to, not until it was more certain, and besides it was bad luck this early. But as she watched Callum hold their own first grandchild with an expression of awed joy and devotion, she couldn’t help but imagine how that conversation would go. Dramatically, in all likelihood.
Nerea stayed with Leigh and Sam for the first two weeks of the baby’s life. Now, she could be useful without being unduly smothering. She told Leigh, at three one morning when the baby was determined to be loud and awake, that she and Callum were in the process of making London, and not Spain, their home base, and that the house would go to Margarita. Margarita had been thrilled at the news, both because it meant the old house would stay in the family and because it would significantly alleviate the financial concerns of starting a life together with Miguel. Leigh, however, looked less overjoyed. Nerea couldn’t tell for certain in the dim light coming from the nightlight in the baby’s room, but Nerea rather thought her face went pale.
“Not to smother you,” Nerea said. “Or hover over the baby or anything like that. But it’s time to make the adjustment.”
“Are you moving because of Jamie?” Leigh asked keenly once she’d recovered herself.
“Yes. That’s part of it,” Nerea admitted.
“I spent a lot of time talking to Antonio at the wedding,” Leigh said. “He and his wife invited me and Sam and Danny to come out and visit them, whenever we want.”
“That’s very good of them,” Nerea said. “Will you go?”
“Will Dad be awful about it?”
Nerea smiled. “I highly, highly doubt it.” One of the very many upsides of this situation was that Callum was not about to repeat any bad behavior regarding Nerea’s history with Tonio.
“I think they invited Piper too, but Piper’s been kind of. Um. Scarce, since Christmas.”
Nerea sighed and shared a commiserating smile with Leigh. “Yes. We’re working on that.”
IT TOOK CALLUM UNTIL the first week of February before he saw Thom again. Nerea suspected that was more out of not quite knowing how to act with him than actual lingering anger, but either way, it was good when, at her and Jamie’s combined urgings, he went out to meet Thom on neutral ground for a pint and whatever manly chat they needed to have.
Callum arrived back home late and slightly drunk. Jamie and Nerea were in bed together watching a house hunting show on Jamie’s laptop — for inspiration, Jamie claimed, but Nerea suspected he was just a homebody who liked looking at other people’s houses — while Nerea worked on sketches.
“How did it go?” Nerea prompted, when Callum flopped onto the sofa looking distraught. She wondered if she’d been wrong; maybe Callum had been appalling to Thom. The look on Callum’s face didn’t suggest their meeting had gone well.
“He asked my permission,” Callum said. His voice was barely audible.
“Permission for what?” It was far too late, not to mention inappropriate, for Thom to ask Callum for permission to date Piper.
“To marry her.”
Jamie’s jaw dropped open.
Nerea burst out laughing, in disbelief at the statement as much as at the look on Callum’s face.
“Seriously?” she said when she could finally breathe again.
Callum slumped lower in the sofa. Even his curls looked dejected, lying a bit limp around his ears.
“Seriously.”
“But she’s so young!” Nerea said.
“She’s older than me,” Jamie pointed out.
Callum groaned and covered his face with his hands.
“What did you say?” Nerea demanded, crawling out of bed and dropping onto the sofa next to Callum.
Callum didn’t take his hands away from his face. “I told him not to be medieval and chauvinistic and that my daughter could marry whoever she wants. He said, thank God, because they’ve been engaged since New Year’s.”
Nerea started laughing again. “Are you two going to be okay now, or are you going to threaten fisticuffs anytime he comes near you?”
“We’re fine,” Callum told his palms. Jamie, who’d also gotten out of bed, stood behind the sofa and started massaging his shoulders gently, with an immense grin on his face. “We’re never speaking of this again, and we’re meeting for dinner next week. Just like normal.”
“So if Thom’s your best friend,” Jamie asked, in a tone of exaggerated pensiveness as he dug a thumb in behind Callum’s shoulder blade, “does that mean that you’re going to be the best man at your daughter’s wedding?”
Nerea clapped her hands over her mouth to cover her shriek of delight at that image. Jamie shot her a smile, pleased with himself.
Callum swore.
Chapter 37 - Jamie makes a phone call
In March, they started talking a lot less about hypotheticals and a lot more about plans. Callum and Nerea took Jamie with them to a meeting with their solicitor to make, as Nerea rather euphemistically called them, arrangements. A civil union between the three of them was obviously outside the realm of possibility. The next best thing they could do for Jamie, as Callum explained, was to make sure he had as many of the rights and protections of marriage as they could give him — and that he did the same for them, where he could. There were wills to amend, powers of attorney to write, contracts to negotiate and sign. Jamie spent a day feeling overwhelmed and then devoted himself to learning everything he could about any laws relating to situations similar to theirs.
