Mums Just Wanna Have Fun

by Lucie Wheeler

  ‘Well of course, we didn’t agree to monthly get-togethers for no reason.’ She sat herself down after giving everyone a hug. ‘Have I missed one yet?’

  ‘No, but you literally came home from holiday two days ago – we weren’t expecting you to make it.’

  ‘These meet ups are the highlight of my month, I wouldn’t miss them for the world.’

  Ever since coming back from Ibiza, the girls had made a promise to make sure they made time to see each other, to talk and enjoy having friends around them. And it had been great. Nancy, for one, knew she wouldn’t have got to where she was now without having her friends around her.

  Becca puffed as she approached the picnic blanket. ‘Seriously, these children are determined to kill me. I haven’t run that much since I was in the athletics team.’

  ‘Sit down and chill woman.’ Nancy held her arm out and the girls hugged and kissed their hellos.

  ‘Oh, who is this gorgeous guy?’ Becca squealed as Max ran over to her and began sniffing at her face.

  ‘Oh, you’re too kind. I’m Cameron.’ He held out his hand and Nancy playfully whacked him in the stomach. ‘Ouch!’ he laughed.

  ‘You’re about as cheesy as they come!’ Nancy rolled her eyes. She turned her attention back to Becca. ‘This is Max; he’s part of our family now.’

  ‘Oh, he’s super cute, Cam didn’t tell me you got a dog.’

  ‘I didn’t realise I had to regularly update you on my girlfriend’s life.’

  ‘Oh, be quiet, I just meant that I assumed this would be something you would have brought up, that’s all.’

  ‘He’s a specialist Autism Assistance dog.’ Nancy laughed, interrupting the sibling argument. ‘He’s trained to help children with autism. He helps with changing routines, reducing certain behaviours, interrupting repetitive behaviours and helping children cope with unfamiliar surroundings. He’s there to help with independence but also to keep them safe. Jack finds comfort in sitting with Max when he is particularly stressed or anxious.’

  Jayne began to unload her picnic bag, placing the food out in front of them. ‘Isn’t it incredible? I didn’t even know there were dogs specifically trained for things such as autism.’

  ‘I think it’s a fairly new thing. I joined this programme so we could get him and sometimes, when Jack doesn’t need him, I take him into schools with me to help children who are struggling within the environment and they do things like reading with him and sitting with him in assembly. He is a dog of many qualities.’

  She smiled. ‘He’s also helped me at home when we’re having a particularly bad day. After calming Jack, he quite often comes to me and makes sure I’m happy – because reducing my stress means Jack is less anxious too. It’s incredible how much having Max helps us.’

  Becca unwrapped her sandwiches and took a bite. ‘How’s the online shop going, Nancy?’

  Nancy nodded. ‘Yeah, it seems to be growing nice and steadily which is handy. It means I can do that as well as the school stuff with Max. It started as just the prints but now I’m looking at branching out into stationery and notebooks too. They seem to be in demand at the moment, which is great.’

  ‘This is one of her designs,’ Harriet said as she pulled her notebook out of her handbag, handing it over to Becca to look at.

  ‘I love it!’ She looked at Nancy. ‘You designed this?’

  ‘The notebook? Yeah. That’s just a prototype one that I was testing out but Hari loved it so I gave it to her. Do you like it?’

  ‘I love it! What else have you got – oh my God, I need to look at your website.’

  Nancy laughed and fished out a card from her bag. ‘Here – website, number and discount code all on there.’

  ‘Thanks!’ Becca pocketed the card. ‘Cam, it’s my birthday soon, don’t forget.’

  ‘How could I forget?’ He groaned as he stood up. ‘Right, I am going to get the coffees. Nance, give me a hand?’

  She nodded and stood, asking everyone for their order and following Cameron over towards the café at the other side of the park. As she sidled up next to him she slipped her hand into his.

  ‘I’ve missed you,’ he said, squeezing her hand in his.

  ‘I saw you the other day,’ she laughed.

  ‘Yeah, I know, but a couple of times a week just isn’t enough.’ He held his other hand up, ‘I know, you don’t want to rush anything with Jack, I get that and I totally agree and support you wholeheartedly.’

  She laughed at his panicked voice.

  ‘I just, well, I miss you when I’m not with you.’ He stopped walking and pulled her to face him. ‘If I think back to how I was feeling the week before I met you, the days leading up to my holiday last year, I was a mess. I was stressed and miserable and I just didn’t have any focus in my life apart from Aiden. And then you swanned into my life like a whirlwind with this awesome little boy who completely captured my heart – and Aiden’s!’ he added. ‘I can’t believe how much has changed for me.’ He stroked his hand down her cheek. ‘I guess I just wanted to say thank you.’

  ‘Why are you thanking me, I haven’t done anything.’

  ‘You have! You have done more than you probably realise. I have never been happier and I don’t think I have seen Aiden happier either. He adores Jack.’

  Nancy nodded. ‘Jack loves him too. Cam, you’re not the only one who has noticed changes. I would like to take the credit for it all and say that Jack’s improvement over the last year has been down to my skill as a parent, but I think a huge part of this has been Aiden. He has so much patience with Jack and their relationship is so special now. If you take away the meltdowns he still has.’

  Cameron chuckled. ‘You’re never going to eradicate them completely.’

