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By the time he collected his car and got home, Mia was ratty and crabby. She’d found the new tear in her dress and worried it bigger. He fed her. He got her cleaned up and changed. She fought him on that. She wouldn’t talk to him. She wouldn’t let him brush her hair and it was full of sand. She burst into tears the moment Audrey walked in. He hadn’t had a chance to make something for Audrey’s dinner. He hadn’t chilled the wine. The fairy dress was unsalvageable. He still had a headache.
“You had quite a day. How’s Toby?”
“Four stitches.” Reece put his hand to his lip to indicate where Toby had broken the skin. “Two teeth knocked out.
He’s very bruised as well.”
Audrey hugged Mia. “Awful accident. But you’re all right, Mia. You’re not hurt.”
“Reece is m...m...mean to me,” she sobbed. “I don’t l..l..like him anymore. I w...w...want Cameron.”
Audrey picked Mia up and let her sob. He was making things worse by being there. He went home feeling defeated. He was earlier than normal and that made Sky happy, but he wasn’t in the mood to take advantage of that. This time he was spoiling for a fight. He told her about the day, about Toby. He left out the part about Carrie kissing him, leaving doors, half imagined thoughts open for him.
Sky half listened. She cooked a Thai beef curry and downloaded a movie to watch without asking him what he’d like to see. They ate without talking. He called home and spoke to Flip. She was having a sleepover party with friends from school. They were staying up all night. She was busy and didn’t want to talk. Charlie was in the background trying to convince him into dropping around. He sent Junna a text. She still had a job. He took two more headache tablets and had a long shower. Toby’s blood was never coming out of his shirt.
Toby’s parents had looked at Junna as if it was her fault, as if she’d put Toby in the jaws of a lion, the path of a speeding car. Audrey looked at him tonight as if things had changed, as if she was sorry. For Toby, for Mia being upset? For how they’d been with each other last night? She didn’t stop him leaving. He should apologise for offending her, except he didn’t mean it. Wasn’t sure she was offended. Wasn’t sure of anything.
“You’re brooding, babe. Snap out of it.”
He grunted. The headache was lifting, the mood wasn’t. “I’m not fit to associate with tonight. I should just go to bed.” That had to be it. He didn’t do well on less than four hours sleep.
“Is this going to happen again?”
“Kids have accidents.”
“No, last night. Audrey being so late. Does she pay you more for unplanned overtime like that?”
They hadn’t talked about it. He supposed that was fair, but he wasn’t going to make an issue of it.
“Reece, she’s taking advantage of you. It’s like your family all over again. I came second to your sisters and now I’m coming second to Audrey and Mia. Do you think that’s fair to me?”
He pressed the heels of his hands against his eye sockets. “I think we should talk about it when I’ve had some sleep.”
“Which means you’re angry with me now.”
Sky stood in front of where he slumped on her couch. She’d changed out of work gear into yoga pants and a singlet, her hair was in a scrappy bunch at the back of her head, short pieces falling out and framing her face. He usually thought she looked beautiful like this. No make-up, no artifice. Tonight she looked hard and cold.
“It means I’ve had a bitch of a day and I’m tired and I don’t want to argue with you.”
“You never do want to argue with me. You never fight me on anything. I’m beginning to think you don’t care enough.”
He sighed. “Enough for what?”
“Enough for us to make a go of it.”
“Why don’t you say what you mean, Sky?”
She jammed her hands on her hips. “This job, this child care thing. You’re really committed to it.”
“Is that a question? I don’t hear a question. It’s not a child care thing. I did a degree. You’ve known as long as I have, this is what I want.”
“I thought you’d get tired of it in the real. I thought you’d get bored.”
“I’m not bored. That’s a good thing.”
“That’s a bad thing. You have no ambition, Reece. You’re this big gentle giant of a man who wants to make sandcastles and draw with crayons.”
“And you think there’s something shameful about that?”
