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After leaving Aroha in the bath, I change into a tee and track pants, and now I’m sitting on the carpet, fussing Zelda as she tries to lick my face.
“Have you called Ethan yet?” Alex asks.
“No, but I will now that I have my phone, thanks. I’m going to take out a restraining order, so even if he doesn’t stay behind bars, he won’t be able to come within a mile of either Leia or Aroha. I still can’t believe he tried to take Leia, or that he kicked Aroha. The fucking cunt.” I glance at Finn. “Sorry.”
“He doesn’t sound like a nice man,” Finn agrees. “Aroha was really brave to hold onto Leia’s seat.”
“She was.” I cover my face with my hands, then slide them into my hair. “She was crazy. Can you imagine if he’d pushed her down the steps?” I shudder at the thought of her falling and hitting her head.
“She’s okay, though?” Alex asks.
“I think so. She was pretty shaken up.”
“You’re as white as a sheet too,” Alex says. “I’m going to pour you a whisky.”
I don’t protest. I sit there on the carpet and watch Finn playing with Zelda while Alex moves around the kitchen, throwing ice in a glass and pouring a small amount of the expensive whisky he brought over it. He brings the glass back and gives it to me.
“What if I have to take her to the hospital?” I ask.
“Ring for an ambulance. Or call me.”
I study the glass. “All right.” I have a mouthful of the pale amber liquid. Ah, man, I needed that. It shoots down through me, warming the iciness that had filtered through me when I saw Aroha on the ground and Blue looming over her.
We talk for a bit about the legal issues surrounding adoption, and whether we think Blue stands any kind of a chance of adopting Leia. Neither of us is versed in the law. Alex has a more positive view of it than I have after the hassles my mother went through with my father.
“Blue will have scuppered his chances of adopting her,” he says. “No judge in his right mind is going to give a baby to a violent drug user.”
“He is her birth father, though, when it comes down to it. I’m sure a clever lawyer could spin it—make it seem he was distraught at losing his daughter, and that’s why he lost control.”
“If it comes to it, I’ll testify that I saw the needle marks on his and his partner’s arms.”
“Did you?”
“No, but you said you did, and I believe you.”
“Alex Winters,” I tease weakly, “that’s the second time you’ve said you’d lie for me. And I thought you were an honest man.”
“I believe in the truth, and that good things should happen to good people. Bruce Clarke is not a good person, and he doesn’t deserve baby Leia. It’s not what Maddie would have wanted. I don’t care that she called him—she named you Leia’s guardian, and that’s all that matters.”
My throat tightens, and I study my whisky before having another mouthful. It means a lot to me that my friends have my back.
Missie walks across the living room and sinks down onto the sofa.
“How is she?” I ask.
“She’s okay. Badly bruised, but she insists the ribs aren’t broken.” She eyes me. “She thinks you’re cross with her.”
My eyebrows rise. “What? Why?”
“Apparently you yelled at her, asked her what she was thinking when she didn’t let go of Leia’s seat.”
“Well, yeah, but only because I was terrified of her being hurt…”
“James…” She sits on the edge of her seat, looking like the schoolteacher she is, about to give a pupil a lecture. “I think it’s time we talked about this situation you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“What do you mean?”
“Marrying Aroha. We all thought it was funny at the time, because we knew how you both felt about each other, but I think she’s really screwed up about it.”
