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“I sure did. That was amazing.”
“Are you gonna come in and play with me?”
“I am.” Leah stripped off her dress, revealing a cherry red string bikini. She heard Callum’s sharp intake of breath behind her and threw him a saucy look over her shoulder before she dived in.
They’d been playing in the pool for about an hour when Billy yawned. “You want to get out now?” At Billy’s nod, Leah carried him to the edge of the pool, where Juniper was waiting to wrap a towel around him.
“We’re going to organize some dinner. There’s a function downstairs, so William doesn’t want to drag any staff away from that. Thought we might get the barbecue going up here. Do you mind watching Billy for a bit, while I get that sorted?”
“Of course not,” Leah said with a smile.
“Is that okay, baby?”
Leah ruffled Billy’s hair when he nodded. “Just let me get dried off.”
“Lovely. Thank you.”
Dried off and dressed, Leah sat with Billy on a recliner. He snuggled in and she wrapped her arms around him.
“I love you, Leah.”
“I love you too, Darling.” Seriously, he was the sweetest child Leah had ever met.
“Are you happy now?”
“I am.” It was a rote reply, given without much thought.
Billy sat up, looking her in the eyes for a long time. “Are you happy now?” He asked again.
Leah glanced at Callum, having a stupid water fight with his sister in the pool, and smiled. “Yes, Billy. I’m happy now.”
“Good.” He put his head on her shoulder again and she stroked his hair as he fell asleep.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“This place works, let’s sit here.”
“Okay.” Leah followed Mikayla over to an outdoor table in front of what looked like a fancy espresso bar.
“You sit there, I’ll sit here. Juniper, you there.”
“Okay, boss,” Juniper said, taking the seat Mikayla indicated.
Leah sat where Mikayla told her. She had a line of sight to the city street corner where she had arranged to meet Scott.
“Hope your mum and dad are okay with Billy,” Juniper said, taking her phone out and checking it for messages.
“They’ll be fine. They took us to Luna Park plenty of times as kids and never lost us. Don’t stress.”
Juniper smiled. “They’re fine.” She turned her phone and showed them both a picture of Billy sitting in an enormous fiberglass elephant, grinning from ear to ear.
“It’s the guys I’m worried about. International beer pub in the middle of the day? That could be deadly.”
Finding it hard to participate in the conversation, Leah clasped her hands together to stop them from shaking. It didn’t matter how many times she told herself to calm down, she couldn’t stop the nerves. Juniper reached over and covered her hands with her own. “You don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to.”
“I know. But he’ll just keep pestering me if I don’t. This way it’s done, at least.”
The café Mikayla had chosen was half a block up from the corner of Collins Street and Collins Place. It was all nice and public.
