Ruby looked at the floor. ‘I’m sorry I was rude.’
‘I do my best, Ruby.’ She looked away from her and squeezed the rubber duck in the bath so that it gently squirted water against Emily’s chest, making her grin and squeal in delight. She could sense Ruby was still there but she didn’t know what else to say. She was fed up being the enemy, too tired to justify herself.
Ruby knelt down beside her and began talking to her little sister. She even picked up the multicoloured plastic umbrella that had raindrop-shaped holes in it to let the water pour out and moved it over Emily’s head. Cleo couldn’t help but join in with the laughter as Emily gasped in shock at the water in her face before she clapped her hands together at her entertaining half-sister.
‘You’ve got a new coat I see,’ said Cleo.
‘Mom says she got it on sale. She bought one for Jacob too.’
‘Right.’ Prue sure liked to bend the truth. Cleo bet there was no sale at all.
Emily soon started fussing and Cleo scooped her out and into her hooded bath towel that was laid on the floor.
‘Can I wrap her?’ Ruby, who’d been aloof when it came to paying her sisters attention in the last week or so, suddenly wanted to be a part of it all again. Cleo suspected the kid didn’t know which way to turn, whether to make Cleo the antagonist and, by association, the babies she’d brought into the world, or whether they could all turn out to be on the same side.
Cleo let Ruby wrap Emily and instead of trying to talk to her about how she was feeling when it came to the bigger picture, her position in her life, they sang to Emily as Ruby helped put her diaper on and Cleo found an outfit for bed. Dylan had taken over with Tabitha’s bedtime routine and left them to it, which was probably the best way.
‘Thank you for helping, Ruby.’ They were sitting in the nursery with soft lullabies playing in the background to help settle Emily before they put her in her cot. Tabitha wouldn’t be too far behind, then Ruby and Jacob an hour later. They’d all mastered the routine by now. They had to. Their household would be chaos otherwise.
Ruby let Emily toddle over to her and sit on her lap on the floor.
‘I wanted to talk to you, Ruby.’
‘About the cakes.’
‘Not really about the cakes. More about me and you.’
Ruby had picked up one of Emily’s favourite books with a story about a cow and furry animals on each page to touch.
Cleo took her silence as a green light to come out with it. ‘I thought we always got on very well. I thought you were happy for me to be a part of your lives – yours, your dad’s, Jacob’s.’
Ruby shrugged. ‘I am.’
‘You don’t seem it.’
‘Mom says blended families never work because you’ll always treat me and Jacob differently.’
Cleo tried not to let her temper rise. She’d been right to think Prue had played a part in Ruby’s altered mood. ‘Differently to Emily and Tabitha?’
Ruby’s eyes were glistening with tears and she’d done a good job at hiding it as she played with Emily and the dolly she’d picked up.
‘Ruby, please look at me.’ Cleo scooped Emily onto her lap for a cuddle and then put the dolly in front of her. She waited for eye contact from Ruby before she continued. ‘The only thing that is different is that you already have a mum. But to me, you and Jacob are still my children. You might not call me mum, I may not have grown you in my tummy, but you are just as important to me as Tabitha and Emily.’ She could throttle Prue, and Dylan possibly would when she relayed this little gem of a conversation. ‘Is this why you’ve been a bit strange lately?’
‘I didn’t think you’d notice.’
‘Of course I notice. I notice all of our children. Remember the Halloween costumes I made this year?’ Ruby’s face said she had no idea where this was going. ‘I spent hours on yours and Jacob’s, then Emily’s and Tabitha’s I picked up from a second-hand store because I’d forgotten. It doesn’t mean I love Emily and Tabitha less than you guys. And then last week when I left Emily’s favourite blanket at my gramps’ house and made her cry, that wasn’t because I love her any less. And today when I bought the wrong cupcakes that weren’t Christmas-themed, it was because I’m trying to do a thousand things at once, it’s no reflection on the way I feel about you.’
Sheepishly Ruby fiddled with the corner of the shaggy rug on the floor, the surface Emily loved to crawl through and squish her face against. ‘I never said they were supposed to be Christmas cupcakes.’
‘I know you didn’t,’ Cleo said softly, reaching out to tug at Ruby’s hand until Ruby came and sat next to her and Emily. ‘Tell you what, let’s get the girls to bed, your daddy can hang with Jacob, then how about you and I watch the end of the Santa Claus movie?’
‘But it’s a school night.’
‘I think we can make the exception just this once.’
‘Can we eat one of your cupcakes?’
‘Did you eat all of your dinner? I can’t treat you any differently to Jacob.’
