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Chapter Twenty
Rebel
“Brunch is ready,” Baxter says, appearing in the doorway to the lounge just as the film credits roll. Nix is standing on my lap belting out ‘Into the Unknown’ and she’s not half bad. I’ll have to play her the original. It’s way cooler than some Disney princess screeching it.
“C’mon guys,” Raven says. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!”
“Mummy!”
“What, baby?”
“You can’t eat a horse!” She sounds horrified. I smile.
“It’s just an expression, baby. I don’t even like horses.” She laughs and I freeze, the grin falling from.
“You don’t like horses?”
“Fu—hell no. They’re the devil’s henchmen.”
Panic sets in and I stare at her to see if she’s messing around.
“You’re joking, right?”
“No. Why? I hate them. Riding something that big with a mind of its own? I’d rather staple my tits to a beehive and cover them in pollen.”
The others laugh but I remain frozen to the spot.
“So if Nix wanted to take lessons…”
“Nope. Absolutely not. Horses are a hard limit for me. Nix knows this, don’t you baby?”
“Yeah! Mummy said if I don’t like horses she’ll let me swim with sharks when I’m older.”
“You like sharks?” I ask.
“Yeah! They’re amazing!” Nix pulls me towards the kitchen, rattling off a load of interesting shark facts that I’m only half listening to.
There go my fucking Christmas plans.
Now what?
I guess I did have my original plan of a treehouse for the garden that I can fall back on, but with Christmas so close I don’t know if I can get it made in time. Shit. I had a deposit on the cutest little mother and foal duo for Nix and Raven for Christmas. I can’t believe I’m not going to get to see my daughter on a pony.
I don’t care about the money lost, or even not having another present in place. I’m more upset that I got it so horribly hideously wrong.
“What’s this?” Raven asks when we step into the dining room. The table is laden with breakfast foods: a full fry up, stacks of pancakes, an assortment of fresh juices and the telltale smell of—
“Are those hash browns?”
Yep. Not just any hash browns either.
“How the fu-fudge did you get IHOP here in Edinburgh?” I demand, turning to Baxter. He grins at me. Raven looks as impressed as me and I quickly take my seat and load up my plate. The others all look bemused, but you haven’t lived until you’ve had an IHOP breakfast in my mind. “This is freaking amazing!”
“Glad you like it.” Baxter grins, taking a seat. The others follow suit and Raven immediately starts preparing a plate for Phoenix. Shit, I should’ve done that. I know when you have kids they come first, but I didn’t really realise that meant in every single tiny little thing until now.
“Here, you get yours, I’ll finish that,” I say, taking the plate from Raven and cutting up Nix’s sausage for her. She may be nearly four but that shit’s still hard sometimes. When I’m done I pass her the plate and watch as she tucks in. She’s gonna look like a pancake if we’re not careful. I’m not about to put her on a bloody granola diet but maybe we can find a balance with the sweet stuff. Weekends and special occasions maybe. Although, it is Christmas.
“Seriously, explain how you got this here,” I say to Baxter as I resume eating.
