“I hoped it was you.”
I dropped my wettie on the floor, vowing to rinse it out later, and peeled off my boardies, throwing them on top of it. Standing there, buck naked, her eyes were all over me. I put my hands on my hips and raised an amused eyebrow. She’d mentioned yesterday, at the river, that when I looked at her, she saw herself through my eyes. I knew exactly what she meant. When she looked at me like that, I felt ten feet tall and bulletproof. Combine that with a sunrise surf, and I was pretty sure I was one hundred percent invincible.
“Do I meet with your approval?” I asked.
She grinned, still holding the shower curtain so I could only see her head and shoulders. “I think you’ll do.”
“Glad to hear it. Now move that shower curtain before I rip it down.”
She giggled, and I climbed into the shower with her. She was wet and silky, and it was therefore impossible to keep my hands off her. I backed her up against the wall as she wrapped her arms around me, the warm water cascading down over both of us. If felt like the water was blending us into one body, and I wasn’t sure where mine ended and hers began. I just knew that I wanted her to stay in there with me until we had turned into wrinkly prunes and there was no hot water left. The rest of the day was going to be hell. It was only Friday. We both had work. A whole day apart. How the hell would we cope?
I was taking my time towelling her off when I heard a knock at the door.
“A bit early for visitors isn’t it?”
I shrugged, frowning. I wasn’t expecting anyone. “Maybe its Vinnie – he might’ve left something in the truck. He’s got a memory like a sieve.”
I draped the towel around her shoulders, pulled it tighter to draw her close, then kissed her quickly on the lips. I grabbed a dry towel for myself and wrapped it around my waist as I headed out of the bathroom for the front door. When I opened it, it wasn’t Vinnie but Alex who stood there.
Something was wrong. I knew it deep down in my soul, the way you know bad news is coming. It’s a vibe in the air, a collection of observations that you calculate in a mere heartbeat.
I couldn’t remember the last time Alex had been to my house.
His face was red, and he’d been crying.
It was too early for a social call.
“You have to come,” he croaked, not bothering to hide it. “Now. She needs you.”
“What? Who?”
“Mum!”
My heart slammed to a halt, hitting the wall of my ribcage. “What’s happened? Is she okay?”
“She needs you,” he said again, wiping the back of his hand across his nose.
If Alex was here, and Bridget was in trouble, it was bad. Really bad. My heart jump-started, rocketing up through my chest and into my throat. I lunged at him, grabbing him by the shirt and shoving him up against the wall of the house.
“What the fuck did you do!” I hissed, mere centimetres from his face.
I could smell his breath from there, but there was no hint of alcohol on it. Nothing was adding up.
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Bullshit! What’s going on? What happened?” I didn’t even give him a chance to answer, my mind spinning out of control, possibilities raining down on me. “If you’ve hurt her again, I swear to God, I’ll – “
“It’s Pop!”
It felt exactly like he’d punched me in the stomach. Everything drew in on itself. “Henry?”
“He’s dead,” he croaked.
The sound of my own heartbeat was all I could hear, reverberating inside my body, filling up all the cavities and bursting out of them. I felt sick. I wanted to call him a liar, but I could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t lying.
He was sober and he was telling the truth.
I let him go and he stood there, trying not to cry. I’d never seen him look so vulnerable. Not even when Em disappeared. He kept himself busy then, doing stuff. Then he started drinking and he was still busy. But now, he wasn’t. He wasn’t doing anything, because there was nothing to be done. It was too late.
My knees buckled and I sank down onto the front step. It couldn’t be true. We were just there, we just saw him yesterday.
Maia’s arms encircled me from behind, but I barely felt them. Alex sat down on the step beside me.
“What happened?” I managed to ask, without turning to him. I didn’t seem to be able to move. Breathing was taking up all my energy.
“Mum went around this morning, to drop something off to him on her way in to work,” he sniffed. “He was sitting in his chair in the living room. She thought he was asleep.”
Jesus. He never even made it to bed. How long had he been sitting there? Since we left? Had he been there all night?
“You need to come over. She won’t let me call anyone. She’s just… she’s just sitting there with him. She won’t leave him. I didn’t know what else to do.”