Page 116 of Words We Didn't Say

“Pop, I told you to wait!” Andie dropped the yellow slide she was lugging over. “You’ll put your fuc—I mean,fudging—back out again.” She flashed a sheepish grin in my direction.

“Smooth save,” I called out.

She bowed.

The slide was fastened in record time. The two of them surveyed the bolts, tugged on the ropes, and rattled the frame to make sure everything was secure. A couple of slaps on the back for a job well done, and the jungle gym was finally complete.

Josie’s hopeful eyes turned to me. “Me go?”

“Yep!” I nodded with a big smile. “Pop and Andie all done.” Finally.

Josie grinned and threw her tiny arms around my neck. Bunny came for a cuddle, too.

“Lub oo, Dada.”

Her chunky tooshie toddled across the yard to the new swing she’d been dying to ride for hours. I hopped back up, watching Dad lift my little girl onto the yellow seat. His hair was threaded with so much more silver, but somehow, he looked younger, lighter. With her Bunny stuck safely under her arm, Josie glared straight ahead as Dad pushed the swing. She was wary at first, sizing up the new situation, but she was soon giggling and demanding to go “Hi-wa, Pop!”

Andie jogged over. “Dude! Did we do good or what? That play set is a work of art.” She grinned. “I didn’t think we’d get it built in time. So, ah”—she rubbed the back of her neck—“how pissed off is Ed?”

Smirking, I cocked my head. “What do you reckon?”

“Tsunami?”

“I’d scale her mood somewhere around Summer Storm Surge.” I puffed out a sigh. “She’s freaking out about the awards.”

“Dunno why. This is her year.”

“I’ve told her. You’ve told her. Until the Hairstylist of the Year trophy is in Eden’s hand, it’s a lost cause. She thinks she didn’t send enough gift baskets or word her ‘Thank You’ social media posts properly.”

Andie winced. “I still have nightmares about those baskets. At least you knew how to arrange the fruit correctly.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m so bloody glad we’re going rock climbing next weekend. I love our girls, but fuck, I need a few hours to decompress. This world has way too many extroverts.”

“Hearing you loud and clear. I seriously underestimated the importance of award season.”

I spared Andie the details of just how much I’d used my powers of distraction in the last month. Sex hadn’t been this off the charts since Eden and I had eloped to Falls Creek—the first and, thankfully,lasttime either of us had seen snow. Sex the last two weeks had even eclipsed when we’d started trying for a baby. Two or three times a day sounded great in theory—fun in practice, too—but I still worried Eden used it as a tool to avoid her anxiety.

Then again, I always worried about her in some small way.

Love was like that. Life was less about me and more about my family, and I wouldn’t change it for all the promotions in the world.

I’d thought less and less about the old days at Worley and Stone as time went on. Chris had battled his own demons, disappearing into the wilds of Tasmania instead of answering for the day he’d laid his hands on Eden. Michaela had been nothing to me. She stayed that way. The past was in the past. The future was so much brighter without those people darkening it.

I dipped a nod at the house. “Heading upstairs to put your penguin suit on?” I asked Andie.

“Yeah, I’ll help Pop tidy up otherwise he’ll overdo it like always. Otherwise, I’m right behind you.”

I took a final look over the backyard. Josie shoved Bunny at Dad for safekeeping, jumped off the swing, and barrelled up the climbing frame, ready to test the slide. I smiled. The best sight in the world.

I raced up the back stairs two at a time until I landed at the top.

Mum shuffled around the deck, drizzling water over her potted herbs. “Eden’s getting ready in the guest room,” she said. Before I could escape, she caught my arm, dragging me down to her. Fierce eyes glared up at me. “When are you putting another baby in my daughter’s belly, Zachary?”

“Ma…”

“We’re not getting any younger here. Always so many excuses! First, it was getting married.”

I smirked. “I feel like getting married is a pretty standard step for a lot of people before having kids.”

Mum huffed. She often chose to conveniently forget she’d blubbered her eyes out to be one of only six people invited to our wedding. “Then, it was all that time looking for a house,” she said. “What a waste! You already had such a lovely apartment.”

---