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“Where’s Mummy?” I ask when the bright blue eyed boy stares at me expectantly.
“You got chocolate?”
“Umm… no. Sorry.”
“No entry,” he snaps and slams the door in my face.
Blink.
The door opens again. Tiffany stands before me looking annoyed, frazzled and on the verge of killing somebody. “Sorry about him, his sister put him up to it.”
I see a bright, blue eyed girl peek around her mum’s legs. She must be about six. She giggles and runs away. Tiffany rolls her eyes and moves to the side.
“You look like hell,” I snort. “Your shoes are on the wrong feet.”
“Crap, I knew they were hurting for a reason. Go on through to the living room.” She laughs as her daughter dances around her saying, “Crap, crap, crap.” Oh dear.
“Bethany Megan Hardy! You get your backside up those stairs and think about what you’ve done.”
The little girl races to the stairs, picks up a shoe, throws it at her mum and runs up the stairs still giggling.
“She seems sweet,” I say, because I don’t know what else to say.
Tiffany gives me a look that asks me if I’m serious. “She’s a brat. Gets it from her dad.”
“Heard that!” A male voice shouts from what I assume is the kitchen.
“Gav! Keep the kids away for a while. We’ve got the baby here.”
“Who wants the park?” Gav shouts. I’m assuming his name is short for Gavin.
I shake my head. “You don’t have to do that. Now I feel bad.”
Tiffany laughs loudly. “Trust me when I say you’ll feel worse if they stay. I love my kids but… they’re not for everybody.”
Crikey. Please don’t let Dillan be naughty.
“So, coffee, tea?” She offers when the front door closes behind the kids and their father.
“No thank you.”
“Wicked,” she grins and immediately starts undoing the straps around Dillan. Lifting him with the expertise of a mother of two, she cradles him to her chest and coos sweetly at him. We sit on the large couch in the living room and share a smile when Dillan grabs her long hair and attempts to chew on it. “I see him and immediately want another one, but then I see mine and the urge turns to dust…poof. Gone.”
I giggle and relax back into the soft cushions. “I want another one, one day. Definitely.”
She gives me a horrified look. “Honey, take it from me when I say wait until your first is in school and then decide. If he’s good, do it. If he’s not, you’ll never want another one anyway.”
“I’m not wanting another one right away. Not for a long time. Being pregnant wasn’t exactly a fun time.”
“I hear you.” She starts babbling to Dillan again, who smiles as if she’s the funniest person on earth. “How is everything?”
“I was just about to ask you the same thing. You seemed pretty stressed when I came round.”
She smiles softly. “Yeah, but it’s definitely worth it. They aren’t always naughty and even when they are, they’re still really effing funny.”
“He said that I couldn’t come in because I didn’t have chocolate.”
“Bethany is the brains behind these operations. They’ve scared off a few visitors in their time. Poor Gavin, my son not my husband, is always getting stick for his sister’s plans. He’s too young to understand there are times he should say no to her.”
“I always wanted siblings. It sounds like it could have been fun, although I would rather be Bethany.”
“Ah,” she sighs, shaking her head like she knows a secret. “You’re an only child. You’re going to be one of those crazy women who have six kids and love every moment of it, aren’t you?” I open my mouth to respond, but she keeps talking. “I have three brothers and one sister. My mum was also an only child. Us with brothers and sisters understand the limits and usually end up with none, one, or, at most, two.”
I burst out laughing. “That’s not true.”
“It should be. Growing up with my siblings. You’d see why. They’re worse than my two, and my nieces and nephews… Christ, don’t get me started.”
“I bet it’s nice having a big family,” I say wistfully, picturing it in my head. Nathan and I will never have cousins, siblings or huge family barbecues. It’s sad to think about. I wonder if we’ll ever have a baby. I’ve never even thought about it before. Dillan is too young to be thinking about having another, but… it’d be nice one day. If Nathan has been like this with Dillan, I wonder what he’ll be like with our future child.
“Yeah,” she agrees. “It’s ace. Can I ask one thing?”
“Sure.”
“Are you both going to a wedding? What’s with the suit?”
Snort. “It’s an inside joke.”
When night time falls and I’m tucked into bed at Nathan’s house, I check my phone for the millionth time and frown when I see I’ve not received a text since two this afternoon. That text stated that Nathan would be staying in a hotel for the night and that he’d be back tomorrow.
