She shook her head. “He might like that idea, but that was why he bought you the present. I think the fact that you had no one to buy you a gift upset him.”
Jonny’s arms were now wrapped round her, his touch not demanding or proprietary like it had been earlier and yesterday. Now it was needful.
“That doesn’t surprise me. He empathises a lot. But I had more gifts this year than any. I’ll see what he has to say and encourage him to talk. He’s going to ask me questions about you.”
“Be honest but not detailed.”
“Trust me, Ray, there’s never going to be a time when I’m too detailed with my kids about some things. I should probably have another one of those talks soon too.” He pulled the shower head off its wall attachment and rinsed them both.
“You were his age once. Talking to him about healthy relationships shouldn’t be too difficult.” She reached for a towel and passed him one.
“I remember being top end of primary school and not having a clue about anything apart from the fact that my dick had just gotten a hell of a lot more interesting and girls were starting to look different. This conversation won’t be the one I would’ve had with myself because when I was eleven, the internet was not something I had on my phone. I didn’t have a phone.”
“Your experience of what a naked female was like was probably from magazines stashed under someone’s bed. Or what Jake had managed to buy off someone.”
“You know your brother well. But I don’t think this is a discussion I want to have right now, plus I can hear Sadie squawking.” He threw the towel on the radiator and pulled on his sweats, his back still not dry.
Rayah laughed, although her stomach didn’t feel overly settled in much the same way when she was about to abseil down a particularly steep rock face.
Half an hour later,Rayah sat down on the rocking chair with a mug of coffee, combing through Sadie Grace’s thick hair that was smothered in conditioner because she’d decided that glitter hair was the new fashion and she needed to put glue in it to make the glitter stick. They were now on the second comb through and the second comb.
Sadie was quite happy though. She liked having her hair combed, wasn’t head sore and no one was telling her to give Harry his hand held games console back, so she was lost in whatever puzzle game she was playing.
“Do you think Rayah will want chocolate sauce on her pancakes even though we had chocolate cake last night?” The voice was Charlie’s and Rayah got the feeling that the boy was doing some serious overthinking.
“Charlie, you had chocolate cake last night; do you still want chocolate sauce on your pancakes?” Jonny sounded level, almost deadpan.
“It’s chocolate. Course I do.”
“Then you answered your own question.”
She could just about hear their voices over the crash of pans and the drawer being closed – something neither Charlie or Jonny were capable of doing quietly.
“I thought girls were always thinking about what they eat.”
She heard Jonny laugh. “Some are. Some say they are. It’s all about balance. Have treats, but not all the time. You know this.”
“But aren’t girls different? I know Sadie is only little but she’d eat sugar all day if we let her. When she’s older is she going to be going on about being skinny or the silly stuff they talk about at school and then go and eat a load of rubbish?” Charlie sounded genuinely worried.
Rayah braced herself for Jonny’s response.
“Sadie will know, like she does now, that you have a treat as a treat and do you think we’ll let her care about being skinny as long as she’s healthy? Being skinny’s not healthy, just like being overweight isn’t. You’re awfully concerned about your sister. What are you after?”
Rayah swallowed a laugh, finding a lump of glue in Sadie’s hair.
“Nothing. It’s just, Rayah’s here and I don’t know what to really say about stuff because she’s a girl. Unless it’s about school, but I don’t really see her in school anymore because she teaches the little kids.”
“What do you say to the girls at school? What do you talk to them about? You’ve got a good friend who’s a girl.”
“We talk about football and whether DC is better than Marvel. I’m not sure Rayah wants to talk about that.”
She heard Jonny chuckle. “Why don’t you just tell her things about you? What you’ve been doing or watching or what you think about school dinners. She’ll be interested because it’s you.”
Jonny was right, but he was missing the point.
“I know. But I want to be able to talk about them, not just me.”
There were a few seconds of silence.
