Second Time Around (2 page)

Halley removed her hand from the bassinette with trepidation and was relieved when Cassie stayed silent. She quickly got up and hurried to the front door, closing the lounge door behind her on the way.

Outside, Mrs Rice was fanning her squat frame with a piece of paper despite standing in the shadow provided by the front porch. Seeing as she had sent Em outside in the heat to play Halley wasn’t in any hurry to invite the woman in.

“Can I help you?” she enquired through the screen door.

“I hope so,” Mrs Rice replied, tucking a short lock of brassy blonde hair behind her ear with her free hand. “Tomorrow I have a specialist’s appointment across town and it just occurred to me that I might not be back in time to collect Emeline from school. Would you be able to take her home with you if that is the case?”

“I don’t think the school would let me do that without written permission,” Halley said.

“Oh, I have the form for that here,” Mrs Rice told her, holding up the paper she had been fanning herself with.

“In that case, sure,” Halley agreed, opening the screen door.

She accepted the paper then was surprised when Mrs Rice thrust a pen into her hand.

“I know what it’s like trying to find things,” Mrs Rice said with a shrug. “Children are terrible at putting things back where they belong.”

Feeling irritated with the generalisation, Halley filled out the details and then signed the form. Casey and Corey might make a lot of noise but they were generally tidy. Krystal had given the credit for that to the Montessori Preschool they had attended.

When she had finished Halley passed the form and pen back.

“There you go,” she said.

“Thanks,” Mrs Rice replied as she skimmed over the details before looking up. “Would it be alright with you if I took a copy of your phone number in case of an emergency?”

“Sure,” Halley said, wondering whether the woman was having serious health issues.

“Thanks again, I appreciate it,” Mrs Rice said, sounding grateful. She stepped off the porch, took her phone out of her pocket and headed back towards her side of the camellia border with her attention on the phone in her hand.

“Em’s fine,” Halley muttered under her breath, watching her go. “Thanks for asking.”                                                                                            

She allowed the screen door to slap shut, turned around and nearly tripped over Buddy. Her sister and brother-in-law’s usually energetic white bull terrier was lying upside down in the hallway trying to make the most of the breeze coming through the open door.

“Some watchdog you are,” she scolded as she rubbed the dog’s belly with her bare foot. “Couldn’t you have at least worked up a half-assed woof?”

Buddy’s tail thumped on the wooden floor. The moment Halley took her foot away Buddy scrambled to sit up and farted.

Halley screwed up her face at the odour.

“I
knew
those boys gave you their brussel sprouts last night,” she said the moment she had stepped out of range of the smell.

Buddy started scratching his ear and fell over.

“I think we need to put you on a diet of dog food only,” Halley said as the children clattered down the stairs again.

“Phe-ew! What is that gross smell?” Corey asked when he was nearly at the bottom.

“The dog’s farted silly!” Casey told him, shoving him off the last step.

“I win!” Em announced, jumping the last step as Corey turned around and elbowed his brother in retaliation. She gazed up at Halley expectantly. “Do I get ice cream?”

“She doesn’t count,” Casey argued, looking to Halley for support.

“I was paused!” Corey protested “So I should win!”

“How about I give you all an ice block instead?” Halley suggested. “That way you are all winners.”

Corey started to protest but she held up her hand to stop him.

“Don’t you think the certainty of an ice block now is better than the chance that the winner might not be you and going without?”

Corey thought for a moment.

“I suppose,” he said reluctantly.

Halley smiled.

* * *

Three weeks later Halley arrived home from school dripping wet, ready to provoke her neighbour into a confrontation. Since she had signed that form for Mrs Rice the woman had repeatedly taken advantage of her to bring home Em from school and to look after her until she bothered to turn up. Somehow it was always shortly before Em’s father was due home.

Today it had been pouring with rain and once again Mrs Rice hadn’t given her advance notice. Up until now it hadn’t been a problem because she usually walked Cassie in the pushchair to collect the boys from school. If Mrs Rice didn’t show up, she’d just walk Em home with her.

With the weather so unpleasant she’d taken the car and seeing that Mrs Rice hadn’t turned up the previous two days without warning she didn’t think the woman would have had the nerve to do so three days running. She had been wrong.

Without Casey’s old booster seat in the car for Em to use she couldn’t legally drive all the children home. Any fleeting thought of flouting the law was quashed the instant Halley noticed the police at the end of the street doing seatbelt safety checks.

Irritated, she had phoned Mrs Rice who had apologised and said she was in the dentist’s waiting room and the dentist was running late. The sound of someone shouting out numbers in the background belied her excuse. Halley just
knew
the woman was in a bingo hall somewhere and it was probably where she’d been every other time as well.

Luckily Halley had the pushchair folded up in the back of the car or she would have had to have carried Cassie the three blocks home in the pouring rain. Although the boys had been prepared, Em hadn’t brought a raincoat or an umbrella to school so Halley had given Em the large umbrella kept in the boot of the car to carry. She hadn’t brought a leash for Buddy either so she’d had to make do with the bright orange tow rope out of the breakdown kit, looping the excess rope over the pushchair’s handle.

Unfortunately the umbrella wasn’t big enough to shelter the pair of them and the pushchair so Halley had asked Em to walk with the umbrella covering the pushchair and had resigned herself to getting wet.

Although the children had enjoyed splashing in puddles on the way home, each step they took just made Halley madder. She’d had errands she had needed to run in the car and now she couldn’t do them unless they all walked back to the car in the pouring rain with her carrying the booster seat for Em. She had berated herself the whole way home for being such a soft touch.

