Second Time Around (6 page)

“Em’s a great girl,” Halley returned. “Does your wife share custody of her?”

“No. When she remarried she decided she would prefer to return to her childfree lifestyle and turned full custody over to me.”

“Her loss,” Halley said in disgust as the microwave beeped.

She used another tea towel to remove the plate of steaming lasagne from the microwave. Alec grabbed a knife and fork from the drawer at her request then followed her back into the dining room. Halley set the plate down then took the adjacent chair. Alec quickly took the seat in front of the food.

“It smells delicious,” he said, salivating.

Halley smiled.

He sliced off a forkful then took it to his mouth and savoured the taste of it before swallowing.

“This is divine,” he declared, cutting off another piece. “Where did you learn to cook?”

“My sister Krystal taught me,” Halley said.

“Who taught her? Your mother?” Alec asked.

Halley snorted.

“Definitely not our mother.” Alec thought Halley almost seemed amused by the thought. “Krystal learned to make hearty meals where she worked.”

“She’s a chef?”

“No. Our mother took off while I was at high school. Krystal worked mornings in a bakery and her evenings in a pub kitchen to provide enough money for a stable home so that I wouldn’t have to go into state care.”

Halley looked a little sad. Alec wanted to know more but didn’t feel it was the right time or place. Instead he tried to cheer her up.

“She did a great job teaching you. This is very tasty,” he said heartily. “What else is your speciality?”

Halley gave him a small smile and Alec mentally congratulated himself for the smile’s appearance.

“I can produce everything a bakery does such as breads, cakes and slices,” she said matter-of-factly. “The dinners and deserts I make aren’t anything fancy. They are all standard pub fare.”

“You’re too modest,” Alec told her, forking up another mouthful.

As he continued to eat Halley started softly drumming her fingers on the table.

“Am I keeping you from something?” Alec asked between bites.

“What? No.”

Alec paused and caught her eye.

“Well, actually I have a lot of washing to fold,” Halley said sheepishly. “I was hoping to get it done while the kids were being entertained.”

“I don’t mind if you return to doing it.” Alec had forgotten what it was like to make the most of every free minute. He eyed the small heap of clothes that had been pushed to the far end of the table. There didn’t appear much left for her to do. “When I’ve finished eating I can help you.”

He made the offer for the sake of politeness. With any luck she’d finish before he did.

“You don’t have to do help,” Halley protested then was out the door before he could insist.

Alec wondered whether she was checking on the children but a few moments later Halley returned carrying a large washing basket with so many things overflowing it Alec wondered how she could manage to lift it. Before he could get out of his seat to help her she set the basket on a chair then disappeared out the door and returned carrying Cassie in her bouncinette.

“She was getting bored and starting to distract the others,” Halley explained, setting the bouncinette on the floor near the basket. She placed one foot near the bottom of the bouncinette and started gently bouncing it. Halley smiled at Cassie who appeared to be enjoying the ride then plucked the top item off the small pile of clothes at the end of the table and started folding it.

With one eye on the slowly shrinking pile of things to fold, Alec continued to eat. He and Halley made small talk as she worked and Alec couldn’t recall the last time he’d enjoyed a meal more, despite starting to feel dwarfed by the piles of neatly folded clothes around him on the table growing higher.

When he finished Halley offered him seconds which Alec accepted with enthusiasm. This time he ate more slowly and watched Halley as she worked. There was no point in having to help before he had to.

Alec frowned when he noticed the bulge on her belly that he thought had been baby fat. He now knew it wasn’t. She didn’t appear to be overweight and if Alec hadn’t noticed her stomach he would have said she should be eating more.

His eyes returned to Cassie who was drifting off to sleep.

“Would you like me to put her down?” he asked, knowing it was something he could do to help. It also had the benefit of delaying the necessity of having to make good on his offer to help fold the washing.

“What? Oh.” Halley looked down at the dozing infant and took her foot off the bouncinette. “No, I’ll take care of her. I’ll be right back,” she promised, picking up Cassie in the bouncinette and taking her out of the room.

