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They all reply with coffee, and I get to making them, glad of something to do.
“Something smells nice,” Henry says, looking pointedly at the cake.
“I made it.” I pass him a knife. “Would you mind cutting it into slices?”
Missie comes up to where I’m making the coffee and smiles. “Hey, Aroha.”
“Hey, Missie.” I like Alex’s girlfriend. She comes from a normal background, like me, and there’s something natural and friendly about her that makes me warm to her.
“How’s the little one doing?” she asks, tickling Leia where she’s sitting in her carry seat on the counter. Leia grizzles a little.
“Can I have a cuddle?” Missie asks.
“Of course,” I reply, and she unclips Leia and lifts her out of the seat into her arms. Gaby and Juliette come over and coo while Alex starts distributing the coffees, and Henry puts slices of cake onto plates.
“No Cam today?” Gaby asks Juliette.
She shakes her head. “He’s in Australia at the moment, for work.”
“You didn’t want to go with him?”
She swallows. “We thought it would be best to have some time apart.”
Missie reaches out and rubs Juliette’s upper arm. “Aw, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“When’s he coming back?” Gaby asks.
“Saturday. We’re going to sit down and have a talk.” She wrinkles her nose.
Missie frowns. “Do you want to stay together?”
Juliette hesitates. “It’s complicated.”
Gaby glances at Henry, then back at Juliette and lifts her eyebrows.
Juliette blushes. “Sort of. But there’s something else. I—”
Tyson interrupts though as he comes over to collect the kitchen roll, and Juliette shakes her head and walks away. Gaby, Missie, and I exchange glances, but I have no idea what she was going to say, and clearly neither do they.
We all move outside to the deck. Missie sits with Leia, and Alex watches her, a tender expression on his face. I wonder whether they’ll have children together? Her son is something like eleven or twelve, I think, but she’s only in her late twenties, so it’s plausible that they’ll want to have a family.
I glance over at Gaby, my best friend. For a long time after Tyson’s accident, she wasn’t sure whether they would be able to have children. But he’s walking now, albeit a bit stiffly and occasionally with a stick, and she confided in me a few weeks ago that he’d given a sperm sample to the fertility clinic, and they’d said his sperm count was on the low side but that he was perfectly capable of fathering children. She was thrilled, and happy to leave it in the hands of Fate, for the moment at least. She’s a believer that if it’s meant to be, it will be. I’m not sure if I agree with her, but I’m happy that there’s a possibility they might not have to undergo fertility treatment.
“This is fantastic,” Tyson says, tucking into his piece of chocolate cake. “I love the frosting.” The others murmur their approval, too.
“Thank you, I’m glad you like it,” I say, a tad shyly.
“It’s a comforting smell,” James murmurs, and Gaby reaches over and rubs his arm.
“No news from the police yet?” she asks.
He shakes his head. “They were carrying out an investigation at the site, but I don’t know what they found out yet. I’m guessing they haven’t found Blue either, or I presume they’d have called.”
“Have you spoken to your father again?” Alex asks.
James sighs. “Yeah. He is coming to the funeral, with Arabella.” Henry pulls a face, and James gives a short laugh. “Yeah, that was my reaction. Aroha said if I hold the wake here it means at least it’ll be on my territory.”
“I agree,” Alex says. “And we’ll all be around to help.”
