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“Have,” he said. “Please.” Shit, it was reflect. Had he overstepped? He flicked a glance at Audrey.
“Can I have a drink, prese.”
Audrey smiled at him and put a glass of milk in front of Mia.
He answered her earlier question. “I won’t, thanks.”
He put a magnetic dress up doll and its wardrobe of outfits in front of Mia, taking a seat beside her. He was taking Sky out for dinner at the new Mongolian BBQ place, but he had time and he wanted this, to learn about the mother like he’d learned about the daughter.
“Will you be able to fix your problem at work?”
Audrey sat opposite Mia at the table with her wine glass. They both watched while Mia changed Princess Olivia’s sparkly dress.
“A contractor defaulted. It’s a big four-letter word problem.”
He grinned at her replacement word strategy. He was conscious of having to clean up his language after months on the job with Polly where four letter words were nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Sometimes in the same sentence. Sometimes they were a whole sentence.
“I keep wondering if I should’ve seen it coming. If I could’ve prevented it. It puts my whole project in jeopardy right at a time when I didn’t need to screw up,” she said.
“Don’t strew up, Mummy.”
Audrey reached over and adjusted Princess Olivia’s crown. “That’s upside down, isn’t it?”
“No.” Mia put the crown back the way it was.
It might’ve been upside down. Reece found it hard to tell. He was better at Barbie. There was nothing flat pack about Barbie. All woman, even if structurally unsound. If a tradie defaulted on a Pollidore Homes job the shit hit the fan. From what he understood, Audrey managed large infrastructure builds, mostly for government and big companies. She wasn’t dealing with one pissed off family but a family tree of trouble.
“What can you do?”
“Crisis talks. I have to come up with a workable alternative and fast.”
“And if you can’t, what’s the worst case?”
She groaned. “My COO asked that question too. It’ll be like a group of hungry and riotously tired three year olds with the means of hurting themselves and each other without any adult supervision. Just about everyone will get hurt and there will be tears before bedtime.”
He laughed. “I’ll stick with Wiggle time.”
“Better you than me.”
Mia slid off her seat and ran into the other room. Reece leaned back in his chair to watch her. He’d distract her if she started pulling out too many toys.
Audrey did the same thing, looking into the next room at Mia. “I love her to bits, but she wears me out. I’m exhausted after the weekend. I don’t know how you manage five days.”
“I get my evenings off remember, and I don’t have to worry about politics like you do.”
“Playgroup?”
He grinned. “Yeah, that might test me.”
“Don’t let Junna get to you. She’s desperately single, but she’ll travel with the Sinclairs when they go to London. And don’t let Carrie frighten you off either.”
Audrey left the table and poured another glass of wine, asking again with a gesture if he wanted one. He shook his head. She returned to the table. “Don’t let her proposition you.”
He made a sound of surprise and turned it into a call to Mia to put the farmyard back in the toy box. Junna had been obviously interested, but Carrie, Jesus.
“Oh my God, Reece, she already did.”
He grimaced. “I don’t know if that’s what it was.” He didn’t know if Carrie was a good mate of Audrey’s, best to play this down, ignorance was security.
