‘I ate it all, ask Dad.’
‘No need.’ She lowered Emily into her cot and turned on the mobile above.
When they were down in the lounge room with the movie playing and the empty paper cases from their cupcakes discarded, Cleo felt Ruby snuggle up next to her as she’d done plenty of times before, just not in the last couple of weeks since talk about finally getting moving with wedding organisation had started.
Cleo had never liked Prue all that much but she tolerated her, so did Dylan, because she’d always be in their lives. But if she was intent on causing trouble by feeding Ruby with false information then they’d have their work cut out for them. She only hoped tonight was a step in the right direction. She wanted to get married surrounded by family and friends who were happy for them, she didn’t want anyone thinking this was a terrible mistake.
Chapter Six
Nathan
Nathan carefully sat himself down at the breakfast table in the dining room at the Inglenook Inn, and Scarlett didn’t miss a thing.
‘What’s going on with you? Why are you moving like an old man?’ She thanked Rupert for the pancakes she’d ordered for both of them while Nathan had finished up in the shower.
‘Nothing,’ he said.
‘Liar. Don’t tell me you’re still hurting from the ice-skating the other day.’
‘My body isn’t built for those sorts of activities. I used muscles I didn’t even know I had, but it’s the bruise on my arse that’s the problem.’
‘I’ll take your word for it, don’t do anything crazy like try to show me.’
He tucked in to the double blueberry pancakes and a large glass of juice. ‘You were always covered in bruises when you were little. So many of my photos are ruined because of your legs.’
She rolled her eyes and changed the subject by asking what the plan was for today.
‘Nothing that involves me balancing on two wafer-thin blades.’
‘That’s a shame. One of my aims is to skate in every rink in the city before we leave.’
She almost had him fooled. ‘Very funny. I don’t mind being the photographer if you really want to do it.’
‘I’d like to go at least one more time, but not yet, my legs are a bit achy too.’
‘Ah, so youth didn’t win this time round.’
‘You run a lot, your legs should take it.’
‘And you haven’t run for a long time. Why did you lose interest?’
‘You kept going in the rain, I had to do cross country at school – I guess the novelty wore off.’
Or maybe her interest in spending time with her dad was starting to wane, and maybe there was nothing he could do about it. He wondered how much of it was down to her age and how much was because she still resented his disastrous parenting in the early years, some of which she could still remember. She didn’t talk about it often but occasionally she made a remark that left him wanting to ask more yet not wanting to know in case the answer upset him. A few weeks ago she’d made a comment about him not showing up to her nativity play once – she’d said that in front of some good friends of the family who had a younger child proud to be playing the Virgin Mary this year. And a few months ago Scarlett had told him to stop worrying about her so much, she was a big girl now, and she’d made an underhand remark about how he should’ve used up all his worrying in the younger years when she actually needed it.
‘Why don’t we start with Lower Manhattan this morning?’ he suggested.
‘The 9/11 memorial? Are you sure?’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘Because I know you, Dad.’
She didn’t miss much. Her uncle Robbie, his brother, would’ve loved this girl had he ever got to meet her, but he’d been killed on that fateful day. Not in the terror attacks but when he was knocked over by a car at a zebra crossing in a sleepy village back in England. There wasn’t ever a chance the anniversary of his death would go by without Nathan and his family remembering it, turning their minds back to the call that had come to say he was in the hospital. The world would remember 9/11 and with every anniversary, Nathan’s family had their own private pain on top of the shock and devastation shared with so many others.
‘I’ll be fine,’ he assured Scarlett.
‘No you won’t. You lost your brother, it’ll never befine.’