While she was gone Alec finished the lasagne and considered getting thirds but decided his waistline didn’t need it. After cleaning up he poked his head in the lounge to check on the children. All three were riveted by the animated feature onscreen.

Not wanting to disturb them he returned to the dining room. Seeing the pile of washing still to fold, Alec felt obliged to help. He was trying to fold a fitted sheet when Halley returned.

She smiled at his frustration when he couldn’t figure out how to make the sides align.

“Here, I’ll show you,” she said, picking another one out of the pile. Not long afterwards two neatly folded fitted sheets were stacked on the table.

“You said earlier the children are your nephews and niece,” Alec said, trying to make conversation. “Where are their parents?”

Halley stopped folding the single sheet in her hand and clutched it to her chest.

“Krystal and Paul are dead,” she said tightly. “They were killed in a car accident a few months ago along with my husband Rob.”

Alec mentally winced. Although he had thought that something like that might be the case he had still been curious enough to learn whether he had been right. Halley’s eyes grew shiny with tears and he felt bad for being so nosy. But not bad enough to stop asking questions.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said gruffly. “Do you have anyone who can help you with the children?”

“No,” Halley said, scrunching the sheet in her hands. She sniffed then wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands. “It’s always been Krystal and me on our side. Paul and Rob were brothers and their parents died years ago. The only one I know of with a vested interest in any of the kids is Casey’s mother Liz but she’s working as a nurse for an aid agency in Ethiopia and I have no idea how to get hold of her so the lawyer said he’d take care of it.”

“Does Liz have any parents living locally?” Alec asked.

“I have no idea,” Halley replied.

“They could help you out,” Alec suggested.

“Maybe,” Halley said noncommittally.

As he helped her to continue fold the washing Alec found that he genuinely admired her. He couldn’t imagine being thrust into the situation she had been and manage to handle everything as well as she was.

Eventually the task was done and Alec checked on the children again while Halley put all the sorted piles of clothing away. Corey had fallen asleep and Em was blinking heavily, leaving only Casey entranced.

“Corey’s asleep and Em’s not going to last much longer. I’d better take her home,” he said when Halley returned to the dining room.

“Oh, okay,” Halley said. She had been enjoying his company and felt strangely disappointed that it would be ending so soon. He hadn’t been anything like she had expected which was a good thing, she decided. “Thank you for taking the boys to the playground this afternoon. It’s obviously had the desired effect,” she added with a smile.

“Thank you for the wonderful dinner,” Alec returned. “And I can’t possibly thank you enough for cluing me into what Mrs Rice was like in my absence.” He shook his head at the thought of how he had been taken in.

They went into the lounge and upon seeing Corey fast asleep on the couch Halley groaned.

“What is it?” Alec asked.

“He sleeps like a log and I’ll never be able to get him up the stairs in my condition.”

“Condition?” Alec queried, looking Halley over. Apart from being noticeably tired which was understandable in the circumstances he thought she looked healthy.

“Yeah, I’m five months pregnant,” Halley murmured, smoothing her loose top over her stomach.

“Oh,” Alec said, absorbing that information. With the fabric pressed against her belly he now recognised the distinctive swell of pregnancy and was glad that he hadn’t suggested that she needed to go on a diet. Realising that he was staring he turned his gaze to Corey. “Would it be okay if I carried him?”

“Would you?” Halley asked, sounding relieved. “I’d appreciate it.”

Alec crouched and scooped the boy up. Corey was so sound asleep he was a dead weight in his arms.

“Where do you want him?” Alec joked.

“Follow me.”

Halley led the way up shadowed stairs then flicked on a light in one of the bedrooms. Alec followed her and found Halley pulling down the top sheet on the bed. He gently laid Corey with his head on the pillow then stood back and looked around the room while Halley fussed over whether to pull the sheet back over him in the heat or not. Sitting on a bookshelf opposite the bed was a photo of a group of people. Alec crossed the room to look at it closer.

