“Yeah and you got most of the cake mix on you so upstairs for a bath,” Cole said, pointing to the stairs.
“Okay, Daddy,” she replied, jumping like a rabbit towards the door.
“Alright?” Cole asked.
I shrugged. “I guess.”
“Why don’t I give Everleigh her bath and you two can talk,” Oakley said.
I stood up and shook my head. “Why don’t I do the bath and you two can talk.”
Those were the magic words to get Cole to agree so I wouldn’t have to deal with talking about Abby or my sodding feelings again.
“Talk about what? Everything okay?” Cole asked.
She smiled. “Everything’s fine. Jasper’s right though.”
I left the room as Cole walked over to her with a deep, concerned frown. It was time for them to talk about Oakley’s nightmares.
Everleigh had just finished hopping to the top of the stairs when I started going up. “Don’t turn the water on yourself,” I called up.
“I know, Uncle Jasper, I don’t want to burned my skin off.”
I winced; hoping Cole and Oakley didn’t hear that. They tell her ‘don’t do that because it’ll hurt’ and I go in for the kill and tell her exactly what’ll happen. But she’s never had an accident when I’ve had her.
I ran Everleigh a bath, adding lots of bubble bath so she could build her castle out of it and sat on the toilet while she played.
“Where’s Auntie Abby?” she asked after a few minutes.
How should I handle that? I wanted to tell her Auntie Abby was a whore who couldn’t keep her knickers on, but Everleigh loved her, so I knew I couldn’t, plus she was three.
I swallowed the hurt and anger and replied, “She busy working.”
“Is she marking papers?”
I smiled. “Yeah, she’s marking papers.”
She was probably with Brett. Were they together now? In my house? I ran my hands through my hair and rubbed my eyes. The image of her in his embrace burned into my memory, haunting me every time I closed my eyes.
“Uncle Jasper?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you make me have bubble hair?”
I got down on my knees in front of the bath and scooped a handful of bubbles to put on her head. “Sure I can.”
Everleigh was the best. I hung out with her, watching old Disney movies and eating popcorn. I loved how I wasn’t required to talk about anything deep or painful. Her favourite topic was what’s Timon and Pumbaa going to do next.
Cole and Oakley flitted around the house, occasionally joining us but after Oakley’s nightmare confession they’d had a lot to talk about. I preferred it being just me, and Everleigh anyway – she didn’t give me pitying looks.
“Are you sure you want to go to Sarah’s tonight?” Cole asked.
No.
“Yeah.”
“They’ll understand, you know.”
“I know, but it’s Miles’ night. If Mum starts fussing, I’m out of there.”
Miles had just landed a promotion that he’d been working towards for the last year. The old office manager finally retired, and he was sure he wouldn’t be picked, but he was, so we were celebrating.
“Plus someone has to eat some of the cocktail sausages and stop Everleigh from devouring them all,” I added.
The kid must have eaten about a thousand pigs all herself in her three years.
“I’ll race you to eat them all up, Uncle Jasper!”
“No, you won’t,” Oakley said quickly. “You’ll be sick.”
Everleigh pouted and stomped towards the door where Cole was now holding her shoes up.
“We can leave at any point if you want to.”
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine.”
She watched me for a minute, trying to decide if I was fine or not. I wasn’t, but I returned her stare, trying to look like I didn’t just want to drown my sorrows away in the closest bottle I could find.
Mum opened the door, and after being attacked in a big hug with Everleigh, she moved on to me.
“Oh, sweetheart,” she murmured against my shoulder. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. Are you okay?”
I pulled back and with every ounce of energy I could muster, I smiled.
“Sure. Let’s not talk about it today though. This is about Miles. Where is he?”
“Just finishing up his new recipe canapés.”
Everleigh ran through to the kitchen shouting, “Grandad, did you make my cocktail sausages?”
“Cool. I’m hungry.” I sidestepped Mum and headed to the kitchen to talk to Miles. He wouldn’t mention Abby, so I knew I was safe in his company.
“Jasper,” Miles said, balancing Everleigh in his arm and putting what looked like sick on top of tiny little toast. “How’s it going?”
I nodded. “Not bad.” He knew the truth, but unless you came to him he wouldn’t pry. I liked that about him. “You?”
“Good. Want to be guinea pig and try these?” He nodded to his canapés.
“Err, what’s on it?”
“Spicy meatballs.”
“Alright, not what I expected.”
“Your mum loved it on pizza, so I thought I’d try something different to salmon.”
At least if I got food poisoning it’d take my mind off my wife.