There were more than a few, and with the help of Callum’s solicitor, Jamie learned to understand most of them. It at least gave him something to read on set of his new movie that wasn’t horrifying stories of high-risk pregnancies. Which was good, because Nerea had threatened to kick him out of the flat if he kept doing that.
The day the last of the papers — for now — were signed, Callum, Nerea, and Jamie went out for lunch together and then went to look at yet another flat. The housing market in London was more intimidating than any lawyers’ papers.
From the moment Jamie stepped inside he knew this was the right one. From Nerea’s soft gasp and Callum’s voice murmuring to the estate agent, Jamie suspected he wasn’t alone in that assessment. There would be renovations needed, of course, but that just meant the final product would be more theirs. As Jamie stood in the kitchen — warm and bright the way the kitchen in Spain was — he found himself unexpectedly overwhelmed.
“Do you mind if I step outside for a moment?” he said to no one in particular.
Nerea, with a worried glance at his face, shook her head. Callum offered to go with him, but Jamie demurred.
He walked down the street a little way until he found a bit of park that would be perfect to take the baby to once it was born. Four, almost five months in, and Nerea was just starting to let them say when instead of if. They’d agreed, also, to tell Piper, Margarita, and Leigh about the pregnancy once they’d found a place to live and settled all the arrangements. Aside from reiterating that Jamie should tell his parents, Callum and Nerea had left Jamie to share that news himself on his own time.
Despite the lovely conversation he’d had with his mother at Christmas, Jamie had been avoiding his father. He was a gentle man, but Jamie hadn’t been able to shake the dread he’d felt at his mother’s pronouncement that his father wasn’t ready to speak with him. Jamie never wanted to disappoint him and was afraid he already had. Until now, he’d called home only when his father was at work.
Jamie sank down on a bench under a big tree that was just starting to bud and pulled out his mobile. He flipped through his contacts, not to his parents’ home number, but to his father’s mobile. It was time to face this.
“Jamie? Is that you?” Hugh answered. Jamie’s heart clenched at the worry in his voice.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me, Dad.”
“Are you all right, Jamie?” His father asked when Jamie said nothing else.
“Yeah, Dad. I’m fine. Listen. I owe you an apology. A lot of apologies. I also have some stuff I need to say. If you want to listen.”
“Foolish boy,” his father said, worried and fond all at once. Jamie wondered what he’d done well in a past life for his father to speak so kindly and easily to him when they hadn’t exchanged two words since December. “You know your mother tells me things.”
“I know, but you should hear it from me. And there’s some new news.”
“I’m listening,” Hugh said. He sounded apprehensive, which didn’t help Jamie’s unsettled state. But still, his father was speaking to him again, and that was more than he might have hoped for. “I can’t promise I’ll like it,” his father went on. “But I am listening.”
His mother had said much the same thing every time he’d called since Christmas. The conversations had been calm and affectionate, but there were often long silences as they both tried their best. Jamie found it exhausting. He had no idea how his father had been taking any of it. He’d been scared to ask.
“Good. Thank you,” Jamie said. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the slightly-damp slats of the bench. “Are you sitting down?”
“Are you all right?” his father asked again, but this time his voice was sharp.
“No. I mean, ye
s, I’m fine and it’s not anything bad. It’s fantastic, really, but it’s not small, and I’m almost sure you want to be sitting down for this one.”
“Out with it,” his father said as sternly as he ever had when Jamie had come home guilty-faced over typical teenage transgressions.
“Nerea’s pregnant,” Jamie said.
“Oh,” his father said. His voice was strangled. “Is it yours?”
“I — we don’t know. And if we did, it wouldn’t matter. Not to me or Callum or Nerea. I — we’re in the middle of house hunting. Like, right in the middle. I think we’ve found the one actually. Callum had that look on his face, and then I just had to step outside and call you.”
“For my approval?” his father sounded, of all things, amused. Jamie tried to remember if he had ever once asked for his father’s approval for anything in his life. He suspected he hadn’t.
“No,” Jamie said. “But you should know you’re going to have another grandchild.”
“I didn’t know something so normal could feel so unexpected,” his father said, his voice awed.
“Welcome to the last year of my life.” Jamie hoped his father wouldn’t question that, wouldn’t make him explain that falling in love was an obvious, easy thing, no matter how complex or unusual the circumstances.
“You planning to introduce us to them any time soon?” his father asked. It sounded like a challenge.
“Do you want to meet them?” His mother, in all their calls, had never asked. Jamie had assumed she wasn’t ready yet and had worried she never would be.
“Yes, I want to meet the people my son is making a life with,” his father said indignantly. “What kind of question is that?”
“Well, yours didn’t sound like a real happy one,” Jamie said matter-of-factly.
“It’s a lot Jamie. Who’s going to be on the birth certificate? Whose last name will the child have? Are you going to raise it Catholic — ”
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