The Accidental Family by Rowan Coleman

Sophie began to see that her mother admired her, and they had slowly drawn closer together. Sophie had spoken to her about twice a week since she’d come down to St. Ives, but they’d never spoken about anything serious. Her mum would always say how lovely it was to hear her sounding so happy and relaxed and then they’d talk about fleas, ticks, or dicky-doggy tummy for the next half hour.
    But there was no getting away from it; a conversation about ear mites was not going to cut it this time. Sophie had to tell her mother that she was engaged in the business of getting married.
    As ever, Sophie had to wait for a cacophony of barking dogs to die down as her mother rescued the handset from the jaws of Scooby, her Great Dane, and clambered over a pack of hounds to the kitchen, where she would shut most of them out so that she could talk in relative peace.
    “Hello, love,” Iris said. “It’s not your normal day to call.”
    “Isn’t it?” Sophie had not been aware that she had a normal day to call, but she wasn’t surprised, her life had slipped into a soothing lullaby of a routine since she had arrived here. “Well, that’s because it’s not a normal day!” she added brightly.
    “You’re telling me,” Iris sighed. “You remember Skippers, that little Jack Russell cross that was left tied up in a plastic bag in that Dumpster on Balls Pond Road? Well, he got hold of the neighbor’s trash cans yesterday, had them out all over the street, so you can imagine how popular that made me with the neighbors again.”
    “Mum …” Sophie paused and took a breath. “Mum, I can’t talk to you about the dogs today. I have some news .”
    Sophie paused to let the weight of the word sink into her mother’s dog-filled consciousness.
    “News?” Iris asked. “Oh, are you pregnant?”
    “No!” Sophie was scandalized. “No, I am not pregnant, but …oh honestly, Mum—you’ve totally stolen my thunder. Louis and I are getting married!” Sophie paused for a beat, but when Iris didn’t immediately react she rushed on. “And I have the happiest and most content and most alive feeling that I have ever had and you should feel really, really happy for me!”
    “I’m thrilled for you, darling,” Iris said, a little hesitantly, as soon as Sophie let her get a word in.
    “Are you?” Sophie asked uncertainly.
    “Of course I am. If you’re happy, I’m happy. I’m honor bound to say the sorts of things that mothers say, like isn’t it a bit soon and are you sure you know him well enough to marry him?”
    Sophie paused; after all, these were the doubts she herself had had.
    “Yes, Mum, it is technically a bit soon and no, I don’t know every single thing about him. But I love him and want him and need him now—and isn’t it better to find out about the person you love as you go along together? Wouldn’t life be boring if you knew everything about your partner right from the start? And I want this, I want it really badly. I didn’t realize how badly I wanted it until now that I’ve almost got it. I couldn’t bear to lose him.”
    “Well, I can’t think of any reason why you would,” Iris said. “But believe it or not, darling, I do remember how that feels and I understand. You love him and he loves you and you want to grab happiness and cling to it with both hands. Okay, so you’re breaking boundaries and stretching taboos …but who cares what other people say if you’re happy?”
    “Am I stretching a taboo?” Sophie asked her. “What? Because he’s already been married to my dead best friend?”
    “Did I say taboos?” Iris paused as she gathered her thoughts. “I don’t think you realize how proud I am of you. I so much admired you for picking up and going off to Cornwall the way you did to be with Louis and the girls. It’s so easy to sit behind your net curtains, watch your favorite TV shows all day, and just let life slip past you without any passion or promise. But you took a stand. You