Second Time Around (24 page)

“Okay Buddy boy,” she said. “Bed time.”

He trotted up the stairs after her but veered off into Casey’s room at the top. Now that the children all had their own bedrooms they argued over which room Buddy got to sleep in so Halley and Alec had told them that Buddy would pick for himself. They just helped him choose by herding him into a different child’s room each night.

Halley backtracked to the doorway and tapped her thigh. Before her eyes could adjust to the dark she heard Buddy grunt as he landed on the floor.

“Em’s room tonight,” she whispered as Buddy trotted towards her. Without further guidance Buddy disappeared into the adjacent room.

Halley carried on into the room she now shared with Alec and saw the broken glass from the picture frame on the floor. She rolled her eyes then cleaned it up, knowing that it hadn’t occurred to Alec to do so. As she prepared for bed the reminder of Krystal’s betrayal made her wonder how she would ever get to sleep.

Her sister’s actions stung beyond the theft. Halley now believed that Krystal had pushed for her marriage to Rob in the hope that with his financial support she would no longer be insistent about accessing her savings.

Maybe Krystal or Paul had encouraged Rob to marry her by hinting about how much money she had. Then when she had married him and still wanted the money, Krystal had made up the story about it sitting in a term deposit that ended when she turned thirty just to delay the inevitable.

Another thought had Halley sitting up in bed. That wasn’t right. Rob had gloated that he had seduced her because of how much money she had so he had known about it beforehand.

She struggled to come up with an explanation for that but she couldn’t. After all, by the time Rob decided to go after her for her money it was long gone. Convoluted conspiracies twisted around in her mind but each time she thought she had grasped a coherent thread the whole plot unravelled.

Knowing that she had to get some sleep, Halley turned onto her side and concentrated on trying not to think of anything. She was just drifting off when Lily woke.

Alec studied the statements in front of him. There was a definite pattern and it started four years ago. Instead of the money being reinvested in a term deposit when it came up for renewal it was kept in the same account. Days later, nineteen hundred and twenty two dollars and twenty cents had been withdrawn. It had been slowly repaid at the rate of one hundred dollars a week.

The amount had to have been for something specific, Alec decided. He wondered what it was. Several months later a smaller amount had been withdrawn then repaid in the same manner. Then a few months after that, more withdrawals appeared.

A year later the amounts withdrawn were rounding to the nearest hundred and payments were more sporadic but everything was repaid. Alec decided that Krystal was now confident in using Halley’s money to top up her finances to cover whatever she needed at the time. He could see the allure. After all, Halley had never touched her money and it was sitting there. She never need know.

What he couldn’t explain was why Krystal had started withdrawing large sums to finance the construction of the house. It didn’t fit in with her earlier pattern of taking a small amount then immediately begin repaying it back. Had she decided that since Halley wasn’t using her money that she might as well spend up large?

The reason for his confusion was that it wasn’t until after the last large withdrawal had been made that the one hundred dollar payments had started up again. Had Krystal just decided to wait until the house had been completely paid for? How on earth did she think she was ever going to replace the money she’d taken with such an inadequate payment plan?

With a sigh he wondered if he was overthinking the situation. Maybe Krystal had been deluding herself.

With a glance towards the door Alec decided that if Halley was still awake when he went upstairs he’d tell her about the other withdrawals and repayments. If nothing else perhaps she could take some comfort from the knowledge that her sister had repaid her earlier withdrawals. The regular repayments, pitiful as they were, suggested that Krystal intended to repay her debt.

Since there was nothing more to be learned from the statements, Alec closed the website. With the thought of debt preying on his mind he entered the details to check his own mortgage balance.

If you don’t take interest into account, at least Krystal had been slowly reducing her debt
, Alec thought as he keyed in the passcode the website had texted to his phone
. I just seem to be treading water.

The current balances of his fixed and floating mortgages appeared on screen and Alec’s heart pounded as he noticed that the floating mortgage was far bigger than he had expected. It was now almost as big as the fixed one.

What had happened? Had Halley gone out and paid for braces for all five kids in advance and given the orthodontist a bonus to cover a new car while she was at it?
he thought wildly.

As he began to panic, Alec suddenly noticed that the floating mortgage balance no longer had a negative sign in front of it. He fixated on that tiny detail which made all the difference in the world.

Feeling slightly calmer, he wondered whether there had been a banking error. Perhaps tomorrow the balance would be back to what it had been. Then another thought popped into his mind. When he had married Halley he’d given her access to the floating mortgage because that account was the one he used for all his household expenses. Had she had something to do with the new balance?

