Chapter 55

Charlie

“So you made it.”

Astrid opened the door and looked me up and down with a slight frown, but whatever she had to say next was drowned out by the thunder of baby elephants on the stairs.

Make that my nephews.

“Grab your water bottles!” my sister shouted over her shoulder. “And the sunscreen!” Her eyes narrowed as she focussed back on me. “You’ll make sure they put it on this time?”

“Yes, I’ll?—”

“And reapply it within the hour?”

Because her ex was such a deadbeat, Astrid had been forced to become both mother and father to her boys, and she did so with deadly precision.

“I know.”

“Put a reminder in your phone,” she said, glancing at my pocket, but when she moved her head, something in my car caught her attention.

Millie.

I could almost see her pupils expanding as her gaze sharpened.

“Who’s that?”

She sucked in a breath, ready to read me the riot act, and that’s why I’d told Millie to stay in the car. My sister was a ballbuster of epic proportions and it was already bad enough that my awesome, fun date was now going to be spent trying to stop my nephews from gnawing down the rope bridges strung up between the trees with their teeth, let alone Millie being grilled by Astrid.

“My date,” I said, stepping between my sister and my car.

“Date?” When her eyes snapped back to me, that should’ve been a relief, but it wasn’t. Astrid’s hackles were up as she stared at me. “Charlie, we talked about this.”

“Yes, I know, but?—”

“Is this why you spaced on today, because of some girl? Jesus, Charlie.”

“Muuum…” came a familiar wail from inside the house. “We can’t find the sunscreen!”

“It’s under the kitchen sink!” she shouted back.

“It wasn’t?—”

I was trying to explain, but my sister was cutting me off at the knees again. This was the real reason why I didn’t want Millie meeting Astrid.

“We talked about this.” Astrid’s hands went to her hips. “I don’t want the boys being introduced to whichever chick you’re banging this week. Serious girlfriends only, remember?”

Remember. Such a simple word, but one laden with additional meaning in my family. Every raised voice, every irritated aside contained that word. I didn’t remember to take the washing out or to bring it in when it started to rain, getting too caught up in whatever I was doing. I didn’t remember school excursion notes, and so my parents were forced to leave work to come down and sign them on the day. I didn’t remember birthdays or important events, even things I’d done, my brain moving on way faster than anyone else’s did. Astrid didn’t need any reminders on her phone, having everything planned out meticulously, and heaven help anyone who messed with it.

Especially me.

“I’ll let the boys know that there’s been a change in plan,” Astrid said in a low voice. “I’ll reschedule the hair appointment.” That concession was dragged out of her, kicking and screaming. “But you could’ve told me you had a date planned last night. It’s a lot easier to redirect the kids before they’ve spent the morning getting ready. Next time?—”

“She’s the mother of my child.”

I was not going to tell my family about Millie until I absolutely had to. Probably because I knew how they were going to react. Slack-jawed and blinking at first, then a deep line formed between my sister’s brows.

“Child… You…”

“Charlie!” My two nephews, Billy and Ben, appeared in the doorway, grinning madly before throwing themselves at my legs. “Are we going to Tree Climb? Are we? Are we?”

“Sure are.”

That’s all I got out before they started peppering me with their ideas.

“I’m gonna climb the highest tree, right up into the sky, and I’m not even gonna use a rope,” Benny said.

“Ah, they don’t let you climb anywhere without safety ropes,” I said.

“I’m gonna swing from tree to tree like Tarzan!” Billy added.

“Will not.” Ben screwed up his face and looked his brother up and down doubtfully. “You’re too much a scaredy cat.”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

I stepped between the two of them, stopping the pushing and shoving in its tracks before fixing the two of them with a steely glare.

“Here’s the deal, kids. You’ll follow all of the safety procedures and have good, safe fun.” I put extra emphasis on the word safe. “Or we won’t go to Tree Climb.” I could feel Astrid’s eyes boring into the back of my neck, daring me to disappoint her. “We can go to the state art gallery where there’s no running, no talking, no making a sound, and look at a lot of paintings of old dead people.”

The boys quietened down instantly, taking an extra step away from each other to ensure one didn’t incite the other to start fighting again.

“We got our water bottles,” Ben said, thrusting his out.

“And I’ve got the sunscreen,” Billy added. “We’ll be good, promise.”

“Awesome, because I want to introduce you to someone special.”

I figured just meeting these little monkeys would be all Millie could cope with today, but my sister had other ideas.

“We should all meet this someone special.” Her steady gaze made clear that we would be having conversations, so many conversations, about my inadvertent big reveal. “Let’s say hello, boys.”

As I approached the car, I mouthed the word sorry. Millie’s eyebrows shot upwards but she rallied quickly, getting out of the passenger side door with a well-practised smile.

“Hi, I’m Millie.”

I nearly kicked my sister’s ankle when she just stared at my girl’s outstretched hand. Instead of being polite, Astrid was inspecting Millie, looking for evidence of the pregnancy I had revealed. Mum had taught her too well, though. Astrid rallied quickly and smiled back, shaking Millie’s hand.

