Chapter 5: A New Daddy

Brian had told him they weren’t bothering to raid the homes of the four lower dealers as he anticipated the amount’s they would yield weren’t worth the bother. ‘They’ve lost their partners, so we’ll just let them keep what they have got.’ he said.

Reg rang around and made appointments for both days. He managed to get through half of them by half nine, so he drove home and updated his notes again, this time with a glass of wine. Then he rang Natalie. She sounded pleased to hear from him.

‘I’ve just got in,’ he told her. ‘If tomorrow goes as well as it did today, I’ll be back the same time tomorrow night, then I can take Thursday off. Would you all like to go out for the day.’ ‘That would be lovely,’ she told him, ‘Everyone is back home now.’

‘Don’t say anything to the kids just yet,’ Reg told her, ‘Just in case there’s a hitch.’ ‘I wasn’t going to,’ she told him, ‘It happened to Jack so often.’

‘I’ll leave it to you to decide where to go,’ he told her. ‘I should know mid-afternoon if all is going well.’

‘The minute I’m sure I’ll text you.’ ‘I’ll look forward to it,’ she told him, ‘I really enjoyed the other night.’ ‘Me too,’ Reg told her, ‘I’m sorry I had to dash off.’ ‘Did you get your report sorted?’ Natalie asked. ‘Yes thanks,’ Reg told her, ‘And it went down well.’

They chatted a little longer, then Natalie said, ‘I’ll have to go, Angela is calling.’ ‘See you Thursday,’ Reg said as they hung up. The next morning Reg worked his way through his list. By late afternoon he was driving away from the last house.

He drove away and pulled up. Ringing Brian, he gave him a brief outline of what he had done so far. When Brian complimented him on what he had achieved, he told him he had worked very late the night before. ‘There’s not much I can do tomorrow,’ he said, ‘So I wondered if I could take the day off.’

‘Sure,’ Brian said right away, ‘You’ve earned it.’ ‘Come in and see me before you go out to Widnes on Friday. Then Reg rang Natalie. ‘Everything has gone well,’ he said, ‘All is ok for tomorrow. I got through early, I’m just about to leave Overton.’

‘Have you eaten yet?’ she asked. When he said no, she said, ‘We haven’t yet either. We’re only having chicken and chips, but you’re welcome to join us, then you can tell John and Angela yourself.’ ‘That would be lovely,’ he said, ‘I’ll be with you by six at the latest.’

Natalie set the table and went into the kitchen. John came through soon after and asked, ‘Why is there an extra place at the table mum?’ ‘We’ve got a surprise guest for dinner,’ she told him. ‘We’re going to eat about quarter past six to give him time to get here.’ She wouldn’t be drawn any further.

By six o’clock John and Angela where in the hall excited about the mystery guest. Just after six there was a knock at the door. John opened it to find Reg there. His face lit up but before he could speak, Angela raced past him and flung her arms around Reg’s legs.

He picked her up and gave her a hug and a kiss. He put an arm out to John who came over and had a hug. Putting Angela down, Reg gave Natalie who had heard the rumpus and come through from the kitchen, a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Everything was ready, so after a quick visit to the bathroom to freshen up, they sat down to eat. They chatted generally over their meal, Reg asking John and Angela what they had been up to since he saw them last.

Angela said, ‘Uncle Brian came to see us today too, but he couldn’t stop long.’ ‘Tell you after,’ Natalie mouthed at him. Once he was sure they had all finished eating, Reg said, ‘I don’t suppose anyone would like to go out for the day with me tomorrow?’

Two little faces lit up. ‘Yes, please,’ they both said together, then, ‘Where would we go?’ ‘Well,’ Reg said, ‘Why don’t you suggest places you’d like to go, then we’ll see what’s possible.’ Natalie said, ‘Why don’t you two go through to the lounge and try and decide where you want to go whilst Reg and I clear the table.’