Unable to deal with large numbers this time of night, Alec pulled out a calculator and deducted the value that Halley had got for the house from the current balance. Because neither of them had trusted Chantelle, Alec had checked every document Halley had needed to sign to sell Krystal and Paul’s house so he knew exactly how much the house had sold for. It met the number on his calculator perfectly. Halley hadn’t held anything back.

After the way he had behaved earlier Alec wouldn’t have been surprised if Halley had decided to distance herself from him. Instead she had given him everything she had. Feeling incredibly humbled, he returned the calculator to the drawer and turned the computer off.

In his hurry to get upstairs to thank her, he found he had to return downstairs twice: to check that the doors were locked and to turn off a few lights. When he raced up the stairs for the third time then entered his bedroom he was breathing a little heavier than usual.

Halley wasn’t in his bed.

His stomach dropped. He thought that she had accepted his apology earlier but maybe he hadn’t been completely forgiven. Alec hoped that his behaviour hadn’t sent her back to the room she had been using. The night before had completely exceeded his expectations and he wanted her to stay with him.

Mindful of the sleeping children he softly walked to her previous bedroom and pushed open the door to find Corey sleeping inside. In the dim light he could make out a few items of furniture from the room he had before. As he retraced his steps down the hallway Alec marvelled over how Halley had managed to find time to change everything around in a single afternoon when she had so many other things to do.

A half-hearted wail from Lily’s room followed by a gentle hush let him know Halley’s location. Relieved, Alec returned to his room, hurried through the shower and got into bed to wait for her. He was rearranging the blankets on his lap when Halley returned.

“Oh,” she said, startled. She tried not to stare at his inviting bare chest. “I didn’t hear you come up.”

“You were busy with Lily.”

Alec turned the blankets back on Halley’s side of the bed so she could get in. As she slid under the covers she noticed that he wasn’t wearing anything.

“You’ve got no clothes on,” she said before she could think better of it.

“I know. I want to thank you properly. For everything.”

Halley didn’t have to be told how he intended to thank her. The evidence was there under the covers and in the gleam of his eye. She smiled and decided to tease him.

“Okay,” she said and stripped off her nightgown. “I’ll try and stay awake.”

Alec covered her and supported his weight on his forearms, enjoying the feel of her soft body under his. He pressed one knee down between her thighs to part them.

“This might take a while but you’ll stay awake,” he promised.

Halley raised her eyebrows at his arrogant tone and Alec pressed a kiss to her cheek then pulled back.

“I don’t know whether I should start at the top and work my way down or start at your toes and work my way up,” he mused as he rocked above her.

Halley was distracted by how good it felt to have his hardness rubbing against her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“How about you split the difference and start in the middle,” she suggested.

The next morning Halley received a phone call from the executive producer involved with
Return to Razxif
about reprising her role as the Time-Sifting Princess. He told her that Riker had given him her phone number and that he was keen to talk.

When Halley got off the phone she was excited. She danced Lily and Cassie around the kitchen in her arms.

“They want me for the movie!” she exclaimed in delight.

Cassie chortled and Lily threw up over Halley’s shoulder which dampened her excitement for the few minutes it took to clean them both up. She wanted to tell Alec her news but decided to wait until he got home from work so she could tell him in person.

When he arrived home that evening she suddenly felt inexplicably nervous and used the previous night’s fiasco as an excuse to wait until the children were in bed. Halley then waited an extra half an hour to make sure they stayed put. When she realised there was no point in stalling any longer she poured herself a small glass of wine for liquid courage.

Buddy came up beside her in the kitchen, sat down and dropped the tennis ball from his mouth.

“You want a treat huh?” she asked, more than willing to be distracted. Halley reached into the pantry and pulled a small dog biscuit out. “Catch,” she said, tossing it into the air.

Buddy caught it with a snap and Halley heard it crunching in his mouth as he trotted off.

“You should make him work for it.”

Halley turned around and saw Alec on the other side of the breakfast bar wrapping the tie around his hand that he had pulled off the moment he had got in the door. Finishing the unnecessary task, he slid the tie off his hand and placed it on the breakfast bar.

“I thought he might wake the kids if I played hide n’ seek,” Halley lied.

Buddy loved that game. Alec had trained him to play by getting one of the kids to show Buddy a dog biscuit then he’d hold onto Buddy while the child hid in another room. When they called out they were ready he’d release Buddy and the dog would scramble off to find the child so he could receive the biscuit.

This part of the game sometimes involved Buddy barking because the children would often giggle upon hearing him and give away their hiding spot.

