Emily pointed at the picture of the pig and knowingly said, “Ben’s,” and Vincent suppressed his smile at Emily’s reference to Ben’s brand new nipple piercing.
“Dear pig are you willing, to sell for one shilling…” Here, Vincent paused for Emily’s interjection.
“Like Gran and Aunty Tami use.”
“… your ring. Said the piggy, ‘I will.’ So they took it away and were married the next day by the turkey that lived on the hill.”
Emily chuckled delightedly in Vincent’s lap as he turned the page and read, “They dined on mince and slices of quince…”
Here, Emily wrinkled her nose. Noah had bought a quince recently, just so she could taste one, and she had not liked it at all.
“Which they ate with a runcible spoon. And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon, the moon, they danced by the light of the moon.”
Vincent closed the book and Emily looked up hopefully. “’gain?” she asked, and Vincent shook his head.
“No, hon, you know I only read a book through once at a time. Do you want to go get another one?”
The ‘once at a time’ rule had been introduced to protect Vincent’s sanity. Both Morgan and Noah could bear to read and reread the same book, but it drove Vincent crazy.
Emily shook her head. “Ride bike, Da,” she said, launching herself out of his lap.
He pulled himself upright by the edge of the kitchen counter, abandoning the book and the rest of the shopping and followed Emily to where she was banging on the closed front door with her hands. He swung the door open, and she charged out, and banged on the garage door instead.
He unlocked the door and pulled her push along trike out of the mess in the garage and sat himself down on the low brick wall beside the drive to watch her scoot herself up and down the driveway.
Theoretically she would be safe out there by herself, but Morgan was due soon, and Vincent wouldn’t run the risk of Morgan pulling into the drive and opening the security gates with Emily loose on the other side.
It was pleasant in the sunshine, and Vincent pulled at a few weeds in a desultory manner, just so he could pretend he was working, and Emily scooted up and down the drive, humming tunelessly to herself. Sometimes she was so much like Noah it took his breath away.
The gates clunked and whirred, and Vincent scooped Emily and her trike up, moving her to safety as Morgan pulled into the drive.
Emily shrieked “Morgan, Morgan,” from his arms, and as soon as Morgan had parked her car and was out of it, Vincent set Emily down and she rushed into Morgan’s arms.
Morgan hugged her and grinned at Vincent. “Have you been having fun, Emmie?” she asked.
“Da went shopping. Got me a robot shirt. And pink bunny biccies,” Emily said, wrapping her arms around Morgan’s neck and squeezing tight. “What day?” she asked Morgan.
“Friday, Emily. Kiddiegym day,” Morgan said, following Vincent into the house. “Are you ready to go? Do you have shoes on?”
Emily was off up the stairs for her shoes as soon as Morgan put her down on the ground. “Hi, Vincent,” she said. “Which car do you want me to take today?”
“Hi, Morgan. Take mine, I’m supposed to be working.”
Morgan dropped her keys onto the table in the hall. “I’ll leave you my car keys then, just in case.”
Vincent grinned. Morgan knew him too well. He wasn’t very good at sticking to mundane tasks. “Thanks.”
He left Morgan and Emily putting the rest of the shopping away and making lunch and opened his study door again. The box Emily had stuck the picture of Simon to was waiting for him still, full of credit card statements and receipts and accounts.
He sat down at his pc again and put the box on the desk beside the printer. His accountant had threatened to leave him for a more orderly client if he didn’t put the whole lot of household accounts onto a spreadsheet for her. He really wasn’t looking forward to this. He didn’t want to know how much they spent on childcare and food for a week, a month and a year. Ignorance was bliss.
He started working through the mess and was vaguely aware of Morgan and Emily calling out goodbyes as they left for kiddiegym.
***
He was asleep on the couch in the family room, book on his chest, when Emily scrambled up onto him, elbows and knees digging in.
“Da, Da, wake up,” she called, patting his face. “I went to kiddiegym and to play somewhere. Morgan gave me ice-cream.”
Vincent pushed himself upright, Emily on his lap and blinked a little. “Did she? Where did you go to play?”
