“She’s always doing coursework,” Tina grumbles. Max makes a grab at her bleached-blonde hair, and she pulls away, tutting at him. “That kid never gets out. Her friends have given up asking.”
“It isn’t easy studying for a degree,” I offer gently. I know how hard it is; having spent three years at York. Alex loves the fact I’m an English graduate, loves even more he’s my ‘bit of rough’, at least in his words.
“Yes, but all work and no play makes Amy a dull girl.”
“Oy, I heard that.” Amy walks into the room, glaring at her mum. She smiles when she sees me, though. We’ve always got on well, from the first time we met when she was only seventeen. That was in her wild days, when she was spending way too much time at bars and pubs, going out with different men every night. Strange to think how different she is now.
“Good. You need to get out more.”
“I’m too busy. And anyway, you used to nag me all the time for going out too much. Now I don’t go out enough. I can’t bloody win.”
“Language.” That comes from Alex. It makes me laugh because he has the dirtiest mouth I know.
“Fuck off,” Amy replies.
When Alex’s older sister, Andrea, arrives, muttering about road works and traffic jams and the cost of petrol, Tina hands Max back to me and the two of them disappear into the kitchen to finish cooking the roast. Alex is upstairs, elbows deep in the toilet, leaving Amy and me in the living room.
“Can I have a cuddle?” She reaches out for Max, and I place him in her arms. “God, he’s getting so big. Is he talking yet?”
I laugh. Being the youngest, she has no idea about developmental milestones. Nor did I at her age. “Nah, not for a while yet.”
“Or ever if you’re lucky. Alex talks enough for all of you.”
“True that.” I smile when Max pulls at her ink-black hair, and it comes free from the perfect bun on the back of her head.
“Did you know Einstein didn’t talk until he was five?” She nuzzles close to Max, making him giggle. “They say late talkers turn out to be geniuses.”
“When did you start talking?”
“Dunno. Whenever it was that Andie and Alex let me get a word in edgewise.”
She has a point. The Cartwrights are a family of talkers. The first time I came to visit, I was shocked by how noisy they all were. Having grown up in a quiet home in Dorset, I wasn’t used to the cacophony.
“How’s the course going, anyway?”
“All right. I’m applying for placements for next year. Fingers crossed I get something good.”
“Where have you applied?”
“All the usual places. Banks, consultancies. I even applied for a couple of non-profits. Some of the other students are getting interviews already, but I’ve not heard anything yet.”
“How long is it for?”
“A year. Then it’s back to University for the final throes.” She smiles weakly. “And please don’t ask me what I’m going to do after that because I’ve no idea.”
“Isn’t that what the placement’s for? To give you some ideas?”
Her eyes light up when she smiles and nods. “You get it. If only Mum understood. She can’t understand why I’m spending four years studying and I don’t know what I want to do with it.”
“She’s proud of you. They all are.”
“They’ve got a funny way of showing it.”
The door to the living room opens. “Funny way of showing what?” Alex sits on the chair next to me, slinging his arm around my shoulders.
“Nothing.” Amy looks down, suddenly fascinated by Max. I try to hide my smile. Like the rest of them, she idolises Alex, can’t stand for him to think badly of her. Not that he ever would; I know for a fact he adores her right back.
This is just how they are. They are loud, used to sharing their emotions, never whispering when they could shout. They’re a unit, they stick together, protect each other fiercely.