She snapped open her Cartier and dropped it on to the dressing table, and she allowed Jimmy to place her new timepiece on to her wrist.
'Oh my God, what is this for?'
He shrugged, then kissed her tenderly, and once more he marvelled because she wasn't trying to move away from him. 'It's because I love you, Mags, and I always will.'
He was so earnest she wanted to cry.
Jimmy Junior ran into the room and he was laughing loudly. 'I saw you kissing!' He was all embarrassed and they both laughed with him.
Jimmy picked him up effortlessly and placed him on his shoulders. 'Come on, my little man, let's get you to Nana's, eh?'
They all walked down the stairs together and their laughing and chattering echoed around the house. Jimmy was so happy to hear it and that his family was mended and healed that he felt the urge to cry. Instead, he grabbed his wife's hand and, still holding on to his little son, he started them all off singing.
'One man went to mow…'
It was his son's favourite song, and as they walked from the house the sound was ringing in his ears. Especially Jimmy Junior's laughter. He had a dear little giggle that was so cute, and it proved he had a real good sense of humour too.
He was blessed. His life was perfect, and his family were perfect. What more could any man want?
'Will you be all right with these two, Joe, if I pop over Sylvie's?'
He nodded, his eyes glued to the TV, just like his elder grandson's. Little Freddie had joined them after tea, and played nicely with his cousin until bedtime.
'You go, Lena, and leave them with me, girl.'
She slipped on a cardigan and crept from the flat. Sylvie was always up for a laugh and she was fed up with Joe and his bloody telly programmes. Jimmy Junior was dead to the world, and now Little Freddie was sitting with his granddad like a little angel – not a phrase she had ever thought she would use about him – and she was going to have a nice cuppa and a good old gossip.
At the next ad break, Little Freddie stood up. 'Can I use the loo, Granddad?'
''Course you can, you silly little sod.' Joe smiled at the change in the boy. Imagine asking to use the loo.
He was still glued to the TV an hour later when Jackie came by to pick her son up. She was drunk, and she was also belligerent.
Lena arrived just after her daughter. She could hear her strident voice through the front door, and she hoped she didn't wake that little child with her noisy carrying on.
Jackie was stoned out of her mind, and on one level she knew that she should not be in her mother's shouting the odds, but she could not stop herself. Freddie had told her in no uncertain terms that Jimmy and Maggie had walked away with his job, that her sister and her family had all conspired against him, and that she was nothing but a drunken whore and she could expect him when she finally saw him.
She knew he was annoyed with her for being so drunk and he was taking his anger out on her, but she was determined to make someone listen to what she had to say.
'Will you keep your fucking voice down, Jackie. That little boy is asleep.'
Jackie looked at her mother through unfocused eyes and she said in a stage whisper, 'Oh, fucking hell, mustn't wake Maggie's baby, eh? You never fucking had mine round here, did you?'
Lena sighed. 'I had your girls all the time, Jackie, remember? They practically lived here at one point. Now either calm down or fuck off home. I ain't in the mood for you tonight.'
Jackie looked awful. Her hair was matted where she had slept on it all afternoon, and her make-up was streaked over her face. She was dressed like a refugee, and she was up for a fight.
Well, Lena and Joe were determined to see that she did not get one.
Joe motioned with his head and Lena nodded. He was getting his coat to walk Jackie home. This was a running joke now. Tomorrow she would have no memory of this whatsoever, but for now Lena had to try to calm her down.
Little Freddie was standing there watching her, and for the first time ever Lena felt a twinge of pity for him. No wonder he was like he was, with this sorry excuse for a mother and that ponce Freddie as a father.
'You are wankers, you and my dad. Nothing but fucking wankers.' Jackie was pointing at her mother now, poking a grubby finger into her face.
'Stop this, Jackie, stop it. Why do you do this?' She was trying to walk her towards the front door, but Jackie was so unsteady on her feet Lena was convinced her daughter was going to fall over and hurt herself.
Little Freddie was attempting to help his mother stand upright when she pushed him away from her and shouted, 'You are trying to send me away again, ain't you? You don't want me or mine here, you don't care about us. It's all about Maggie, ain't it? I can count on one hand the amount of times you've been round my house, but I come here every day, every day I come to see you. Well, not any more, you can all fuck off now. My Freddie was right all along, none of you care about me. None of you.'
She was on a roll now, gesturing madly with her arms, and Lena watched her eldest child in abject sorrow. No wonder the girls were never home, no wonder they avoided her like the plague. At this moment she could even find it in her heart to sympathise with Freddie, because Jackie couldn't be the easiest of people to live with.
Jackie screwed her face up in hate, and spewed out her vitriol and her anger while all the time being led out of the flat. Joseph had the front door open and he was dressed for the outdoors. When Jackie saw him standing there, she laughed out loud.
'Oh, here we go, the big guns are out, are they? Walking me home, are you, Dad? Making sure I don't stay here with you pair of fucking tossers.'
Little Freddie helped his mother out of the door. He was holding her up now, and Lena watched them go down the stairs until finally she could shut her front door. She knew that her neighbours had heard Jackie's ranting and raving, and she felt angry and upset.
She sat at her little kitchen table and put her head into her hands in utter despair. This was happening more and more, and she knew that something would have to be done before that girl drank herself into an early grave.
No wonder that boy was a mad bastard. What had he ever had in his life that was constant, that was good? She had a memory, suddenly, of Little Freddie as a baby, only about eighteen months old. Jackie was half cut as usual and she was saying to the boy, 'Here, Freds, phone Daddy.'
And the child had picked up the phone and said over and over again, 'Tunt, tunt.'
He could not say 'cunt' yet, but Jackie had rolled up.
Joseph had said to her then, all those years ago, 'God help that child, Lena. Between the two of them he has no fucking chance.'
And he had been right.
Chapter Twenty-Three
'I have never felt more happy in my life, Jimmy.'
His wife was relaxed, so liquid in his arms, that he felt as if he had been given a second chance at happiness. In the last couple of years she had gradually become again the girl he had known, the woman he had always needed.
Last night had been one of the most fulfilling nights of his life. His Mags had given herself to him with such forcefulness he had been amazed. All the hurt, all the distance was gone, and this was a new beginning for them, a new start to a marriage that even at its worst was better than anything else he could imagine.
He kissed her gently on the lips and she snuggled closer to him.
It was so long since Maggie had felt this calm, this happy, and she wanted the feeling to last as long as possible.
Jimmy held his tiny wife in his arms and marvelled at the change in her. Whatever had ailed her after Jimmy Junior was born, it seemed it was finally gone, and the laughing, happy girl he had married was back for good. Just to hold her like this was wonderful, to feel her soft skin next to his, to smell her perfume.