by Trish Morey
He couldn’t help but smile. ‘I cleaned it up.’
‘Why?’
‘Because we’re going to have a visitor come and stay, if it’s okay with you.’
His daughter turned big eyes onto him. ‘Who?’
‘Come here,’ he said, and took a deep breath as he sat down with her on the edge of the big old bed and put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Sophie—Ms Faraday—is going to be coming to stay with us, Min, if you don’t mind, that is.’
Min’s eyes looked too big for her face ‘Really? How come?’
‘She needs a place to stay where she won’t be alone, at least until she has her babies, and I’m going to be daddy to her babies and you’re going to be their big sister. What do you think?’
She blinked those big eyes up at him. ‘Is she going to bring Whiskers with her?’
He shrugged. ‘Sure. I don’t see why she wouldn’t.’
‘Yay,’ said Min, jumping up from the bed and she was off. ‘I’m going to tell Fat Cat. Whiskers is coming home!’
Nick sat there, hornswoggled. Yup, that went pretty well.
Sophie stepped into the room behind Beth, who’d offered to come with her and help her settle in, though she suspected it was more about making sure Sophie didn’t run away. ‘It’s gorgeous, Nick,’ gushed Beth, sitting down on the side of the big brass bed. ‘Hey, comfy bed, too. Come and try it out, Soph.’
Sophie ignored the fact that her sister seemed to be overdoing it on the enthusiasm scale lately and looked around. So, this was to be her cell for the next however long. Okay, so it was a big cell and even with a double bed and a big old chest of drawers, there was still plenty of room for bassinets and a change table—if she was still here by then—but still she sniffed, trying to find something she didn’t like beyond the fact that it wasn’t her own room in her mum’s house.
But all she smelled was beeswax polish and fresh air sweetly scented. Because God, he’d even put fresh flowers in a vase on the bedside table. ‘I guess it’ll do,’ she said, knowing she sounded ungracious but unable to stop herself. She was still reeling at the speed with which all this had happened.
Somehow, Nick still managed a wry smile as he looked on from where he leaned his shoulder ever so casually against the doorway, with his thumbs stuck in his jeans and his light-blue chambray shirt open at the neck, revealing a slice of olive skin and dark chest hair. She’d raked her fingers through that chest hair, tracing the sculpted skinscape that lay beneath. She swallowed, cursing the fact that he looked like he’d just stepped out of some kind of menswear ad, and lifted her eyes in time to see his smile widen. But then, he would smile under that designer stubble, wouldn’t he? He’d got his damned way, just like the annoying, railroading man had intended all along.
Maybe Hannah and Beth were right. Maybe there was no way in the world she could fall in love with someone like him, even if he did look kind of hot. Just a bit hot. It’d sure help the situation if he stopped wearing those open-necked shirts, for starters …
Something beeped from the direction of the kitchen. ‘It’s ready, Dad,’ called Min, who was busy reacquainting Whiskers with his family.
‘I’ve got a quiche in the oven for lunch. Beth, you’re welcome to stay.’
‘Sorry, I’ve got to run. I’ve got a shift this afternoon, but thanks.’ She turned to Sophie. ‘And you, behave.’
Sophie rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, Mum.’
Beth just grinned and gave her a peck on the cheek. ‘Let me know if there’s anything else you need.’ Sophie was sure she must have imagined the shadows under Beth’s eyes right then, because she didn’t sound too down. Nick made way for her to leave and then she was gone and it was just the two of them in a room full of awkwardness. Nick recovered first. ‘Right, lunch in five. I’ll leave you to it.’
Sophie sat down on the bed in a daze and half-heartedly bounced up and down a couple of times. It was comfortable, damn it. She looked around at the high-ceilinged walls of the old stone house. It was cool inside and they didn’t even have the air conditioner on.
Double damn.
Nick had served up by the time she made it to the round dining table a few minutes later and took a seat next to Min. ‘Do you like your room?’ asked the girl.
