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“A man,” she mutters, and I hear rustling.
“Who the fuck is this?” he barks into the phone, and I grin, contemplating if I should fuck with him.
“Who’s this?” I ask.
“Grizz, you better have a good reason for calling my old lady when she’s in my bed.”
“Does she know how to feed a baby?” He groans, and I hear him pass the phone back to Lexi. “Do you know how to make up a bottle of formula?”
“Why would I know that?” she asks.
“I dunno, cos your sister had a kid?”
“I didn’t feed it. Are there instructions?”
I turn the tin over in my hand and smile. “Yeah, good thinking.”
“Great, goodnight.”
“No, don’t go,” I say, and I begin to read the instructions out loud so she can help me.
“How old is the kid?” she asks.
“A couple weeks.”
“Okay, so a scoop per ounce, that’s two scoops and two ounces of boiling water. Then run the bottle under the cold tap to cool it.”
“How do I know when it’s cool enough?”
“Erm, taste it? You have to use a clean bottle, like it needs to be sterilised or something.”
I give a nod even though she can’t see me and open the cupboards again. I spot a basket with the label ‘sterilised bottles’ and smile. “Perfect. Okay, you can go now.”
I make the bottle, and while I’m cooling it under the tap, Ivy begins to wail like a tiny devil. I smile as she goes red in the face cos, damn, it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
I’m just settling into the couch with Ivy sucking on the bottle like a goblin when the front door opens and Luna appears. She frowns. “What are you doing here?”
“Where the fuck have you been?” I growl, keeping my voice low so I don’t disturb Ivy.
“Is Ivy okay?” she asks, rushing closer. She gently runs her hand over Ivy’s head. “Where’s Jess?”
“If you mean the irresponsible teenager who lets her boyfriend round and then leaves the baby with a biker she doesn’t know, she went home.”
“Jess is great with Ivy. Do you know how hard it is to get a babysitter who works this late? You better not have scared her off.”
“You won’t be needing her anymore,” I say firmly. “You’re not working at Zen again.”
She scoffs. “What?”
“You heard. You need to be here to look after Ivy.”
“In case you didn’t notice, I don’t have money rolling in like you, so I can’t afford to just stop working. Jesus, get off my case, Grizz, you’re not my dad.”
Her words piss me off. “Contact her father and ask for money. He should be paying for his kid.”
“That’s not possible,” she mumbles, shrugging out of her jacket.
The bruises on her arms are turning a sickly shade of green and I eye them with contempt. “How can you go to work and fuck strangers after what happened?” I regret the words the second they leave my mouth because the look of hurt that passes over Luna’s face is soul-crushing.
