Chapter 4

At the weekend we had a barbecue in the garden, a farewell party for Peggy. A few of her friends from the commune came.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, I guess the talk of sex parties, and Willow saying her auntie called her parents ageing hippies, coloured my judgement.

The 10 or so people who came from the commune were genuinely nice people. A few of them were the artisan craftspeople Willow mentioned; one woman about Maddy’s age introduced herself as Sage. She chatted with us for a while. She’s a blacksmith, her grandfather was a blacksmith before her. She joined the commune because her grandfather closed his forge when he retired, there wasn’t enough business for her to keep it going. She apprenticed with Arlo, who runs the forge. Whilst they still shoe horses, they mostly use the smithy to make ornamental metalwork like lamps, fancy garden gates, even swords and hunting knives.

“Gosh, she’s pretty,” Maddy remarked as Sage wandered away to fetch a burger from Willow, who was running the barbecue with Zac.

“I think she’s with the blue-haired girl, I forget her name,” I replied.

“Fleur?”

“Yes, that’s her.”

“Fleur’s a lucky girl, as long as she can get past Sage’s black hands, did you see them? I bet she can’t ever get them clean.”

“I’m not sure how many people will look at Sage’s hands after they’ve seen her eyes.”

“Oh my! She has the most amazing eyes, even more entrancing than Willow’s.”

We used the barbecue as an official housewarming. As well as the people from the commune, and a few of Maddy’s regulars from the pub, several of our neighbours visited during the evening and some stayed well into the night.

One of the neighbours asked if it was OK to bring their kids, Maddy assured them it was fine, there was very little swearing and almost no sex and violence.

The mother, Jess, soon returned with a pair of toddlers and a teenage girl, “we were going to leave the kids with Charlee, she’s Dan’s from an earlier marriage...”

I’m assuming Dan is the guy who arrived with Jess and is now flirting with Sage and / or Fleur.

“ ... but you all seem like a nice bunch, so it wasn’t fair to have Charlee miss out.”

“What are the little ones’ names?” Maddy asked.

“This one is Olivia,” Jess replied, passing a little girl to Maddy.

“How old is she?”

“She’s 18 months and she just loves to explore. That’s Noah, he’s three years old next week. He’s not as adventurous as Olivia, just watch him, I bet he avoids everyone and goes to sit behind the bins, yep, there he goes.”

As Jess moved away to collect Noah from behind our recycling bins, I watched Charlee, she’d gone to the barbecue and was now chatting with Willow.

“Look over there, Willow has got a friend,” I told Maddy.

“Seriously? That’s great news.”

“I think Willow’s problem is she just assumes everyone she meets at school knows about them, and so are already prejudiced against her. With you and me, we were completely new, so couldn’t possibly hate her. Charlee doesn’t go to their school, she’s new.”

“How do you know she doesn’t go to the same school?”

“I’ve seen her get the bus in the morning; I think she’s at the Grammar School.”

“Ahh, so she’s a clever girl.”

“I assume so, if she’s at the Grammar.”

“That’s good, because Willow is an exceptionally bright girl, hopefully Charlee will have similar interests.”

The guests started drifting away around 11 o’clock.

Jess collected Noah, who was sleeping under the drinks table, “Charlee wants to stay, Willow said you’re OK with her sleeping here, is that right?”

“Oh yes!” I replied, “we’re absolutely fine with her staying over.”

“That’s great. Charlee doesn’t make friends easily, so it’s nice to see her getting on so well with Willow and Zac.”

“We were saying the same about Willow and Zac,” Maddy replied, “I’ve enjoyed watching them chatting.”

“If you don’t have a spare room, it’s OK if Charlee shares with Willow. I remember when I was their age, we always shared a bed on sleepovers.”

“I’m sure Willow will be fine with that,” Maddy replied, smiling. I think she was remembering their kiss the other night, “she has a king-sized bed, there’s plenty of room.”

Jess put Noah down and took a seat beside Maddy, “tonight has been a lot of fun, I’m glad we came. I’ve not really met anyone else on this street before tonight. Mmm, Dan is playing cricket in the morning, so I was going to take Charlee and Noah bowling, do you want to come?”

I looked at Maddy, “I’m working at 6, but I don’t think we have any plans for the day. Why don’t you see if the twins are doing anything,” she told me.

Willow was making a sandwich out of leftovers as I approached, “hey Jim, do you want anything?”

“I’m OK thanks, do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“Not really, I’ve got some history homework, but it’s not due until Wednesday.”

“Charlee’s mum has asked if we’d like to go ten pin bowling in the morning.”

“We’ve never been bowling, do you want to go Zac?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun.”

I was turning to leave when Willow grasped my arm, “are you OK with Charlee staying?”

“Absolutely, we’re pleased you’ve made a friend. Charlee’s mum says she can share your bed, Willow.”

“Does Jess know Zac shares the same bed,” Charlee asked.

“We’ve not mentioned that, are you OK sharing with both twins?”

“Charlee is exploring her sexuality, her mum thinks she’s gay, and she’s fine with that.”

“Jess would be fine with me sharing with a boy and a girl, she’s cool with me being Bi I think. Dad isn’t quite so understanding.”