‘It’s lovely, yes,’ she said, although she wouldn’t have admitted that to Nick. ‘I’m sure I’ll be very comfortable.’
‘It was really messy before. Dad cleaned it all up.’
‘Oh.’ She flicked her eyes up to his and then away again. ‘I’m sorry to put your dad to the trouble. I could have done that.’
‘Oh no, it was re-eally messy, wasn’t it, Dad?’
‘It was a bit of an archaeological dig with a few layers of Min’s cast-offs to sort through, that’s true,’ he said, slicing up the quiche and putting a slice on everyone’s plates. ‘Help yourself to salad and bread,’ he said.
Fresh out of the oven, the quiche sure smelled good. It tasted even better, rich with cheese and chunks of ham.
‘It’s delicious,’ she said, remembering a snippet from her past. ‘My dad used to say real men didn’t eat quiche.’
‘This real man does.’
‘Dad makes the best quiche in the whole world,’ contributed Min, busy picking off the pastry edge and munching on that first. ‘And he makes the best pasghetti boganese.’
Sophie blinked, but not at Min’s cute stumble over the name. ‘You actually made this? You cook?’
‘What did you think? That I had an ulterior motive? That I was going to chain you to the kitchen?’
‘Well, no. I just didn’t expect …’
He shrugged as he helped himself to more salad. ‘Maybe if it was just me, I wouldn’t bother. But when you’ve got a girl like this one who enjoys good food, it would be wrong to dish up something like McDonald’s every day, don’t you agree?’
Sophie nodded, feeling dislocated as she sliced off a bite of quiche. Of course she agreed that a child needed a good and healthy diet, she just didn’t know what she’d expected to find in Nick. He and Penelope had to be doing something right, but she sure hadn’t expected to find a man who was such a dab hand in the kitchen. But then, she already knew he was a good dad. Not that it made up for all his other litany of faults, though.
And this was only the first day she was living under his roof, and he was bound to be on his best behaviour. He’d do something to blot his copybook soon, she was sure of it.
‘Anyway,’ Min said, licking her thumb. ‘Dad makes better hamburgers than McDonald’s.’ She turned to her father. ‘Can we have hamburgers again, Dad?’
‘Sure,’ said Nick. ‘So long as you help make the patties.’
‘Maybe Ms Faraday can help too!’ suggested Min brightly, who had worked her way around the crust and was now attacking the actual quiche. She stopped then and stuck out her bottom lip. ‘Do I still have to call you Ms Faraday?’
‘I think you can call me Sophie,’ she said. ‘Unless we’re at school. It might be best if you called me Ms Faraday there.’
Min nodded. ‘I like Sophie, it’s a nice name.’
Sophie found a smile, the easiest since she’d arrived. ‘And I like Min.’
The girl agreed, loading her fork with quiche. ‘I like Min, too.’
Nick watched the interplay between his daughter and their new guest. Sophie was still resentful of him—he’d expected that, moving in with them was a huge concession she was being forced to make, but one she’d soon see was the right decision—but he was relieved to see that she saved her rancour for him while she sent Min the smiles.
She had a good smile. A beautiful smile. It looked warm and real, and it was no wonder Min and her other students all loved her. He wouldn’t half mind it if she wanted to send a smile like that in his direction every once in a while, but Sophie’s smiles for him had all but dried up. That night should never have happened, she was reminding him, and she was only here under duress.
‘So, when are we ma
king these world-famous hamburger patties, then?’ asked Sophie.
Min’s head swung around to him. ‘Dad?’
He’d had in mind barbecued lamb chops and veggies for dinner tomorrow, but there was something about the thought of Sophie and Min working together making hamburgers in his kitchen that moved hamburgers right on up the list. And selfishly he thought, it might even break down a barrier or two in the process.
‘Why not tomorrow?’ he said, making a note to run down to the shops after school drop-off to pick up the burger buns. The chops could wait.
53
Beth
It was another shitty day. Another shitty day in a whole string of shitty days and Beth had had a gutful. She slammed her locker door, the crash of metal against metal not the least bit as therapeutic as it damn well should have been.