  ‘I know.’ She reached up and touched his hand which was still on her cheek. ‘Thank you for being patient with us – both of us – I promise things will be normal one day and we can have a normal relationship.’

  ‘Nance, there is no such thing as normal. What we have is special – I couldn’t ask for anything more. If it means that we have to wait a little longer before we can be together properly, until Jack is comfortable with us being around more, then that’s what we will do. I’m not going anywhere.’

  She didn’t fight the urge and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him in for a kiss. She wasn’t ready to say it out loud but she knew in her heart, Cameron was The One. She was in love with him.

  They re-joined the group holding their three coffees, two teas and seven fruit juices and handed them out accordingly. Cameron then walked out in the middle of the field and shouted over. ‘Right, everyone up! Kids? Over here!’ They did as they were asked. ‘Grab a finger,’ he said, hand splayed out.

  ‘Oh, I love this!’ Jayne said, standing up. Harriet groaned but stood anyway, grabbing Nancy’s hand as she did.

  ‘If I have to do this so do you!’

  Nancy laughed. ‘One in, everyone in!’

  They all stood around Cameron, holding on to this hand. ‘Are you all ready?’

  Nany looked around the circle. Old friends, new friends and family all here with her. It had been a tough year since her holiday in Ibiza. She still had lots of hurdles to overcome with Jack and lots of barriers to trample down. But they were getting there. She’d found Max, who had changed their life, and she’d taken the plunge and decided to work from home, starting from scratch. None of it would have happened had she not had her friends by her side, cheerleading her and keeping her up when she felt like she was drowning.

  And then there was Cameron. He brought a whole new level of special to her world.

  He was definitely a keeper.

  ‘OK guys, let’s do this … I went to the shop and I bought some sticky, sticky … GLUE!’

  Acknowledgements

  I may write the words on the page but there are so many people involved in writing a book and putting it out there for everyone to read.

  Thank you to all at Harper Impulse fo
r supporting me through another book. In particular, there are a few names that deserve a special mention. As always, to Charlotte Ledger for being the first person to take a chance on me as a debut author and cheerleading me along the way. A heartfelt thank you to the incredible Emily Ruston who has really pushed me to get my best work. Emily is an awesome person to work with – this book wouldn’t be what it is without her hard work, patience and belief. Thank you to Sahina Bibi for all your work on promoting and getting the book ready to be released – and for always answering my many questions!

  Thank you to my agent, Kate Nash, for supporting me and my ideas and for being the calm against my crazy when I need her to be.

  Thank you to all the parents who answered my questions and to all those parenting vloggers out there who I binge watch on the regular but would never admit to just how many hours I lose by doing this ‘research’.

  When I write a book, and because it isn’t my only job, I tend to go a bit MIA on my friends and family. So a big thank you to all of my close friends and family for still wanting to talk to me now that it is finished and for understanding when I need to cancel things or work super late to get tasks done. I really do appreciate the support.

  My online friends - thanks for always being behind me and for getting as excited as I do when I post book related things. I absolutely love the online writing community and your enthusiasm for the book has been amazing.

  As was the case with my last book, I wrote this one alongside completing coursework for my degree. So it feels only fair to say a thank you to the staff at Anglia Ruskin University for understanding that I have additional deadlines alongside university ones and for helping me in every way possible to keep my sanity as I hit those deadlines! Sometimes it was helping me to focus and giving me advice, other times it was simply giving me the encouragement needed to keep going and know that I could do it. I love writing but I equally love being at university and studying early childhood, so by having such an incredible team of people around me, it makes it possible for me to do both.

  To my readers – thank you SO much for coming back after my first book and reading this one! Your support and eagerness for this second book has been such a wonderful thing and I am so excited to hear your thoughts.

  And finally, thank you to my husband, Craig, and my daughter, Gracie. Both of whom endure, by far, the most stress in this process by being right beside me every step along the way. They see the tears, the laughter, the sadness and the elation that comes with writing a book. They have to put up with me staying up late and getting up early to get edits done and they accept that the house will not be spotless and the dinner will be later, the closer I get to deadline day – but they are still here with me and they always share my pride when publication day finally arrives. Thank you both so much for putting up with it all!

  About the Author

  Lucie Wheeler lives in Essex with her husband and daughter, and her English Bull Terrier, Dame, who loves to sit under Lucie’s desk as she writes and keep her feet warm. Never one to sit still, Lucie always has lots going on in her life. Currently, she’s writing her novels alongside studying for a degree. She is also one of The Romaniacs.

  Lucie loves reading, spending time with friends and eating chocolate – when she gets to do all three, she’s a very happy lady!

  @lucie_wheeler

  www.facebook.com/‌luciewheelerpage

  www.luciewheeler.co.uk

  Also by Lucie Wheeler

  About HarperImpulse

  HarperImpulse is an innovative, award-winning digital imprint. In the four years since launch, we have continually hit digital bestseller lists, hosted the UK’s first online romance festival, published into over ten countries and grown an exciting stable of commercial women’s fiction authors.

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  Writers, our vision is to publish the very best in digital-first commercial women’s fiction and we are simply looking for good stories! So, what are you waiting for? To submit, e-mail us at harperimpulse@harpercollins.co.uk.

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