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“That’s awful,” Paris says.
“Well, I never did finish it. My parents never let me forget that fact either.”
“Why didn’t you finish?” Luke asks as he pours pancake mix into the frying pan.
“I was finding it hard to afford to live while studying. And juggling work shifts with lectures got hard.”
“Your parents didn’t help you out?” Paris asks.
“No. I moved to Brisbane from Melbourne to study. They told me if I moved, I was on my own. We’re not that close.”
“Sorry to hear that,” she says.
I shrug. “I learnt to deal with it years ago. I wish I had a close family, but to be honest, I’m much happier not having them in my life constantly. We do the mandatory visit at Christmas, and that’s enough for me.”
“What is mandahtry?” Sean asks, struggling with the pronunciation a little.
Luke answers his son. “It means something you have to do.”
Sean nods as he takes that in. “Like eating vegetables?”
Luke smiles. “Yeah, like that.”
“So when I grow up, I’ll only have to eat them at Christmas?” Sean asks.
The three of us laugh, and Luke says, “No, little man. Vegetables are an always thing, even when you’re an adult.”
Sean slumps against the counter and groans. “I think God should have made ice cream a vegetable.”
“I’m with you on that, mate,” I agree.
Paris nods. “Aren’t we all?”
“You know what goes on pancakes, right?” Luke says.
Sean sits up straight and grins. “Ice cream!”
Paris turns to her brother in shock. “Since when does Daddy allow ice cream at breakfast?”
“Since today.”
Paris shakes her head and turns to me. “You need to stay over more often. Daddy Luke is like the strictest daddy in the world. We never get ice cream at breakfast.”
I love the affection these two have for each other.
“I’ve kind of figured that out since last night,” I say.
“I swear he’s overcompensating for the way his mother raised him,” she says as she grabs plates and cutlery.
I take the plates from her. “She wasn’t strict?”
Paris rolls her eyes. “Have you met the woman?”
Following her to the table, I say, “No.”
“I’m right here,” Luke says from the stove.
We ignore him.