And the trouble was, she couldn’t put her finger on why it had been such a shitty day. They’d picked up and dropped off three old people for visits to Outpatients, attended a man who’d fallen off his bike and scraped off a fair bit of skin and was concussed, and done a school visit to talk about their job and show the kids exactly what was in the back of an ambulance. Totally unremarkable. She couldn’t even blame her period for her foul mood.
So, what the hell was wrong with her?
She pulled up outside the school, late again, the pick-up area empty—perfect—and parked the car. The noise of the blower-vacuum didn’t register at first, just so much more noise in her head, until she saw him. Harry, clearing gum leaves and bark from the path.
Her heart lurched. He looked up and saw her coming and stopped, the blower shutting down as he peeled the headphones from his ears. ‘Beth,’ he said, and even from a distance, she could see the hurt in his sorrowful eyes. ‘How are you?’
‘Good,’ she lied, even though she felt like crap and knew she looked even worse. ‘How’ve you been?’
He shrugged. ‘Oh, you know.’
She had a fair idea. But that was hardly her fault, surely? She’d never promised anything, had she? It wasn’t like they’d broken up—you’d have to be in some kind of relationship for that to have happened. All she’d done was tell him he couldn’t come around anymore. ‘Well, I better get inside, before the principal calls Family Services to take Siena away.’
‘I guess.’
‘See you,’ she said as she walked on by. Harry just nodded as she passed, and a second later she heard the blower-vac start up once more, the noise feeding into the din in her head and blotting out the ache in her heart.
‘You’re late, again,’ Siena snarled as they made their way back to the car. ‘I was waiting ages.’
‘I’m here now, aren’t I?’ Beth said, marching the long way back to the car, keeping a wide berth from the blast of the blower-vac.
‘You’re always late,’ said Siena.
‘I got held up.’
‘And you’re always cranky.’
‘No, I’m not.’
‘Yes, you are.’
Beth stopped and wheeled around. ‘For God’s sake, Siena, give me a break!’
‘See! I told you,’ and her daughter sprinted to the car.
54
Sophie
It was fun cooking with Min. The girl was passionate about her hamburgers and her enthusiasm was contagious. Min issued instructions and Sophie fetched and carried, and it was a great way, she decided, to find where everything lived in the cupboards.
Sophie chopped the onion while Min added the mixed herbs, pepper and an egg to the beef mince already in the bowl and started mixing. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I forgot the mint.’
Sophie went to the cupboard, where she’d found the mixed herbs and spotted a jar of dried mint. ‘Mint. Check.’
‘No. Fresh mint.’ Min clambered down from her chair.
‘Oh, I’ll get it. You tell me where.’
‘Do you know where the clothesline is?’
‘No, but I’m sure I can find it.’ Sophie had been settling in all day and hadn’t explored outside yet, but she figured a clothesline was a hard thing to miss.
‘That’s okay. I don’t mind showing you.’ And they went off in the quest for mint.
There was a brick paved patio outside the back door, complete with an outdoor table and chairs and a vine-covered pergola, and that ended in a low wall and a rosemary hedge set against the rising hill behind. ‘Nice,’ she said, liking the way the vine leaves filtered out the worst of the sun. ‘Maybe we could eat outside tonight?’
‘Yay,’ said Min, looking over her shoulder. ‘That’d be cool. Around here’s the mint.’
The paving continued around the corner, this area not covered by a pergola and the perfect sun trap for the clothesline fixed to the wall of the house.
The perfect sun trap for a brown snake to be stretched out sunbaking on the hot bricks.
‘Min!’ Sophie screamed, her blood running cold. Min stopped, one foot in the air, and her face turned white as a sheet when she turned her head and saw what was lying across the bricks just a few short steps ahead.
The snake realised it had company. It slithered at speed into the garden, vanishing into the mint plants alongside the house as it headed the other way.