Once home, after everyone had cleaned up and Halley had given them their afterschool snack in the kitchen her anger deflated. Looking back she doubted she would ever refuse to have Em over when the alternative was to leave her in the indifferent care of Mrs Rice. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to have a word to Em’s father after the children were settled for the night.

“Aunty Halley can we make cupcakes?”

Corey’s question snapped her thoughts away from her plan. Halley looked out at the rain pounding against the window and decided it was a good activity for the three children to do.

“What a great idea,” she said, grabbing Krystal’s recipe book from the shelf at the end of the kitchen island. “What sort do you want?”

That evening Halley was glad she hadn’t gone to the effort of making a proper meal after noticing all the unauthorised cupcake sampling going on. Despite their claims of being hungry the boys hadn’t been able to finish their single soft boiled egg and buttered soldiers.

Taking the bottle of formula from the jug where it had been warming she tested the temperature on the inside of her wrist and smiled at Cassie who was grinning gummily at her from the bouncinette.

“Your dinner’s ready,” Halley cooed as she set the bottle on the bench and retrieved her niece.

No sooner had she settled on the couch and Cassie started feeding in her arms there was a knock at the door.

“Now who could that be?” she asked, in a soft voice, belying her irritation. It was the first time she had sat down since she had brought the kids home from school.

Cassie just looked at her wide eyed beyond the bottle as she waved her arms around and kept sucking.

Grumbling, Halley carefully held her as she got up from the couch, wishing she hadn’t sent the boys upstairs to have their bath so one of them could have answered the door for her. She interrupted the next series of knocks by pulling the front door open. On the other side of the insect screen stood Em’s father and he did not look happy.

Her first thought was that he looked better close up. His eyes were like Em’s, a brilliant blue and she had been mistaken about his hair. The blonde highlights blended into the brown without any sign of darker roots. He must spend a lot of his spare time outdoors, Halley decided. When he scowled she realised there must be a purpose behind his visit.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Alec noticed the bottle of formula sticking out of the infant’s mouth and was inexplicably disappointed. Even his ex-wife who was a drama queen had managed to breastfeed Em until she had cut her first tooth. Maybe he should let her know that breastfeeding had helped his wife to lose the extra weight she had gained while pregnant. His neighbour’s stomach looked to have grown during the last month or so since he had last seen her.

Alec raised his gaze to her deep brown eyes which were assessing him. She seemed incredibly familiar even though he was certain he had never met her. With a sense of self-preservation he decided not to mention her weight. Women were touchy about that.

“I’m Alec Barrington from next door and I just want to let you know that your dog’s dug a hole in my backyard,” he said tersely, recalling his reason for turning up.

Halley inwardly winced. Buddy had been slipped several cupcake samples and had probably taken one through the gap in the fence to bury for later when she had let him outside to relieve himself. She was just about to apologise when Alec continued.

“And I also want to ask you not to feed my daughter. She wouldn’t eat her dinner tonight because she had consumed so much over here earlier,” he said with annoyance, thinking of the dinner he had gone to the trouble of making instead of buying takeaways as usual.

Halley pushed the screen door open with her elbow. Seeing what she was doing, Alec took it from her and pressed it against the side wall of the porch.

“I’ll grant you that Em probably had more today than she should have but how can you deny her food when she barely gets given enough for school to get her through the day?” Halley asked him with concern.

“How can you say something so ridiculous?” Alec returned crossly. “I’ll have you know that I give Mrs Rice an allowance to buy nutritious food to put in the school lunches that she brings over for Em.”

“You’d better increase that allowance. All Em gets every day is a jam sandwich and an apple,” Halley retorted.

“I don’t know where you got that idea from. Mrs Rice gets paid sufficiently to provide something far more substantial than that. She is dedicated to my daughter,” Alec replied, affronted.

Halley snorted.

“And just what is that sound supposed to mean?” he demanded.

“Your dedicated Mrs Rice can’t be bothered to collect Em half the time. I don’t mind bringing her home with us but it would be easier on me if Mrs Rice would let me know in advance. My car is currently parked outside the school because I didn’t have a spare booster seat for Em to use,” Halley told him testily.

“What are you doing taking my daughter home?” Alec asked with alarm. “You’re not authorised.”

“Yes I am,” Halley interjected. “Mrs Rice turned up here with a permission form so that I could collect Em from school a few weeks ago. She told me she had a doctor’s appointment and wasn’t sure she would be back in time. I wouldn’t have agreed to help her out if I’d known her ‘appointments’ would increase in frequency though… Actually I would have,” she said, changing her mind. “Em spends all her time here after school anyway. She only leaves when Mrs Rice summons her back shortly before you arrive home.”

Alec couldn’t believe what she was telling him.

“You’re exaggerating,” he said testily.

“No, I’m not,” Halley contradicted. She plucked the empty bottle from Cassie’s mouth then placed the baby over her shoulder and started gingerly patting her back. “As much as I don’t want to put Em on the spot I suggest you ask her. Otherwise if you want proof I suggest you get home unexpectedly early tomorrow and you can see for yourself where your daughter spends her time.”

As she spoke Cassie’s face started turning red then Halley felt a familiar vibration on the arm she was using to support the baby.

“Now if you excuse me, I have a nappy to change,” she said then closed the door on his face.

Alec found himself staring at the door for a few moments before he realised what she had done. The gall of the woman! He couldn’t believe the stuff she had made up… and to shut the door on his face! She was incredibly rude.

Alec allowed the screen door to slap shut then stalked back to his house. He’d ask Em what was going on then he would be back. He was paying Mrs Rice a small fortune for Em’s lunches in addition to the hours she minded Em. He even gave the woman extra for mileage on her car.