“Did you see his face when Sage ignored his flirting and kissed Fleur,” Willow asked.

“Oh my god, I had to stop myself from laughing at him...” Charlee replied.

“It’s good to see Charlee laughing,” Jess was saying as I returned, “has anyone seen Dan?”

“I think he left about half an hour ago,” Maddy told her, “he wandered off with a few of my regulars.”

“Ahh, he’ll be getting drunk because someone rejected him,” Jess replied, matter of factly.

“Charlee said he was flirting with Sage,” I told her.

“Was she the girl with the blue hair?” Joanna asked.

“No, that’s Fleur, Sage’s girlfriend.”

Jess chuckled as she stood, picking up Olivia and grasping Noah’s hand, “trust him to try it on with a lesbian. Serves him right for being so homophobic.”

“Ahh, Charlee hinted something like that.”

“Oh my god, do not tell him she’s gay,” Jess gasped.

“What happens in this house, stays in this house,” Maddy assured her.

“Mmm, this might sound weird, but I think she fancies both your kids.”

“That’s not even slightly weird,” Maddy replied as we walked Jess out to the street.

“They’re quite close, aren’t they...”

“Very close, they’re very much in love with each other.”

“That’s what I thought. She’ll be sharing with them both, won’t she,” Jess mused.

“Is that OK?”

“I guess it is, they seem like sensible kids.”

“They won’t do anything she doesn’t want to do.”

“Make sure the twins know her dad can never know about what they get up to.”

Maddy pulled Jess close and kissed her. Jess blinked rapidly as they parted, “mmm, maybe we can do that again when I don’t have to go home with a pair of sleepy toddlers.”

“I’ve got a couple of potential babysitters in the garden.” Maddy laughed.

“Jim would just have to watch, because...”

“Jim can babysit the babysitters.” Maddy told her.

“And you’d be OK with that,” Jess asked me.

“I’m not Maddy’s keeper,” I assured her.

Jess was lost in thought for a moment, she blinked twice as she seemed to come to a decision, “I’ll check Dan’s work diary in the morning, maybe we can watch a movie one night when he’s away with work.”

“I’d enjoy that,” Maddy replied, smiling.

“I’m sure I will too.”

“Would you be OK just watching me making out with Jess?”

“I’m OK staying home with the kids.”

“Oh no mister, we’re a couple now, if one of us is making out, the other will be in the room. That’s a rule I’m making.”

“What if Jess wants to be alone with you?”

“Weren’t you listening, she said you’d have to watch, that means she’s OK with you being in the room. Which is one step away from letting you be in the bed, which in turn is one step away from letting you join in.”

I was making coffee the next morning as Charlee stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. I smiled as I noticed she was wearing Willow’s Taylor Swift nightshirt,

“Did you have fun last night?” I asked as I poured Charlee a mug of coffee and popped some bread in the toaster.

“Oh yes, it was so much fun, thanks for inviting so many people to your party ... ahh, you meant afterwards didn’t you...” she sipped her coffee, “mmm, this is nice, we only have instant at home ... we mostly talked ... Willow told me all about how her relationship with Zac started, I told her about ... mmm ... maybe later ... we kissed for a bit,” she added brightly, “that was nice ... very nice ... I’d not kissed a girl before ... not properly anyway ... I got all hot and Willow showed me how to ... mmm, maybe you don’t need to know that ... I kissed Zac as well, that wasn’t as much fun, still nice, but he’s not as sexy as Willow...” she sipped her coffee again before looking at me, her eyes open and honest, “did you have fun?”

“We did much the same, mostly talked...”

“Does Maddy often squeal when she’s talking?” Charlee asked, grinning.

“OK, we may have done a bit more than talk and kiss.”

Charlee frowned, “I remember when dad and Jess were like you two,” sounding melancholy, “you look good together, you and Maddy. She’s younger than you, I think.”

“Maddy is 26, and I’m, err, older than that.”

I pulled the toast from the toaster and added a generous layer of Nutella before pushing the plate over to Charlee, she smiled warmly before taking a bite.

“Mmmm, I love Nutella ... Jess is 26 as well, dad is like, 50 I think.”

“I don’t think that’s too big an age difference, if your parents have shared interests.”

“I don’t think they have many shared interests, not anymore. Is it wrong that I love Jess more than I love my dad?”

“I don’t think so. Perhaps that’s something you could talk to Willow and Zac about.”

“Mmm, we already did. I guess at least my dad is interested in adults.”

My car isn’t big enough for two adults and three kids, at least not if any of the back seat passengers want to ever walk again, so Charlee popped back home to travel with Jess and her siblings.

Zac and Willow had never bowled before, so we watched a few games until Zac felt he knew what to do.

Willow paired with Charlee, I paired with Zac, Noah played for both teams.

It was clear from the first round that Charlee had played before, and often. Soon we were 20 points down and praying for Noah to intervene on our behalf. He didn’t, and we ended the game almost 100 points behind the girls.

Charlee turned after scoring a strike with her last roll, she was grinning, and not just because they’d hammered us, “Hey Jim, it looks like your girlfriend and my mum are getting very friendly.”