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“Fuck it. We’re adults. We can do what we want.”
“Yeah.”
She glanced sideways at him, noting that he didn’t look overly convinced. She cursed herself for giving no consideration to how their arrangement might look to their family and friends. He whistled for the dogs and picked up the soccer ball, retrieving his backpack and dropping in beside her without a word. They didn’t touch each other as they walked back to her house.
* * *
Mikayla felt ridiculously nervous climbing the steps to her mother’s back verandah. She opened the screen door and stepped inside. Nora was in the kitchen, pouring boiled water into a flowered teapot. She had YoYo biscuits on a plate on the dining table, alongside teacups and saucers, sugar pot and milk jug. Mikayla doubted her mother would provide tea and biscuits if she were planning to ream her. She felt almost weak with relief. “Hey, Mum.”
“Hello, darling.” Nora glanced over, her light brown eyes unreadable. She brought the teapot to the table and Mikayla followed, pulling out the chair across from Nora and sitting down. She clasped her hands on the table in front of her. It felt a little like she was about to be interviewed. “I caught up with Kathy.”
“Oh?” What the fuck? She wasn’t just going to get straight to the point?
“Yes, she said to say thanks so much for staying and looking after them, after Helen passed. It meant the world to them that you and Rafe were there.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“Mmm.” Nora reached for the teapot, pouring the golden-brown brew for Mikayla first, then herself.
Mikayla became more agitated. “Just spit it out, Mum. You’re killing me.”
Nora didn’t look up at first, just sat there stirring her tea for the longest time. “Darling, it’s no business of mine what you get up to.”
“Sure,” Mikayla replied sardonically, an edge of irritation to her words. She was an adult, dammit, she could sleep with whoever she wanted to.
Nora looked up then, her eyes full of concern. “I’m just worried for you.”
“There’s no need to be.”
Nora sighed. “You can say it’s none of my business, of course, but are you and Rafe in a relationship? Because if you are, I’m dead surprised not to have heard about it.”
“No, Mum, it’s not like that.”
“So, it’s just a casual thing?”
“Sure, like friends with benefits.”
Nora’s eyes widened in alarm. “God, Mikayla, this is crazy.”
“What! Why?”
Nora looked down at her tea again, seeming to wrestle with herself for a long moment. “Darling, you don’t know everything there is to know. About Rafe, I mean.”
Mikayla frowned. “Huh? What do you mean? I’m pretty sure I know everything about Rafe.”
Taking a sip of tea, Nora surveyed her. “What do you know about his father?”
Mikayla’s frown deepened. “Roger? Just that he’s pretty much been in and out of jail for all of Rafe’s life. And that Rafe doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. Ever.”
“Right. Well, there’s a bit more to it than that.”
Mikayla felt a little breathless as a shiver of anxiety curled through her. There was something to do with Rafe and his father that she didn’t know about?
“Mikayla, I’m breaking his confidence in telling you this, so I’m going to ask that you not tell Rafe. It is his secret to share and I’m only doing so now with you so that you understand, fully, what is at stake here.”
Mikayla swallowed convulsively. “Jesus, Mum, do you have to be so dramatic?”
“Probably not, but here it is. Do you remember when Sophia died?”
