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I arch a brow at him, knowing he knows how Ave can be when she gets talking.
“I told her to go easy on him tonight,” he says. “She’s just excited.”
“She looked so happy out on that terrace.” I pull open the oven, lift the steak pie, and slide it in. “I know it wasn’t my doing, but I felt guilty watching them together. She’s been deprived of so much time with him I can’t even fully comprehend it, and yet I’ve lived it.”
“She was happy,” Charlie agrees. “And they’ve both been deprived of each other. I was here for Ave, but watching something that should have been that hasn’t played out in front of us like that…” He shakes his head, his face grim. “You did the right thing, you know. I wasn’t sure when you first told me, but it’s exactly what they need.”
I nod, smiling softly but still feeling a little defeated. “I know.”
“Mummy, where’s your phone?”
I narrow my gaze on Ave as she appears in the kitchen doorway. “Why do you need my phone?”
“I want to show my dad the video of the waterslide we built.” She walks around the kitchen island, patting my dungaree pockets before looking around the worktops.
“It’s probably up in my room, Ave.”
Her shoulders drop.
I glance at Charlie and shake my head. “Will you be staying for tea?” I ask him.
“Of course he is,” Ave answers for him. “It’s steak pie.”
“I’m actually not tonight.” He squats down to level with her. “I’ve got an important call with an important lady that I can’t miss tonight.”
A slow smile spreads over Ave’s mouth. “Aunt Lissie?”
Charlie smiles back. “Can I make it up to you another time? I’ll pick you up from school next week, and we can get ice cream.”
“With the others, too?”
He lifts one dark brow. “All of them?”
Her eyes seem to widen at the idea. “Even baby Thea.”
I chuckle. “I think Luce will have a thing or two to say about that.”
“Maybe not baby Thea,” Charlie tells her, picking her up and giving her a tight hug. “But I promise I’ll come get you and your cousins in the mum bus so we can go for ice cream.”
“Deal!” She wraps her arms around his neck, finally squeezing him back. “My dad can come, too! You can be friends again.” She wiggles down and runs from the room.
Charlie stands, staring after her. “Did she just play me?”
“You’re only now figuring that out?”
“I don’t like that she’s so aware.”
“About you and Lance?”
He nods. “I don’t want her worrying.”
“You could talk to him. Take the weight off the seven-year-old’s shoulders.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Are you working together?”
I shrug, grinning. “Nina, Ave, and I may have hatched a plan while walking Bear this morning. As always, Ave has zero chill and veered off course fast.”
“Jesus, she’s savage,” he mutters, but I know he’d do anything for my child, no matter how much she likes to conspire to bring him to his knees. “You should check on Lance before he runs for the hills,” he deadpans.
