Damn it. “Holly has a date,” I said to get the spotlight off me.
Holly gave me an evil glare. Without all the eyeliner, she didn’t look that scary though. Her looks matched her personality when she wore only a little make-up. Perhaps that was why she wore so much black around the eyes, to appear more confident.
“Really? Quick work,” Oakley said, winking. “You’ve not been back long. Who is it?”
“Some boring dude she met at the library. By the way, what were you doing in a library?”
“Buying paint,” she replied sarcastically.
“Ha ha. I meant because you’re on break from uni. Surely being around books is the last thing you want to do now?”
“Shut up,” Oakley said, hitting the back of my head, making Everleigh gasp.
“You’re not allowed to hit, Mummy,” she said, shaking her head as if she was the parent and deeply disappointed.
“Go in the back office and watch TV for a minute,” Oakley said, lifting her off my lap. “I’ll come and get you when your class starts.”
Everleigh skipped off, pulling her bag, which fell to the floor and scraped along the ground behind her.
“It’s great that you have a date, Holly. Jasper, why don’t you make sure the gym is ready for the class?” She grinned. “Everleigh’ll only tell you off if it’s not.”
She bloody would too. If anyone came between her and her gymnastics time, she’d freak. It was like looking at Oakley when she was Everleigh’s age. I knew that although Oakley hoped Everleigh would carry it on, she didn’t think she would; the kid just liked climbing and jumping off stuff. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if in a year or so, she stopped wanting to go.
“Am I in trouble?” I asked, grinning, “or do you just want her out of the way, so you don’t get in any more trouble?”
“Shut up, Jasper.”
“You two sound just like me and Brad,” Holly said and laughed. Flashing them a smiled, I went to see if Marcus wanted any help.
After chatting with Holly and taking a million instructions for the new equipment that was being delivered for the new football pitch, Oakley left to take Everleigh swimming then to some messy play group. I’d take my kid to all that crap too. I was sort of looking forward to it.
Holly kept to herself most of the day, working hard and doing everything exactly as she’d been taught. She worked like a newbie, before long she’d be on Facebook between booking customers in and filing. If she even had a Facebook account. Surely she would have.
The day dragged by so, so slowly. It didn’t usually, but I was on a pretty sweet promise tonight, so I wanted to get home as soon as possible. Finally though, Oakley was back for a few hours while Cole gave Everleigh a bath, so I was free to leave. My sister also had a sweet deal tonight; she made the mess with Everleigh and her husband had to scrub the paint off her skin and hair!
Abby’s car was in the drive. I practically abandoned my car on the street I was so excited to get this evening underway. My heart was racing and jeans were tightening with the excitement. I threw the front door open and legged it into the kitchen. The smell of steak and peppercorn sauce hit me as I walked through the door.
“Hey, babe,” I said, grinning from ear to ear. My wife looked stunning in a summer dress with her hair pulled back, revealing her kissable neck.
She turned and handed me a bottle of beer. “Hey. Dinner will only be two minutes so why don’t you sit down and I’ll bring it over.”
“Thanks.” What the hell did I do to get this lucky? I sat at the table and watched her and her sexy arse as she finished up and brought our dinner to the table. My mouth watered as I flitted between looking at the big, fat juicy steak and my gorgeous, juicy wife. I couldn’t wait to get her into bed and potentially make our baby. My heart suddenly dropped a little. We had to talk about what was going to happen on the baby making front.
I took a huge swig of beer, gathering as much courage as I could. Man I’m such a pussy. Grow some balls and ask your damn wife when she wants kids!
“Abby, did you really mean it when you said you don’t want children yet?”
She froze; her wine glass suspended in the air and then she put it down. That wasn’t a good sign.
“How come you’re bringing this up now? I thought we were having a relaxing evening together.”
“We are.” What did that mean? We can’t talk about things like that because we were supposed to be having lots of sex later?
She sighed, pushing her food around on the plate. “Jasper, right now just isn’t a good time. There’s so much going on, and if we have a baby now it’ll be ten times harder to go back to work after.”