Once Em had taken several biscuits and put them in her pocket, intending to play the game over and over. Buddy hadn’t understood that and had frightened her when he had barked excitedly upon scenting the other biscuits then had leapt at her pocket to get at them.

As soon as Em had realised what Buddy wanted she had all but thrown them at him. Now when Buddy found the hiding person he liked to bark and jump about, always hoping that it would earn him extra treats.

Alec looked at Buddy who had picked up the tennis ball and dropped it by his feet.

“You could have thrown the ball outside,” he said, scooping up the slobber coated ball. He strolled over to the nearest exterior door, opened it and tossed the ball out into the night. Buddy raced after it and Alec closed the door. “Like that.”

He came over and stood beside Halley as he washed his hands in the sink. Alec watched her take a small sip of her wine.

“Should you be drinking that?” he asked as he patted his hands dry with a tea towel without taking his eyes off her.

“Probably not.”

It didn’t stop her from taking another mouthful though. After that Halley placed the wine glass on the bench and pushed it towards him.

“You can have the rest.”

Alec raised the glass to his mouth, intending to polish off the contents before Halley could change her mind.

“I got a job offer today. The executive producer for
Return to Razxif
phoned. He wants me to be in the movie,” she blurted.

Without taking a sip Alec put the glass down and said the first thing that popped into his mind.

“Who would look after the children and do the housework?”

Halley scowled.

“What?” she asked in terse disbelief. “No ‘Wow! That’s great!’ or ‘How fantastic!’ or ‘I’m thrilled for you’?”

“I’m sorry. That’s wonderful news.” The words came out in the right tone but Alec didn’t look happy about it.

“I won’t be earning nearly as much as I did last time because I haven’t made a film in years,” Halley rushed to tell him.

“You’ve already agreed then?” Alec picked up the glass again and forced himself to drink the contents slowly so he wouldn’t add anything else that might upset her.

“I told him I wanted to discuss it with you first,” Halley replied.

Alec nodded as he placed the empty glass carefully on the bench.

“What about the children?” he asked.

“What about them?” she returned flippantly.

“Who’s going to look after them? Lily’s not even two months old,” he reminded her.

“It’ll take months before they’ll need me for anything,” Halley assured him. “I should be able to put Cassie and Lily into the crèche they have for children of the cast and crew.”

“And the others?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps we’ll have to put them in afterschool care while we’re filming.”

“But I sometimes have to work late without notice.”

Halley didn’t like the way that Alec was throwing up roadblocks instead of coming up with solutions. She slapped the bench, frustrated with his attitude.

“Maybe I can arrange for someone to bring them to the set after school if it isn’t far away. Maybe you could take afternoons off work while I’m filming. Maybe we could ask Leonora or Rufus to look after them. Maybe we could hire someone even though that would probably wind up costing more than I’ll get,” she snapped with irritation. She held up her hand to stop Alec from responding.

“And before you bring up the housework, as far as I’m concerned I’ll only do the necessary stuff.”

Alec knew he was being a louse by not being more supportive of Halley’s opportunity but he couldn’t help it. Yes, he was concerned about how they would manage the children but his bigger, unvoiced worry was over Halley spending large periods of time with Riker Sell. After all, it had only taken having lunch with the man to turn Leonora into a giddy, incoherent state. What would spending long periods of time with him do to Halley?

And it wasn’t just that. Alec knew he looked a little better than average but he was nothing compared to Riker Sell who was ruggedly handsome
and
charismatic according to Leonora. If that wasn’t enough Riker was always plastered on the cover of magazines and had been considered the world’s most eligible bachelor for the past three years running. The man even had an eight pack and had millions whereas Alec’s belly button was an ‘outie’ and he had needed Halley’s help to make headway into his mortgage.

Alec scratched behind his ear, knowing that Halley would probably laugh off his worries.

“Could I think about this for a few days?”

Halley shook her head.

“While people involved with the film have been trying to track me down things have been getting set up. If I choose not to do this movie they’ll need to find someone else as soon as possible. I need to tell them tomorrow.”

No pressure.
Alec felt as though he was between a rock and a hard place. He could see how much this opportunity meant to Halley and after the rough year she’d had she deserved to be able to do something for herself that she enjoyed. She’d resent him almost as much as he’d hate himself if he said ‘no’ because of his own insecurities.

On the other hand if he said ‘yes’ she would be thrust back into the spotlight and would have the potential to earn more than he could in several lifetimes. That thought was not only intimidating; it would take away the only benefit he brought to their marriage. If she retook the role of the Time-Sifting Princess she wouldn’t need him for anything.

“Alec? What do you think?”

