Me and My Sisters Read Free

father was a very strict, stern schoolteacher. When Harry was four he had asked Santa Claus for a bike. His father sat him down and told him that Santa didn’t exist and there was no money for any bike. That year he’d got new shoes for Christmas. His childhood was officially over. Because of this, Harry wasn’t at all strict with our boys and sometimes I found myself wishing he was a bit stronger on discipline. I understood that he didn’t want them to experience the same coldness he had from his father, but the boys were a bit wild and needed to be reined in.
    I was delighted last week when Harry lost his cool and bellowed at them because they poured honey into the keyboard of his laptop and then Super-Glued it closed. But for the most part I was the ‘bad cop’ to Harry’s ‘good cop’. Sometimes I think the triplets are only ever going to remember me shouting at them. My vocabulary from dawn to dusk consists of ‘Stop it’, ‘Get down’, ‘Share’, ‘Get off him’, ‘Stop hitting him’, ‘Don’t do that’, ‘I’m warning you’, ‘You’re in big trouble’ and, for the last month, ‘Santa’s watching you.’ Every day I wake up and vow, Today I will not raise my voice. And within ten minutes of being awake I’m hollering like a fishwife. I’m surprised I don’t have permanent laryngitis.
    We finished wrapping the little presents for their stockings.
    ‘I wonder what Louise’s news is?’ I said, as I put a small racing car into Luke’s. My older sister Louise, who lived in London, had texted yesterday and said she had some news to tell me on Christmas Day, but when I rang her to find out what it was I just got her voicemail.
    ‘Boyfriend?’ Harry suggested.
    ‘She didn’t sound excited, so I don’t think that’s it.’
    ‘Probably not. She’s pretty scary. I can’t imagine guys are queuing round the block to go out with her.’
    ‘Hey! That’s not fair. Louise is great – she’s just very focused.’
    ‘I’m a fan of Louise’s, but I wouldn’t want to go out with her. She can be a bit icy.’
    ‘She just doesn’t suffer fools – and she’s very successful. For some reason men find that intimidating.’
    ‘Julie, we’re simple creatures. We want to be with a woman, not a woman who acts and thinks like a guy, which is what Louise does.’
    ‘Maybe she’s got a new job.’
    ‘I thought she’d just been made senior partner at the law firm.’
    ‘Oh, yeah. Maybe she got head-hunted, then.’ I stifled a yawn. ‘Well, whatever it is, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.’
    ‘You mean today. It’s after three a.m.’ Harry pointed to the clock.
    ‘Oh, God, let’s get to bed quick. The boys are bound to be up early.’
    ‘Are Sophie and Jack coming to your parents for dinner, too?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Great,’ Harry drawled.
    ‘Come on, you like Sophie and you just have to ignore Jack.’
    ‘It’s difficult to ignore someone who takes over every conversation.’
    ‘He’s not that bad, just a bit over the top.’
    ‘He’s an arrogant tosser. I swear if he tells me how much money he made this year, I’ll deck him.’
    My brother-in-law, Jack, was an incredibly successful hedge-fund manager. He had told Harry and everyone else ‘discreetly’ last Christmas that he had earned four million that year. Harry, who had earned a tiny fraction of that, had almost choked on his wine. Jack had then insisted on taking Harry for a spin in his brand-new Maserati, which was parked beside our people-carrier. When they’d arrived back, Jack had made a big show of giving Sophie her ‘real’ present – apparently the Jimmy Choo boots she’d got that morning were only a token. Louise had rolled her eyes at me across the room while Dad muttered, ‘Gobshite,’ under his breath. Jack had produced a large Tiffany’s box. Inside lay an incredible platinum-and-diamond chain with a big diamond S on the end.
    I’ll never forget the look on Harry’s face. He’d