“Astrid. Nice to meet you. We don’t meet a lot of Charlie’s girlfriends.”

“Girlfriend?” Billy looked up at me with a squint. “You’ve got a girlfriend, Uncle Charlie?”

“Girls are gross.” Benny wrinkled his nose, looking at Millie suspiciously until I was forced to nudge him in the shoulder. “What? They are.”

“I can spit a loogie further than any of my brothers,” Millie said, “and they’re bigger than your uncle. I can also burp my name.”

I watched in fascinated horror as she sucked in some breaths and then demonstrated just how well she could do that, belching out each syllable of her name.

“Whoa… can you teach us how to do that?” the boys said in wonder.

Astrid was just wondering what the hell I was doing, staring at me meaningfully, but hey, the rules of adulthood meant that she couldn’t quiz me on all the details right now. I was going to take advantage of that.

“We’ll be back in a few hours with two tired kids who’ve had sunscreen applied every hour, I promise.” I ducked forward and pressed a quick peck to Astrid’s cheek, feeling the muscle tension there before pulling back. “In the back, boys. Seatbelts on.”

Astrid’s hands didn’t drop from her hips as we pulled away from her place and headed towards Tree Climb.

“Can we get KFC for lunch?” Benny asked, craning his neck as we drove past the takeaway outlet.

“Nah, Maccas. I want a thick shake.”

“You’re not getting anything if you don’t behave yourselves.”

Holy crap, why did I turn into my dad the moment I was around the boys? The sulky looks from the backseat were a perfect replica of my own at that age. Astrid would’ve already been nudging me, prompting me to behave. It was only Millie’s amused look from the passenger side seat that had my heart lightening. Any time I had her eyes on me was a good time.

“We’re going to Tree Climb for an hour or two, then we’ll discuss where we’re going to lunch as a group, and we’ll vote on which place to go to,” I told them.

“So do you like thick shakes, Auntie Millie?” Billy asked oh so casually. She’d been given that title without prompting from me.

“I do,” she replied. “I also like chicken and burgers and pizza… Way too many junk foods.”

“Do you get to eat takeaway every night when you’re an adult?” Billy asked her.

“You can,” Millie admitted, earning her a warning look from me. She just smiled. “But it's really expensive and not very good for you. Pretty sure they’re a ‘sometimes food.’ You would’ve learned about that in school.”

“Ugh…” Billy threw himself back in his seat. “Everything good is a sometimes thing.”

“That’s what makes it good,” she added. “If you had it all the time, it’s just get boring, like eating bowls of oatmeal.”

“Eww!” the boys cried.

“Or broccoli?”

“Yuck. I hate broccoli.”

“Or spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.”

The boys settled at that.

“We like spag bol. Mum makes it really good.”

“Good to know,” Millie said with a nod. “Maybe we should go to a pasta place for lunch?”

Their howls of protest had her cackling, and that’s when I knew everything would be OK.

“Hey, wait for us!” I shouted at the boys.

We’d sat through the orientation session, learning how to use the ropes and the carabiners to traverse the course. There were different levels of difficulty, and the boys wanted to do the hardest levels, naturally. Together we’d negotiated a plan, but that moment of cohesion seemed to fall apart the moment we got near the course. The boys went running off to the starting point, forcing me to stiffen, but Millie put a hand on my arm.

“They can’t start without us.” She nodded to the people running the place. They directed the boys to stand aside, looking around for us before they were allowed to enter the course.

“Yeah, but they could at least pretend to listen to me,” I grumbled.

“They do when they’re not hyped up, excited by the idea of climbing through the treetops.” She looked up at the cluster of trees, rope bridges and obstacles joining them together. “They’re out doing something fun. There’s other kids screaming and carrying on.” The sounds of other children enjoying themselves to the max filtered through. “They’ve got energy to burn and are beyond ready to let that out.”

I stopped then, her even tone, her reasonable explanation a complete contrast to what my parents would’ve said if they were here instead of us. Sharp words, a sharper slap on my arse to correct my behaviour, that’s what I got growing up, but faced with the same set of circumstances I couldn’t find it in myself to do the same. Ben and Billy were no doubt gnashing their teeth, but I stopped then, stepping in to wrap my arms around Millie.

“You’re going to be an amazing mum, you know that, right?”

“I’m not sure I share your confidence right now. Those boys…”

We turned around to see my nephews almost vibrating with anticipation. If they could’ve persuaded the staff that they belonged to other parental groups, they would’ve. Anything to get going. I sucked in a breath, noting the moment when my dream of making our way through the course at a leisurely pace died. Sneaking a kiss against a tree, holding Millie’s hand and helping her across the obstacles, none of that was going to happen.

“Let's get the little monsters climbing,” I said to her, “before they start scaling the tree trunks by themselves.”

“Let's do it.”