Whatever “this” is.
“Me neither. You won’t have a bi-curious straight woman hassling you.” A quick grin. “Well, you might. But it won’t be me.” She takes another sip of her coffee.
“I hope we’ve moved past the strangeness of our situation,” Kim says. “I’d like to make our friendship about you and me and the girls. Not have it revolve around Chris. I don’t want to shut his memory out completely; I want Bella to feel she can talk about him. But I don’t want him to defineus.Our relationship.”
“I want that, too,” Danika says. “That’s good we’re on the same page.”
Kim nods. “We are.”
Danika sips her coffee. She should feel happy they’ve cleared the air between them. Smoothed over any discomfort.
So why does she feel she’s letting something good slip through her fingers?
Chapter Twenty
Kim
Even though Kim and Danika have been sitting in Mirza’s kitchen for over an hour, Bella and Cami show no inclination to leave. Right now, they’re out in the backyard with their hobby horses, prancing around in a circle walking, trotting, and cantering.
Kim and Danika sit watching Mirza make wraps for lunch. Some chicken and salad; some just salad. A pile of tomatoes and radishes from her garden.
Ashwin coos to himself in a bassinet.
Mirza yawns. “Honestly, those three could talk the hind leg off a donkey. I gave up on them and went to bed at one in the morning. When I said goodnight, they were all in their sleeping bags, chattering away. When I woke at seven, they were talking again. For all I know, the only sleep they got was when I texted you. And look at them now!” She gestures to Sylvie cantering her hobby horse around behind the rose bushes.
Kim grins. “Bella was so excited about the hobby horse idea. She made me go to three shops before we found Cloudy.”
“Sylvie has a stable in her room for Midnight,” Mirza says. “She feeds him morning and night. Apparently, he likes Froot Loops best—which coincidentally is Sylvie’s favourite snack.”
“I suspect Cami will now start doing the same for Lily,” Danika says.
Mirza finishes the final wrap and shunts the platter into the centre of the counter. “Danika, can you get the plates out while I get drinks? And Kim, can you call the riders inside—horses to remain outside.”
Kim goes and does that. The girls rush in, horses abandoned on the deck.
“Can Sylvie and Cami come to ours next week?” Bella asks through a mouthful of tomato. “Can we go to Luna Park? Sylvie’s never been.”
Kim raises an eyebrow at Mirza and Danika. Danika gives a quick nod, but Mirza is already shaking her head. “Daddy’s home then, honey,” she says to Sylvie. “But another time, for sure.”
“Then we’ll leave Luna Park until Sylvie can come too,” Danika says.
“Yay! Daddy’s coming home!” Sylvie takes an enormous bite of her wrap and bounces on her stool.
Eventually, the hobby horses are stowed in their stables or in the boots of cars, the girls corralled, and Kim and Danika take their leave.
“Thank you so much,” Kim says to Mirza. “Sylvie’s welcome at ours anytime.”
“It was a pleasure,” Mirza says. She pulls Kim into a hug and whispers, “And I still need to hear about your night out, when the kids aren’t around.”
Cami and Bella hug goodbye. Cami whispers something in Bella’s ear, and they both giggle.
As expected, Bella chatters non-stop in the car. Kim learns Sylvie loves her little brother, but doesn’t like it when he cries, and she misses her dad when he’s away working. She doesn’twant babies when she grows up because then she couldn’t work on the oil rigs like her dad.
“She could still go,” Kim says, but Bella is already on to something else.
“Do you know Cami’s never been camping?” Bella says. “Sylvie has, and she doesn’t like it. Can we go camping with Cami?”
Kim worries her bottom lip. “We’ll have to see.” What she means is she’ll have to ask Danika when the kids aren’t around.