He thought he couldn’t see her choosing to stay with him either way but he didn’t say that. If their marriage was going to fall apart it wouldn’t be because he held her back.

“I think,” he said slowly “that dusty table tops will provide a great surface for the children to practise writing their letters neatly.”

It took Halley only a moment to process what he had said then she shrieked with joy and flung herself into his arms.

Things moved rapidly after that. Halley was assigned a personal trainer to get back into shape and she ate pre-supplied meals while still cooking for everyone else. Alec felt a little sorry for her; while everyone enjoyed her fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy she ate a small serving of steamed fish and a salad without dressing.

He had taken over the job of feeding Cassie because Halley had started skimming off the top of each spoonful with her tongue ‘to make it easier for Cassie to eat’. When it came to dessert Halley’s eyes would watch the spoons filled with sticky date pudding and vanilla ice cream travel to their mouths while she sipped from a glass of water with a slice of lemon in it. She was more pathetic to watch than Buddy and Buddy had the please-feed-me eyes down to a fine art.

It had made him feel guilty eating in front of her so after several days of watching her watch everyone eat Alec did the only thing he could. He asked Halley to do the ironing until they’d finished. His request had earned him a glare and a scorch mark on the back of his favourite shirt but Alec thought that was still better than watching her eyes follow his spoon.

The personal trainer had been something else to get used to; Aaron turned up every day, including weekends. Alec had come downstairs after a Saturday morning lie-in to find a buff, blonde man doing press ups with Casey, Corey and a giggling Em balanced on his back. Alec couldn’t have executed the moves as cleanly as Aaron did even without the added weight.

Half expecting Halley to be admiring Aaron’s flexing muscles, Alec had been relieved and amused to instead see her stretched out on the floor in her track pants and t-shirt beside Aaron. She had used the excuse of Cassie crawling past as a reason to stop holding her body in the plank position.

After Aaron had been coming for six weeks Alec no longer felt quite as inadequate and intimidated by his presence. It was partly because Halley associated Aaron with exercise which she didn’t like doing and partly because Aaron had developed a training program for Alec to follow, but mostly it was because Alec learned that Aaron had a boyfriend.

Even though Alec no longer had to worry about Halley running off with Aaron, he stilled worried that Riker Sell would take her away from him. What made it worse was he had finally met the guy and really liked him despite himself. Alec couldn’t imagine Halley being able to resist Riker if he turned up the charm. The only thing that stopped him from becoming insanely insecure was that despite Riker’s and Halley’s undeniable chemistry onscreen, when the takes were over he treated her like everyone else.

Soon after filming began the school holidays started and Alec found himself in his office at work overrun with children. The good thing was that Halley had been able to take Lily with her because she had long naps and couldn’t go anywhere on her own.

The bad thing was that she couldn’t take Cassie until the following day because the crèche was still being set up and Cassie was at that stage where she would rather explore than be held. It was far easier to keep an infant out of mischief than a toddler.

With rosy recollections of Em at the same age, Alec thought he’d have no problem managing the role of alpha parent in Halley’s absence. And he did well… as long as he didn’t turn his back on Cassie.

The first time he left the children alone in his office so he could answer an important call in silence Alec returned to discover Cassie sucking on a black permanent marker.

Rufus thought the sight of Cassie with black streaks around her mouth hilarious but Alec had panicked until he had confirmed that every ingredient listed on the marker was non-toxic.

The second time Alec had to duck out to go over a file with Leonora he returned to find Cassie secured to one of the guest chairs by her waist with the spare tie he kept in his top drawer. Despite the heavy wooden frame she had managed to drag it about a metre across the room.

Em had confessed to being responsible; Cassie had kept getting into her Barbie doll game and she had wanted to keep her away.

The third time Alec had left them alone to use the bathroom. Upon re-entering the office the first thing he saw was Cassie shaking the staples out of an opened stapler and putting them in her mouth.

A finger sweep had got them out and had earned him small teeth marks on his finger for his trouble but Alec wasn’t satisfied that Cassie was okay until he had taken her to the closest medical centre and had her x-rayed.

And that was all before lunch.

That afternoon Alec discovered that the older children liked to play computer games. Thinking that it would keep them quiet while Cassie had a nap in her portable cot, he set up his laptop for them to use on a long side table that ran along the wall perpendicular to his desk.

Then the arguments began over whose turn it was.

After setting up his phone as a stopwatch so they knew when their time was up, Alec gave firm instructions that they watch whoever was playing quietly. He then took the opportunity to finally use the bathroom which he had been desperate to get to for the last half hour. As he washed his hands afterwards Alec relished the silence around him. He didn’t know how Halley did it.