“Where Gilly and Pete live. With a puppy.”
Vincent glanced at the clock in the kitchen. It was five already. “It must have been a big play.”
Emily looked down at her jeans and patted them. “I did wee. Morgan says smelly.”
Vincent looked down too. “She’s right.” The hot water system clunked on, and Morgan appeared and scooped Emily off Vincent’s lap.
“Sorry ’bout that, Vincent,” she said. “I should have grabbed her quicker.”
Vincent said, “No problem, I was going to shower before I went out anyway.” He stood up, pulling his wet clothes away from his skin, and headed upstairs, leaving Morgan to put a very loud Emily into a bath.
The bed was still stripped bare when Vincent pushed the bedroom door open, and he grabbed sheets and quilt cover from the hall and made the bed quickly. This was always better not done last thing at night. Or by Noah for that matter. Noah put quilt covers onto quilts by laying the cover out on the bed then climbing into the cover with the quilt and wrestling with it. Vincent had been reduced to shrieking hysterics the first time he had seen this performance, and now Noah refused to do the job unless no one was watching.
The bed made, Vincent showered quickly then pulled on clean clothes. They were going out to an exhibition launch as soon as Noah came home, so Vincent made sure he wore jeans with no rips, and a wine colored velvet shirt that Noah had given him. He put shoes on too, and combed his hair. Micky was an ex of his, the first person he had been involved with after breaking up with Ella, and Vincent had fond enough memories of her kindness to him to want to make an effort for her show.
When he went back downstairs, Emily was sitting in her highchair in her clean pajamas, eating slices of apple, and he kissed her damp curls.
“You having dinner?” he asked her.
Emily shook her head. “No, Da. Morgan getting pizza for dinner.”
Morgan was behind Vincent, bringing Emily a mug of milk. “That’s right, Emmie. Da and Dada are going out, so I’m looking after you.”
“Suzy joining you?” Vincent asked Morgan, reaching for his wallet.
“She is,” Morgan said, looking smug.
Morgan’s romantic life entertained Vincent endlessly, her steady turnover of girlfriends, the traumas and tribulations of dyke dating, though Suzy had been around for a few weeks, long enough for Vincent to have met her. That was the deal. Morgan would sit in the evenings if Vincent and Noah wanted to go out, but she got to invite her latest girlfriend over to wade through Vincent and Noah’s DVD collection. And she got paid cash.
Vincent took out his wallet. “Here’s twenty for pizza, and forty for the extra hours,” he said as he dropped the notes on the kitchen counter.
There was the sound of a key at the front door and Noah pushed it open. Emily heard him and shrieked, “Dada!” and stood up in her highchair, making both Vincent and Morgan reach out to grab her. Emily clung to Vincent, still shouting for her Dada, and Noah appeared.
She held out her arms, and he lifted her out of her highchair, showering her with kisses. “Hello, little girl,” he said, and she giggled and squirmed and kissed him back.
“Dada,” she said happily.
Vincent shared a glance with Morgan. This was what always happened. The carer who had been around least was the favorite. Morgan was most popular on Monday mornings, after Emily had had a weekend
with her fathers. Noah was preferred parent if he was working. And Vincent was number one favorite in the early mornings, he suspected because he was less grouchy than either Morgan or Noah first thing.
Noah looked over Emily’s shoulder as he cuddled her. “Am I horribly late?” he asked. “Have I got time to shower?”
“If you’re quick,” Vincent said.
Noah put Emily down on the ground. “Alright, Emily, want to help Dada choose his clothes?”
Emily hurtled off up the stairs, Noah following her closely, and Morgan said, “Toddler Eye for the Queer Guy?”
“Emily’s got better dress sense,” Vincent replied. “She knows that animal motifs go with everything.”
He followed Noah and Emily up the stairs more sedately, and found Emily sitting inside Noah’s closet, pulling shoes out, while the shower ran in the ensuite.
Noah was back in a minute, towel wrapped around him. “What you got for me, girl?” he asked, pulling boxers on and sitting on the bed beside Vincent.
