Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 523(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 523(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
“Do you want dessert, Uncle Leon?”
I smile at Josh’s enthusiasm. “It depends. What’s for dessert?”
“Chocolate cake,” he says, making big eyes. “With icing sugar and melted chocolate on the top. Mommy let me lick out the bowl.”
“Is it good?” I ask in a conspiratorial tone.
“Yes,” he says, bobbing his head. “You’re going to love it.”
“Then we better go see where your mom is hiding that cake.”
He hops off his chair and bounces like a kangaroo to the kitchen. I can’t help the smile that splits my face as I follow in his tracks.
“It’s not easy feeling like the outsider,” Lina says just as I enter the kitchen. “But you’re family now.”
“Mommy,” Josh says. “We came to fetch the cake.”
Lina and Violet turn from the window to face us.
Lina offers me a smile. “Thanks for keeping him company. He was very excited about meeting his uncle.” To Josh, she says, “Then we better not make you wait, seeing that you finished all your food.”
“Yay,” Josh says, clapping his hands. Excitedly, he adds, “I’ll take the cake forks.”
“Thank you,” Lina says with praise that makes Josh puff out his chest.
When they disappear into a walk-in pantry, I go to Violet and put my arms around her. She tenses for a moment before relaxing slightly.
“Do you?” I ask, nuzzling her temple.
“Do I what?”
“Feel like an outsider?”
“No.” She shrugs. “I’ve always been an outsider.”
The phrase says a lot about her family dynamic, but it’s nothing I don’t already know. Gus had never been a real father to her, not like Damian is to Josh.
Just as I swoop in for a kiss, Damian walks into the kitchen with Josie in one arm and his phone in his hand.
His face is tense. “It’s Zoe. She’s had the baby.”
“What?” Lina shrieks, running from the pantry with a chocolate cake in her hands and Josh on her heels.
“Is it Auntie Zee?” Josh asks.
“It’s Maxime,” Damian says, bouncing Josie while he places the phone on a phone stand on one of the counters.
Lina leaves the cake on the counter and takes Josh’s hand, pulling him closer. “Come look. Zee had a baby. You have a cousin.”
I take Violet’s hand, tightening my fingers around hers. “My sister,” I explain. “She and her husband live in France.”
A man’s face comes onto the screen. Maxime, I presume. He looks simultaneously knackered and elated.
Spearing his fingers through his dark hair, he says in a heavy French accent, “It’s a boy.”
“Everyone is here,” Damian says. “Leon and Violet too.”
“Who?” Maxime asks.
“Our older brother and his wife.”
“Ah. Yes. Of course.” Maxime moves through a corridor with mint-green walls. “I’m sorry. I’m not myself at the moment.”
“Understandably,” Damian says. “How’s Zoe?”
“Tired.” Maxime’s face darkens. “It was a long birth.”
“How is she doing?” Lina places an arm around Damian’s waist, hugging Josie between them. “And the baby?”
“They’re both fine. But I can do better than tell you. I can show you.” He opens a door and turns the screen, showing a stunningly beautiful Zoe, all grown up, propped up in a bed with a bundle of white blankets in her arms. “There they are.”
“Zoe,” Lina exclaims. “Congratulations. We’re so proud of you. Is everything okay?”
“We’re both fine,” Zoe says, smiling down at the bundle in her arms. “I was more worried about Maxime than anything else. I thought he was going to kill the poor doctor.”
“I wasn’t that bad,” Maxime grumbles in the background.
Zoe laughs, moving away the blanket and showing us a pink-faced baby. “We haven’t decided on a name yet. I wanted to call him Jean, but Maxime doesn’t like it.”
“You did well, Zee,” Damian says. “Congratulations. To both of you.”
I clear my throat. “Congratulations, Zoe.”
She leans closer to the screen. “Leon, is that you?”
“This is my wife, Violet,” I say, pulling Violet closer.
Violet gives a little wave. “Congratulations, Zoe. And Maxime.”
“Oh my God,” Zoe says. “Leon, you look just like—”
“Damian. Yeah, I know.”
“I was going to say Dad,” Zoe says. “And this beautiful woman is your wife? I knew you moved back to Joburg, but I didn’t know you got married.”
“It’s still new,” I say.
“It seems congratulations are in order for you.” Zoe rocks the baby, who starts fussing. “I hope I’ll meet you in person soon, Violet.”
“Thanks,” Violet says. “I hope so too.”
“Does that mean we can expect a visit?” Lina asks.
Maxime’s face reappears on the screen. “Not soon. Not until Zoe has completely recovered and our child has sufficient immunity. I’m going to let them rest now.”
“Take care of them,” Damian says.
Maxime frowns. “Of course. It’s my job.”
A chorus of goodbyes sounds before Maxime ends the call and the screen goes dark.
“That deserves champagne,” Lina says, her face glowing.
Damian hands Josie to her. “I’ll get it.”
“Can we go out on the boat?” Josh asks.
“After dessert,” Lina says. “If Violet and Leon want to.”