There were two couples with two boys sitting on a blanket having a picnic. It couldn’t have been taken too long ago because Casey and Corey looked much the same. Alec recognised Halley instantly but chose to look at the other adults in the photo before turning his attention to her.

Apart from having red hair and freckles Casey looked much his father, Alec decided upon seeing the fair haired man grin out of the photo at him. Casey was tucked up against Paul Clarke’s side. Paul had his arm around a stunning brunette whom Alec took to be Krystal, Halley’s sister. Krystal was holding Corey on her lap and the family all looked happy. 

Beside them Rob Clarke sat with Halley leaning against him, his arms around her waist. Like his brother, Rob’s hair was a light blonde which contrasted against Halley’s darker blonde. He was a handsome man and he held onto Halley possessively. His smile, to Alec, appeared triumphant. Alec finally moved his eyes onto Halley.

Her smile was closed mouthed and Alec wondered at that. Earlier, during dinner she had grinned at him briefly after one of the children had said something amusing. Her smile had been all teeth and had dazzled him. Alec suddenly felt irrationally jealous of Rob Clarke as he traced his gaze down her form which was tucked in the embrace of her husband’s arms.

One of Halley’s hands held onto her husband’s forearm and it finally occurred to Alec that she wasn’t wearing any rings; neither an engagement ring nor a wedding band which he thought odd.

“What are you looking at?”

Halley’s whispered question came from behind him.

“I was just looking at the photo. When was it taken?” he asked, wondering why it mattered.

Halley picked up the framed photo and gently stroked the image of her sister’s cheek.

“It was taken four months ago.” Halley returned the picture to the shelf. “During a picnic after the wedding,” she said more to herself than to him. “Rob’s friend Sam took the picture.”

“Why aren’t you wearing your wedding ring?” Alec asked before he could stop himself.

“Because I didn’t get one,” Halley said, returning the photo to the shelf. She left the bedroom and Alec followed, leaving the door ajar so that the hall light wouldn’t shine on Corey’s face if he turned over in his sleep.

Out in the hallway Alec found that he couldn’t leave the subject alone.

“Do you have a wedding ring now?” he asked. The absence of a ring had been one of the first things he had mentally noted about her. It had helped lead to his assumption that she was an unmarried mother with kids to different fathers.

Halley twirled around at the top of the stairs and crossed her arms.

“No,” she said defensively. “Because money was tight we just borrowed one of Krystal’s dress rings for the ceremony. Rob was going to get his mother’s rings out of a bank safe deposit box but there were a few hassles involved and he never got around to it before it was too late.”

Halley spun around and skipped down the stairs before he could say anything else. Alec trailed after her. He had obviously hit a sore point with her but he couldn’t think of anything he could say to make things better.

On his way down the stairs it occurred to him that Casey and Corey would have lived here since their parents had built the house but he couldn’t recall meeting them before. After pondering the matter for a few steps he decided that it was more than possible that their paths hadn’t crossed.

He worked long hours and during the weekends he usually took Em out somewhere to try and make up for it. They lived in a neighbourhood filled with expensive houses and everyone tended to keep to themselves. Although he’d met the boys’ parents briefly he hadn’t even recognised them from the photo although he bet Mrs Weiss would have known who they were.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs he caught up with Halley in the lounge who was trying to convince Casey that it was bedtime. He picked up Em, giving her no opportunity to argue and then thanked Halley again for everything.

She saw them to the door then Alec carried Em home. Although he chatted to Em as she washed in the bath and had a short play with her toys, his mind was on his next door neighbour.

He had already worked out that she would have been about four weeks pregnant at the time of her wedding. Had the marriage solely come about because of the pregnancy? He was inclined to think so. If not, why would Halley marry without at least a basic wedding ring until the other rings came out of the safe deposit box?

He now knew that the accident that had claimed her husband’s life was about three months ago, a month after the wedding. Why hadn’t her husband made the effort to get the rings for her during that time? Had he felt trapped by the marriage? Had she loved him so much that it hadn’t mattered to her? Alec had more questions than answers.