John and Angela shot off to the lounge. As they collected the plates, Natalie told him, ‘I had an unexpected visit from Brian this morning. He’s been really good to us since Jack died and the kids think of him as Uncle Brian as you know.’

‘Apparently, when you were talking to him the other day, you referred to me as Natalie. As far as he knew you had only met me once when you first called, so he thought it strange that we should be on first name terms already. He just called to make sure everything was ok.’

‘That’s nice,’ Reg said, ‘He’s concerned about you. What did you say?’ ‘I told him I liked you the first time I met you. Then when you rang and invited us all out, the kids were away overnight, so I had gone out for a meal with you and liked you even more.’

‘Then just in case he was wondering, I told him when you brought me home you didn’t come in for a coffee as you had a report to finish off for morning.’ When Reg laughed, she said, ‘What?’ ‘The report was for Brian,’ he said with a grin.

By now they had cleared the table. Reg had washed and Natalie had dried. ‘Would you like a coffee?’ she asked. ‘Yes, please.’ Reg said, ‘But perhaps we should go and see where we are going first.’ They went through to the lounge where the kids were sitting good as gold.

‘Well, have you decided?’ Reg asked. ‘We’ve narrowed it down to two.’ John said, ‘Alton Towers or Chester Zoo.’ ‘I’d like to do both,’ Reg said, ‘So how about we go to Chester Zoo tomorrow and Alton Towers next time.’

‘If you can put up with me twice that is,’ he said grinning at them. They both shot over and hugged him. ‘I guess that’s a yes.’ he said happily.

‘Right, you two,’ Natalie said, ‘You’ve got a long day tomorrow, so you need a good night’s sleep to enjoy it.’

‘Off you go and get ready for bed, then you can come down and say goodnight to Reg.’ They both trotted off out of the room. ‘They’re a credit to you,’ Reg told her, ‘It must have hit them hard.’ ‘Angela doesn’t really remember him,’ Natalie said, ‘John only has vague memories, although he was old enough to realise that he was no longer there.’

‘It must have been hard for you too.’ he said. ‘You get on with it when you have kids.’ she said. ‘Brian and Janice were a wonderful support.’ ‘Janice?’ Reg asked. ‘Brian’s wife,’ she said. ‘Right, I’ve never met her, and the subject never came up.’ Reg told her. ‘I had no idea what his marital state was.’

Then they heard footsteps on the stairs followed by John and Angela in pyjama’s bursting into the room. Angela ran straight to Reg who picked her up and kissed her. John hesitated unsure so Reg put his arm out. He came over and put his arm around Reg’s waist.

Reg put his arm around his shoulders. Natalie watched happily. ‘Why don’t you two go up and get into bed, then Reg can come and tuck you in,’ she said. The two of them gave their mum a hug and a kiss then trotted off hand in hand.

‘They get on really well together don’t they,’ Reg said. ‘They always have,’ Natalie told him. ‘You go and tuck them in, I’ll put the coffee on. Reg went into Angela first, she was in bed sitting up looking very sleepy.

Reg sat on the edge of the bed, gave her a hug and a kiss, then as she lay down, he tucked her up. Getting up to leave, he leaned over and kissed the top of her head. ‘Night, night, sweetie.’ he said, ‘Night, night, daddy.’ came a sleepy reply.

For a moment Reg thought he had misheard, then deciding she had said it in her sleep, he tip toed out, putting the light out as he left. It gave him a lovely feeling even so. Going into John, he found him sitting on the edge of his bed, looking very serious.

He sat down beside him, put his arm around his shoulders and said, ‘You’re looking very serious, is anything the matter. John turned his head up to look at him. ‘Are you going to marry my mum?’ he asked.

‘It’s a bit soon to answer that.’ Reg told him. ‘How would you feel if your mum did get married again.’ ‘It would be awful if she chose someone I didn’t like,’ he said. Then he gave Reg a big beam. ‘It would be ok if it was you though.’