The Reunion

worry,’ Lilah said. She was smiling up at Jen, her finger ever so gently tracing circles on Isabelle’s cheek. ‘He isn’t cross. He’s happy about the baby.’
    ‘I’m glad.’
    ‘And he thought we should have the party out here, he thought that would be best.’
    ‘That’s a good idea,’ Jen said.
    The party was the following day, a surprise party, for Andrew and Natalie’s fourteenth wedding anniversary. It was Charlotte and Grace’s idea. The sad thing was that had the girls not mentioned it, it was unlikely that any of the others would have remembered. Possibly not even Andrew or Nat.
    As it was, Zac took Andrew to look at some new tiling for the upstairs bathroom while Charlotte nagged her mother into taking her all the way to Nice to do some clothes shopping. Jen, Dan and Grace put up decorations and set up the barbecue, they made salads and marinated lamb chops, they built a bonfire next to the hammock, hung lanterns in the trees, put out rugs and cushions, set up speakers so they could listen to music.
    When they were ready, Jen and Dan sat out on the rugs with Isabelle lying between them, while Grace went inside to wake Lilah. It was the first time since Jen had arrived that she and Dan had found themselves completely alone. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments before they both started speaking at exactly the same time.
    ‘I’m not sure this is such a good idea,’ Jen said.
    ‘Have you heard from Nicolas?’ Dan asked.
    They laughed awkwardly, then both fell silent again, waiting.
    ‘Not sure what’s not a good idea?’ Dan asked at last.
    ‘This party. Things seem a bit off with Nat and Andrew. Don’t you think? I just don’t know whether it’s a great idea to spring this on them.’
    Dan shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I assumed it was just about Lilah. I didn’t think it was something between the two of them.’
    Jen shook her head. ‘It’s not just Lilah. It’s… I don’t know. When things are bad, Andrew and Natalie lean on each other. I know that, from things he’s told me, in letters, over the years. But they aren’t leaning on each other now. Or rather, it looks like Natalie’s trying to lean on Andrew and he’s pulling away from her. I don’t recall seeing him like this before. He just seems different.’
    Dan looked up at the oaks, the multi-coloured lanterns hanging from the branches. ‘Bit late to call the whole thing off now,’ he said.
    They fell quiet again. It was a lovely evening, cooler than it had been of late, a breeze blowing up from the valley, wisps of cloud scudding across the sky.
    ‘I spoke to him before I left Oxford,’ Jen said eventually. ‘Nicolas I mean. He hasn’t called since.’
    ‘Sorry,’ Dan said. He covered her hand with his.
    ‘I don’t care,’ she said. ‘I mean, not for me. I think it’s shitty that he’s shown so little interest in his daughter, but it’s not a major shock. We’ve barely spoken since I left Paris a year ago, and he always made it perfectly clear that a child was not in his plans. He’s offered financial support,’ she said, with a wry smile. ‘But I’d rather do without. To be honest, I think we’ll be far better off without him.’
    ‘You’ll do fine,’ Dan said, giving her hand a squeeze. It sounded like a platitude, but when she looked at him he had an expression on his face which suggested that it wasn’t.
    The party was a success. Jen needn’t have worried. Lilah was on wonderful form, she’d been sleeping all day and she was as bright and funny and loud as Lilah could be. She lounged in the hammock, sipping champagne and telling them stories about a rich vintner in Barcelona, a photographer with a leather jacket and a motorbike in Paris, the time she got arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Berlin and ended up having a passionate three-week affair with the arresting officer. Charlotte and Grace were captivated, awestruck. Jen overheard Grace talking to Andrew in the kitchen later.
    ‘I think I want to learn Spanish, Dad,’ she was saying. ‘So I can live in Barcelona.’
    ‘Good idea,’ Andrew said.
    ‘And I’ll take many lovers,’ she added, appropriating Lilah’s antiquated turn of phrase.
    ‘You bloody well will not.’
    But he was laughing – he laughed all night, Jen hadn’t seen him like that for ages. He and Natalie threw themselves into the spirit of the thing, they relaxed, they held hands. They stopped attending to everyone else for a few hours and