Vincent threw the damp towel off the bed and onto the floor, on the grounds it was the lesser of two evils.
Emily held up a gorgeous pair of faux crocodile skin cowboy boots and Noah nodded. “Cool, there’s two of them, and they match. That’s what I like in shoes. Got to wear jeans with them though.”
He stood up and took a pair of jeans off the stack in his closet. “Choose me a shirt now, Emmie,” he said as he pulled the jeans on.
“T-shirt, Da,” Emily said decisively, and Noah nodded.
“Alright, but what color?”
Vincent lay back on the bed and tried to suppress his laughter. Emily and Noah did this often, and Noah always obligingly wore what she chose him.
“White, Dada, ’K?”
When Vincent looked up, Noah was pulling on a tight white T-shirt and tucking it into his jeans.
“’K. What about a jacket?”
Emily pushed open the other door of Noah’s closet and looked up at the clothes. “Any robots?” she asked hopefully.
“No, no jackets with robots on,” Noah said, looking in the closet too. “But what about a tiger?”
He lifted a black satin jacket adorned with an embroidered tiger out of the closet and Emily squealed delightedly.
“Yes, Dada, so pretty.”
Noah pulled the jacket on, and Vincent gave up trying not to laugh and rolled over on the bed and used a pillow to muffle his roars of laughter.
“What’s wrong?” Noah asked him, then turned and looked at himself in the mirror. “I look fine, don’t I, Emmie?”
“Very pretty, Dada. Want my cow clips too?”
Vincent rolled back on the bed, still hugging the pillow, in time to see Noah ran a hand over his cropped hair. “My hair’s too short for clips at the moment, sweetheart, but thank you for the offer,” Noah said. “Why don’t you run down to Morgan while I find out what Da thinks is so funny?”
When Emily had trotted out of the room, Noah glared at Vincent. “Go on, tell me now, Mr. So Terribly Fashion Conscious.”
Vincent laughed again. “Look at yourself, you look like a pimp.”
Noah looked at his reflection, turning around to look at his jacket over his shoulder. “Oh crap, I do too. I could take a different jacket and change in the car if it’s going to offend someone.”
Vincent shook his head and stood up. “Hell, no, you’ll only make it worse somehow. We should go. There’s fashionably late, and there’s ‘oh my God, I’ve got kids’ late.”
Emily hugged them both good bye, and Morgan said, “I’ll call you when she wakes and asks for you, OK?”
Vincent picked up his cell phone from the hall table, and Noah waved his, and they were out of the door without Emily bursting into tears.
On the driveway, Noah said, “Can you drive, I’m knackered.”
Vincent slid into the driver’s seat of Noah’s car as Noah climbed into the passenger seat.
“Course I can,” he said. “Bad day at work?”
Noah nodded.
Vincent reversed out of the drive and onto the road. “We won’t stay late tonight if you’re stuffed. And tomorrow’s Saturday. You’re not working, are you?”
“Nope. Kevin’s got to fly east for some family thing, so no chance of weekend work. Quentin had something on too, can’t remember what.”
Vincent pulled out into the Friday evening traffic, and Noah kept talking. “Quentin asked me a bit about Kaycie today at lunch, completely startled me.”
“What’d he ask?” Vincent asked cautiously. Kaycie was still a sore subject between them.
“He asked what it was like for me having a relationship end so publicly. Said he had had a rotten time when his girlfriend dumped him, with everyone in the world knowing. He thought I might have had the same experience.”
“What’d you say?”
“That I’d pretty much gone into hiding when she dumped me. That you’d looked after me. He looked puzzled, so I told him you and I had been lovers for years. Quentin said he and Matt had been fucking for years too, then Matt hit him. Just a normal day at work.”
Vincent laughed along with Noah. One day, they’d go back over the old ground, talk again about what had happened with Kaycie, but this wasn’t the day.
There wasn’t any parking near the gallery where Micky was exhibiting, so they had to walk, and Noah held Vincent’s hand as they dodged through the crowds.