Sophie put her hands on the girl’s shoulders and backed away, keeping an eye on the bushes for any movement. ‘How about we use dried mint today in the burgers.’
Min nodded, her little shoulders trembling under Sophie’s hands, although Sophie wasn’t sure who was shaking the most. ‘I don’t think it will matter today.’
‘It was enormous!’ said Min to her father as they sat around the table eating their hamburgers. The dining table inside rather than the outdoor table, given the unexpected sighting of their visitor.
Nick looked across at Sophie, who nodded. ‘It was a biggie, all right. A couple of metres, I’d guess. Could it be the one you thought had bitten Fat Cat?’
‘Could be. I was hoping it had moved on, because I hadn’t caught anything in the netting. I’ll set up some more first thing tomorrow.’
‘I almost stepped on it,’ said Min, who was clearly over the shock and was now firmly in tall-tale territory. ‘I would have too, if Sophie hadn’t called out and made me stop.’
‘We’re just lucky it wanted to go the opposite way when it sensed us coming,’ Sophie said. ‘I don’t know what we would have done if it had decided it wanted to come towards us.’
‘Damn. Min, don’t go out the back unless you have to and if you do, make sure you stamp your feet at the back door and give anything a chance to clear out. And make sure you keep those kittens inside, too.’
He turned to Sophie, his blue-grey eyes filled with concern. ‘That goes for you, too. And thank you for staying calm and looking out for Min.’
‘I sure didn’t feel calm. Snakes give me the creeps, but I guess if you grow up around here, you get used to the odd sighting.’ Sophie shivered, remembering the ice-cold chill in her veins when she’d seen it lying directly in Min’s path. ‘Though that one was way too close for my liking.’
Nick nodded grimly. ‘And mine.’
All in all, the first week hadn’t gone too badly, Sophie reflected, as she lay in bed waiting for sleep to claim her. Despite living in the same house, she’d managed to keep up a professional separation between herself and Nick, and the presence of Min was a constant reminder to keep it that way. She’d taken herself off one morning to have coffee with Amy Jennings, Nick’s sixty-something-year-old neighbour, and gran to a couple of the school kids she’d taught, and she’d walked with her and her little dog, Boo, one morning before it got too hot.
And work had given her a very welcome couple of days’ reprieve from being in Nick’s domain, even though two and a half days with her young class was enough to wear her out. This twins caper sure wasn’t for the faint-hearted.
It was just a shame it was time for Min to spend a week at Penelope’s, and though she’d get to see her at school, Sophie would miss her bright face around
the house, and not only for the natural buffer she provided.
Come to think of it, it was also a shame the house didn’t have an en suite and they all had to share the same bathroom. She wasn’t used to encountering a man wearing only a towel lashed low on his hips while she padded barefoot along the passage. Especially not one whose naked chest sparked off all kinds of memories she’d been trying to blot out.
But it had only happened the once, the morning after they’d had hamburgers when she’d headed to the bathroom at the same time he was heading out and they’d both been awkward and had to duck and weave around each other to the sound of muttered apologies. Since then, she’d made a point of making sure she didn’t need the bathroom about the time he liked to get up, and so far it hadn’t happened again.
And that’s what this was all about. Control. This was how she was going to make it through these next few months of forced proximity, by continually being on guard and protecting herself against any situations where she might possibly get the wrong idea and start imagining things she had no right imagining.
At least there was no chance of that happening tomorrow.
Tomorrow, after he dropped Min down at her mother’s, he was taking her baby shopping. She could think of nothing less romantic. She was sure it was too early and that they had months in which to prepare, but Nick had been adamant about getting it done while she was still mobile. He’d made it sound like she was going to become as big as a beached whale. Then again, given the size of her expanding belly, maybe he was right. She felt a prod followed by a kick in that region, and put her hands to her belly and thought, yeah, right on time. Because her babies seemed to love to come out and play just when she was tired and ready to go to sleep. She felt them swoop and tumble under her hands. She felt the magic of their existence. And she felt the bond between herself and her babies tighten another notch.