Em was soon out of the bath and after getting into her nightie she flopped on top of her bed. When the air conditioning picked up she would be cool enough to slide under the covers. Alec sat on the bed beside her.

“How would you like to have Halley next door look after you after school instead of Mrs Rice?” he asked casually as he helped her arrange a pile of soft toys along the wall near her head.

Em looked over her shoulder at him.

“For real?” she asked.

“For real,” Alec confirmed.

“I would love it,” she exclaimed, rolling onto her back. A thought occurred to her and she caught her father’s eye. “Does this mean I don’t ever have to see Mrs Rice again?” she asked.

“No, never again,” Alec confirmed.

“Good,” Em said savagely.

Alec was a little taken aback from her tone of voice. When he had questioned her the previous night about her caregiver Em’s tone had been matter-of-fact.

“Honey,” he ventured as he stroked her hair. “Don’t you like Mrs Rice?”

“No. She’s mean. She gave me yucky lunches and made me play outside after school no matter how hot it was. That’s when I started going over to Corey’s house to play. His Aunty Halley’s really nice. She gives me drinks and treats and stuff plus I can hold Cassie if she’s awake.”

“If you didn’t like the way Mrs Rice was treating you why didn’t you tell me?” Alec asked, perplexed.

“Because Mummy used to keep telling me not to make a fuss,” Em said in a small voice. “She said she’d send me away if I did. Instead she went away and hasn’t come back.”

Em threw her arms around Alec’s waist.

“Please don’t go away Daddy. I’ll be good. If you want Mrs Rice back I won’t complain.”

Alec silently cursed his ex-wife Miranda as he pulled Em onto his lap and hugged her.

“Your mother wouldn’t have meant what she said,” he told his daughter gently. “She’s just not very good at handling situations that aren’t going her way. That is why she might have sounded cross when she said those things to you,” he added giving Em a nudge so that she looked up at him. “When she said she’d send you away she probably meant she’d send you to your room if you were giving her a hard time.”

“Then why hasn’t she come back to see me?” Em asked plaintively.

Alec was tempted to tell her that Miranda had died. That would be easier to explain than the truth that her mother was a selfish individual only concerned with her own needs and wants at any given moment. But with his luck Miranda would probably burst back on the scene at a point that suited her and twist things to make him the bad guy. She was very good at that. He sighed.

“It’s not that she doesn’t want to see you, it’s just that she married someone else and they live a long way from here. She’s too far away to visit.” If you walked, he mentally added. Alec gave Em a squeeze and decided to change the subject.

“If you’re not happy about something you need to tell me,” he told her. “I can’t fix it if I don’t know about it. You can always come to me and tell me anything,” he assured her. “I might get cross about whatever it is that you’ve broken,” he joked, tickling her under the arms until she giggled “But I won’t ever send you away or leave you. Ever. Got that?” he said, punctuating his last remark with a kiss to her forehead.

“Yes Daddy,” Em said wriggling out of his arms to lie back on her bed.

“Are you okay?” Alec asked.

“Yes Daddy,” Em said, smiling up at him.

Alec leaned towards the pillow but Em stopped him.

“It’s too hot for a cuddle tonight,” she complained.

Alec eyed his daughter.

“But not too hot for a raspberry on your neck,” he said, closing the gap between them and blowing the noisiest raspberry he could while she laughingly shrieked in protest.

“There,” he exclaimed after she had run out of breath. “Now you can go to sleep.”

Alec got off the bed and headed for the door.

“Daddy?” Em said when he reached it.

“Yes?” Alec asked, turning around.

“I’m really glad Halley’s gonna look after me. She’s awesome.”

“Yeah, she is,” Alec agreed.

“Daddy?” Em said.

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Alec smiled.

“I love you too. Now get some sleep.”

The weekend went quickly and Alec soon found himself braving the morning commute to Sydney after dropping Em off at Halley’s. For some reason the thought of seeing Halley again when he collected Em kept him in a good mood, despite the delays caused by road works.