Page 64 of Now and Again

Riley squeezed her hand and pulled her in, and it was happening. Lips, hands, warm, fervent, everywhere. Nobody knocked on the door, or walked into the room to interrupt, or pushed anyone in a pool. So it kept happening. And happening. And happening.

Ten whole years they’d waited for this, and it was worth it.

Twenty-Eight

TWO MONTHS LATER

‘Mia! Mia! Slow down!’ Riley said as her sister fled across the lawn on her ride-on Porsche. The thing was going quicker than it had a right to. Mia was headed for a rosebush at the end of the garden. It was Amanda’s favourite. ‘Mia, put the brakes on!’ Riley screamed. But Mia wasn’t listening. The plant was done for.

But the car screeched right into a pair of legs at the end of the garden. ‘That’s your mother’s favourite plant!’ Mike said to his youngest daughter with fondness. ‘Do I have to take that car away before you destroy the whole garden?’

Mia looked up in horror. ‘No, Daddy! Don’t take my car!’

‘Then listen to your sister when she tells you to stop,’ Mike said, bending over and switching off the car.

Riley had caught up with the car by now. ‘Dad, is this your day? I thought you had her tomorrow?’

‘Not officially, but Amanda said I could have an hour with her,’ he stated, picking Mia gently out of the vehicle, balancing her on his hip. She put her arms around him and leaned in, quite drained from the big getaway. ‘Is Amanda here?’ Mike asked, cuddling his youngest daughter.

‘No, that’s why I’m here. She got called into the office an hour ago, so she gave me a shout.’

‘On a Saturday? They’re taking advantage of her good nature. But anyway, she could have called me; I’d have been straight over.’

‘Aren’t you working?’ Riley asked.

‘It’s a Saturday,’ Mike said. Riley was tempted to mock him for suddenly deciding weekends were a thing, but decided to let it go. She was trying to do that a lot lately. If he wanted to change, she had to let him.

It took some getting used to, how much her dad had turned around in the last few months. Before, he was never here, even when he was. Now that he didn’t live here, you couldn’t keep him away. Amanda hadn’t taken him back yet. She didn’t think he was ready. She told Riley that she wanted to see if the changes would, ‘Really set in.’

Riley supposed it was a bit strange being such buddies with her stepmother, but they were too close in age to be anything else. So Riley ended up hearing quite a bit about her father’s second marriage and she agreed that if they ever got back together, it needed to be taken slowly. Her dad had to know he couldn’t go back to his old, cold, closed-off self. But when Mike Powell took on a task, he put himself into it completely. For a change, it had worked in his favour. He was trying, everyone could see.

It did Riley’s heart good to see it. To see that growing up, growing better, was possible. If even Mike didn’t have to be Mike, then Riley was free to be whoever the hell she wanted to be too. She didn’t have to be stuck in old ideas.

Mike put Mia down and took something out of his pocket, saying, ‘It’s Amanda’s birthday next week. Do you think she’ll like this?’ He opened up a ring box to reveal something sparkly. ‘It didn’t cost very much, it’s from some designer on the high street, just a market stall. But I’ve heard Amanda talk about her stuff, and she seems to like it. Do you think it’s her?’

Riley had a look. ‘Yeah, Dad. I think it’s very Amanda.’

Mike smiled, relieved. ‘Great.’

They all went into the kitchen. Mike put the kettle on. ‘How’s work?’ he asked.

Riley tried not to laugh out loud at her dad’s attempt at being nice. She just nodded and said, ‘Fine. Big campaign coming, on TV and everything. How’s yours?’

‘Ups and downs, you know,’ he said casually.

Riley checked her watch. Mike saw it.

‘Got somewhere to be? You can get off now if you need to. Me and Mia have got colouring to do.’

Riley grinned. ‘Cheers, Dad.’ She leaned down and planted a smacker on Mia’s forehead. ‘See you soon, Little Rabbit.’

‘Don’t call me that,’ Mia said. ‘I don’t like rabbits anymore. I like tractors now.’

‘Tractors, OK,’ Riley smiled. ‘I’ll work on a nickname for that.’ She said goodbye to the pair of them and ran off home—a nice two-bed shared with a very chill guy named Sid, an Uber driver with a sideline as a stand-up. He was out most nights, either at work or trying to get open mic slots.

‘Sid?’ she called, as she let herself in. She had the place to herself, as usual. It was about as close as you could get to living alone while still splitting the rent. Wonderful.

Riley got to work. She cleaned the flat, top to bottom, then got to cooking. She was checking her watch constantly. She wanted this to be perfect.

---