Page 140 of Just Watch Me
Skylar didn’t answer right away. She hesitated, then looked at Zane. “Jump in any time here.”
He didn’t want to jump in. He did anyway, because he could hardly leave Skylar to handle this alone, could he? “It was an accident,” he said. “An accidental pregnancy, but accidents happen. That’s why you should pay attention in health class. And practice safe sex,” he decided to add. “Eventually.”
“Oh,man,”Finlay said.
“So if the egg had been in the right place, Skylar,” Scarlett persisted, “in your uterus, you would’ve had an abortion?”
“What’s an abortion?” George asked.
“When you don’t want to be pregnant,” Scarlett said, “so you make it go away.”
“I don’t know,” Skylar said. The woman really did have mana. He’d have been pulling out the ‘adults don’t talk to kids about sex’ card long ago. Whereas she went on to say, “I may well have. Raising a baby isn’t easy. Not when you already have three kids, and you’re a single mum.”
“But it would’ve been Dad’s baby, too,” Scarlett said. “It wouldn’t be just yours.”
“The mum gets to say,” Zane said, “because it’s her body.” He was on Team Finlay here. He didn’t want to have this discussion. Not when he and Skylar had barely had it.
“But what wouldyouwant?” Scarlett asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “That’s never going to be an easy conversation, or an easy decision. That’s why it’s better not to have to make it.”
“You realize,” Scarlett said, “that you’re being kind of a bad example.”
“Oh, I realize,” he said.
“I still think it’s sad that there wasn’t a baby,” Georgia said. “It would be fun to have a baby at our house. Babies are cute.”
“They’re heaps of work, though,” Scarlett said.
“They poo in their nappies for ages,” Finlay said, “until they get potty-trained. And your parents talk about potty training, and your grandparents talk about it, and the baby talks about it, and everybodywho comes to yourhousetalks about it. Sometimes they tell you to show the baby how to go in the potty, and thenyouhave to talk about potty training.”
“Babies can’t talk,” George said.
“It’s not a baby then,” Finlay said. “It’s, like, three years old.”
Skylar had both hands on the table, Zane suddenlyrealized. She’d gone paler, too. Too much time sitting up, and probably being emotional, however much she tried to pretend she was fine. He said, “Well, that’s cleared the air, anyway. And now I’m going to help Skylar back to bed. Then I’m going to clean that bath, and after that, I’ll get you and Finlay to help me make lunch, Scarlett, and set up that grocery delivery account. Let’s put those new ideas to the test.”
Stupid hormones. Stupidweakness.It had been a laparoscopic surgery, and there was no reason she should still be this tired. Her skin was tingling, though, and she was getting a bit lightheaded. She was glad of Zane’s arm as he took her back to the room. He also put the throw over her once she got there, and made sure the remote and her glass of water were on the nightstand. Not that she wanted to watch TV. She wanted to put in an earbud, listen to an audiobook for about five minutes, and fall asleep.
She roused herself enough to say, though, “You did well. That wasn’t easy.”
“No.” He sat on the bed beside her and stroked her hair. She loved it when he did that. “So did you. When you started with the diagram …” He shook his head and laughed a little. “I thought, ‘Bloody hell, she’s such a natural-born teacher. And she’s got mana to burn.’”
“Mm.” His voice was nice. Deep and smooth. Like a chocolate river, she thought hazily.I’d like another baby,she thought, halfway between waking and sleep.Yours. Sometime.
“Me too,” he said, so he’d heard her thought. Or something. His weight was warm beside her, and she wished he’d stay. He wouldn’t, though. He couldn’t. Pity.
Never mind. She’d have a rest, and then she’d …
She didn’t finish the thought.
52
TEA AND SYMPATHY
On Monday, three days after Zane had left, Skylar was sitting on the couch in the lounge with Olive and Georgia beside her, and all of them were reading. Snowball was snuggled between the two girls, getting every pat he could, and Scarlett was hoovering in the kitchen, because, she’d said, “Cooking is messier than I realized.” Skylar had offered to do it, and Scarlett had put her hands on her hips and said, “It says it right on your discharge instructions. ‘No vacuuming.’ Dad showed me.” Skylar would’ve said that Scarlett said it bossily, but she wasn’t allowed to think that, was she?
So she was reading instead, in the coziest situation possible, and feeling … restless. Funny; last holidays, she’d wanted to read all day and notpaint her downstairs. Now, when she wassupposedto read all day, it was just annoying her, because she longed to get something done. To getanythingdone.