The gallery was crowded and Vincent found himself smiling at people and kissing cheeks. Ella hugged him, then Noah; and took Noah away, leaving Vincent to greet Micky.
She hugged him, and kissed him on the cheeks and said, “Thank you for coming along. Thank you for bringing your utterly gorgeous boyfriend with you. You two ever want some company, you just call me.”
Vincent laughed. “Thanks, Micky, but we’re not shopping for company.”
Micky fluttered her eyelashes at Vincent. “Pity, you’re both so totally fuckable. Never mind, come and meet people.”
He let her take him around. Cedric was there, on Ella’s arm, and Vincent hugged him.
Cedric slapped him on the back. “I’ve seen Noah,” he said.
Vincent rolled his eyes a little. “Emily dressed him, what more can I say? At least he got away without the cow hair clips.”
Cedric shrugged expressively. “You know, she’s got a future as a stylist.”
“I’d rather she was an accountant than a stylist,” Vincent said, then Micky pulled him away again.
Amy was there, without her partner, and Marie too. Micky and Ella had been friends for years, it was like a time warp back to the days when he and Ella had been together, there were so many of their old friends there.
Vincent found Noah gazing at the glass cabinets of jewelry. Micky was an incredibly talented silversmith and all her work was amazing. He slid an arm around Noah’s shoulders and hugged him quickly. “Anything here that you particularly like?” he asked.
“It’s all wonderful, but the piece I really wanted is already sold,” Noah said, smiling at Vincent.
“Really? Which one is that?”
Noah took Vincent’s hand and led him to one of the cabinets. “That one, the bracelet.”
“Why that one?”
“You’re going to think I’m sentimental or something, but the stone, whatever it is, is the same color as Emily’s eyes.”
Vincent nodded. “It’s mookiate jasper, and I noticed that too.” He looked at Noah who was staring at the bracelet. Noah’s eyes were smooth brown, quite a deep shade. Emily’s were lighter now, more golden than Noah’s. Exactly the shade of the stones.
“I bought it for you last week.”
“What?”
“I bought the bracelet for you when Emily and I went to visit Micky in her studio.”
Noah wrapped his arms around Vincent and hugged him, then kissed him soundly. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you so much.”
Vincent laughed and kissed Noah back.
“My p
leasure, but you can’t have it until the show is finished.”
Food was coming around, carried on platters by Micky’s teenage children, and Vincent helped himself to the pies. They would be good, Micky had made them herself. There had been a batch cooling for the freezer when he and Emily had visited the week before, and they had both eaten some.
Micky’s teenage daughter, Den, handed around cakes, and Micky came around with a platter of hash cookies. Vincent declined since he was driving, and Noah didn’t take one either.
Noah was beside Vincent when his cell phone rang, and they exchanged a quick glance and Vincent checked his watch as Noah answered the call. 9.45pm, Emily was nothing if not predictable.
Noah said, “Sure, we’re on our way,” and Vincent could hear Emily’s cries in the background of the call.
Vincent made his way over to Micky and said, “Got to run, Emily’s woken up.”
Micky smiled at him. “You’d better go then. Thanks for coming along.”
In the car, Noah yawned widely as he did up his belt. “That was fun, but I can’t deny that going to bed early sounds great.”
“You too tired?” Vincent asked, starting the car.
Noah shook his head. “No way, but if we’d stayed for another hour, I might have been. So much more diplomatic to say ‘Emily’s awake and crying’ than ‘We’re going home to fuck.’”
“We could have said that to Micky,” Vincent pointed out, pulling out into the traffic.
Noah laughed. “She’s far too interested in our sex life as it is.”
At home, Emily was clinging onto Morgan tightly, sobbing, and Vincent took her, smiling his thanks to Morgan, while Noah went and made Emily’s bottle up.
Both Morgan and Noah were of the opinion that Emily was far too old for a night time bottle, but Vincent had defended her rights, pointing out that Ben had still been breast fed at this age, and Emily was just as entitled to her sucking time as he had been.
Morgan and Suzy left quietly while Vincent tried to soothe Emily, carrying her up the stairs and lying her on his bed, Noah following closely behind.
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