The Last Goodbye by Caroline Finnerty

father.”
“I hope so,” he said seriously. “It’s a big job being responsible for a little person, doing your best to mould them into a well-rounded adult . . .”
“You think about things too much.”
“Well, it’s a big thing raising a child. I just hope we get it right, that’s all.”
“Jeez, Ben . . . will you stop freaking me out!”
Laura was seated in the kitchen when we got back to the house.
“Congratulations, little brother!” she said, jumping up and throwing her arms around Ben’s neck as soon as we came in the door. “And of course you too, Kate – let’s face it, it’s you who’s doing most of the hard work!” She gave me a kiss on the cheek and hugged me warmly. We had told her our news on the phone but this was the first time we’d seen her face to face since we’d found out I was pregnant.
“Eh, I’ve had my part to play in it too, you know!” Ben said, grinning at her.
At thirty-seven, she was two years older than Ben and she never let him forget it. Laura was tall too – their whole family was tall. She must have been at least five foot eleven in her bare feet and she never shied away from heels. I liked that about her – she had a take-me-as-I-am attitude and she wasn’t hung up or insecure about how she looked – unlike other people who would fret over their tummy or the size of their nose, Laura seemed to be blissfully unaware. She was genuinely happy in her own skin.
“I can’t believe I’ve been outlapped by my younger brother!” She plonked herself back down on to the chair. Ben and I sat down across from her while Edwina placed a pot of tea and more scones on the table before joining us. I was glad Geoff was nowhere to be seen. The atmosphere was always heavier when he was in the room.
“So how is my favourite spinster-in-the-making doing then?”
“Shut up, Ben – and I’ll have you know that that title no longer fits – I’m seeing someone actually.”
“Oh yeah?” Ben and Edwina both looked incredulous.
In the whole time that I had been with Ben, I had never known Laura to have a boyfriend. Her last boyfriend had been a fellow barrister and a complete pratt by all accounts. Ben had never liked him. Although he was in the legal profession, he had felt the law was for other people, not him. He had been arrested for drink driving but had managed to get it hushed over because of who he was, so was never prosecuted. But the real straw that broke the camel’s back came when Laura had found out that he had a bit of thing for using prostitutes on the side. She had seen his car one night pulled into a lay-by on a road near their home, so, thinking that he must have broken down, she pulled up beside it. She got out of her car and went over to his and when she looked in the window, she saw her boyfriend with his trousers around his ankles and his head thrown back in pleasure as the woman crouched down over him. She had banged on the window then. “ He actually had the audacity to look irritated because I had disturbed him – and it wasn’t as if he wasn’t getting it at home!” she would say to anyone she told the story to.
“So who’s the new guy then?” Edwina asked.
“His name is Tim Templeton.”
“What kind of a name is that? He sounds like a character out of Noddy ,” Ben said. “Are you sure he really exists and isn’t a fabrication of your overactive imagination?”
“I’ll have you know he is a living and breathing, sound-minded human being and we love each other very much.”
“Who in their right mind would call their child Tim Templeton?” Ben said, laughing.
She fired a cushion at him.
“Hey, stop it, you two!” Edwina scolded.
“So what does this Tim Templeton fellow do?” Ben was trying to keep a straight face on when he said his name.
“He’s a musician actually – he plays the cello in the Philharmonic Orchestra.”
“And does he know that he is dating someone who is completely tone deaf?”
“I’m not that bad,