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“Guys!” Missie glares at them both, then throws me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Alex has such a dirty mind. He had a whisky from the minibar. I can’t do a thing with him.”
“What?” He looks startled, and then his lips curve up. “Now who’s got the dirty mind? I was being literal and complimenting the jewelry.”
It’s Missie’s turn to blush scarlet, and then we all start laughing.
“I should buy you a real pearl necklace,” James says. “No wife of mine should have a fake one.” His eyes meet mine, and he smiles.
“Don’t call me your wife,” I scold.
“Why?”
“It gives me goosebumps.”
He chuckles.
“I’ve got some ideas for what you can call each other,” Alex announces. “I read an article on eighteenth-century names for your significant other.”
“Go on then,” James prompts.
“You can call Aroha your ‘lawful blanket.’ Or your ‘comfortable importance.’”
“Doesn’t exactly slip off the tongue,” James says.
“How about ‘hussy?’”
“Alex,” Missie says, “don’t be rude.”
“It’s short for housewife,” he protests. “Or you can call her your ‘crooked rib,’ because obviously Eve was made out of Adam’s rib.”
Missie rolls her eyes. “Good lord.”
“If you scold him when he’s in bed,” Alex says to me, “you read him a ‘curtain lecture.’”
“I like that,” I say. “You can be henpecked now,” I tell James.
“I don’t mind,” he replies. “I’ll call you my ‘trouble and strife.’ Cockney rhyming slang,” he tells Missie, who looks puzzled. “Either that or ‘me bird.’”
I giggle, and he winks at me.
Leia throws her toy on the floor, and he retrieves it for her. “Sorry,” he says, giving it back to her, “are we not paying you enough attention?”
“Quite a demanding little madam, aren’t you?” I tease, pressing her nose like a button. She sticks her tongue out, and we all laugh.
“I wonder if Maddie was watching today?” Missie asks, sipping her champagne.
“I thought that too.” I brush Leia’s fluffy hair where it’s sticking up. “I hope she would be pleased that we’re doing our best for her daughter.”
“She’d be thrilled,” James says, his voice a little husky. “I wish you could have met her. She’d have liked you, and she’d be very touched with what you did for Leia today.”
A sudden surge of emotion sweeps over me at the thought that Leia will never see her mum again. I clear my throat, not wanting the day to turn sad. “I hope so. I’m tying myself for two years to a man who tried to poison me at dinner yesterday.”
Alex and Missie start laughing. “You didn’t,” Missie says.
“It turns out that mayonnaise looks like whipped cream when it’s in a bowl,” James says.
“Doesn’t taste as nice on apple pie though,” I point out.
“I only did it once,” he states indignantly, then concedes, “Cooking isn’t one of my many talents.”
