A Baby To Save Their Marriage

By the time he looked up Addison was standing in the doorway, watching Tristan and smiling. ‘What’s all this noise?’

Tristan lifted his prize. ‘It was a spider this time, Mum!’

‘Oh, no! Not a spider.’ She came over to the table and sat around the other side. ‘Well, I’m not sitting next to a spider.’

She stared at the covered plates for a second. It was almost as if the silver domes lost her in thought. But she blinked and removed them. The smell of bacon and eggs filled the room.

Caleb lifted up the cups and coffee pot and started pouring.

‘Oh, no. I’m going to have lemon tea instead.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘But you love coffee.’

She shrugged. ‘I’m on a health kick.’

He sat down opposite her and picked up his knife and fork. ‘Skinny latte with sugar-free caramel, skinny extra shot macchiato.’

The edges of her lips started to turn upwards.

‘Skinny cortado, skinny mocha cortado. Shall I keep going?’

She rolled her eyes as she poured boiling water into her cup and added a slice of freshly cut lemon.

‘You know what they say—too much caffeine makes a girl cranky.’

He couldn’t help but smile. There was definitely an atmosphere between them. How could there be anything else after what had happened? But things didn’t seem quite so antagonistic this morning.

‘This from a woman who had a state-of-the-art coffee machine installed in our kitchen because...’ he leaned across the table towards her ‘...and I quote, “it’s got to be cheaper than the ten cups I buy a day from the coffee shops”.’ He pointed to her cup. ‘And now you’re drinking tea?’

‘A girl’s entitled to change her mind.’ The words came out like lightning—just the way Addison usually was. But as soon as she’d said them her face fell. Almost as if she realised how they could be interpreted.

Had Addison changed her mind about him?

Tristan chose that second to ping his plastic spider across the table and straight into Addison’s cup.

‘Yow!’ She stood up as water splashed all over her. It was the first time he’d noticed she’d barely touched her breakfast.

She held her hand out towards Tristan. ‘Let’s go and get ready.’ She looked up at Caleb. ‘There’s a kids’ club every morning for a few hours. Playing with other kids will be good for him. He’ll be back with us every afternoon.’

Work. It was the first thought that shot across his mind.

Addison walked away holding Tristan’s hand, her outline silhouetted by the sun streaming through one of the windows. Her hair might be tied up in a funny knot on top of her head, and she didn’t have a scrap of make-up on, but his wife was still a stunner.

So, why was it, when he knew Tristan would be gone every morning, his first thought had been he could work?

He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. Five years ago that absolutely wouldn’t have been the first thought on his mind. His mind would probably have gone in a whole other direction.

He was embarrassed to admit that thought—even to himself.

He stood up and walked through to the bedroom. ‘I’ll take him.’

‘What?’ Addison looked surprised; she was pulling some clothes for Tristan out of the drawers.

‘If you point me in the right direction, I’ll take him to the kids’ club. You can stay and get showered and dressed.’

‘No.’ It was out before he’d barely finished speaking. ‘I mean... I haven’t seen the kids’ club yet. I want to check it out. To make sure I’m happy to leave him there.’

His annoyance flared. It was almost as if she didn’t trust him to be able to do that. To take Tristan to the kids’ club and make sure it was okay. But he tempered it down. The last thing he needed to do today was have another argument. He picked up the clothes she’d looked out. ‘In that case, we’ll do it together. I’ll get Tristan dressed while you shower.’

She hesitated for second, then nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll be ready in ten minutes.’

She grabbed a dress and some underwear and headed into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

It was the little things. The little things he was starting to notice. She didn’t used to close the door when she showered. On past occasions he’d joined her.

But today, it felt like just another sign that Addison was shutting him out.

He sighed and dressed Tristan, taking him out to the beach when he was ready. But Tristan pointed to the clear blue sea. ‘Can we see the fishes?’

‘Sure.’ Caleb took his hand and led him along the walkway and into the over-water bungalow. They pushed the coffee table away and lay down next to the glass panel. There was a small piece of coral underneath and it was alive with activity.

‘What’s that one, Dad? The red and white one? And what’s the blue one? It looks like Dory. Do you think we’ll see Nemo too?’

Caleb shook his head and stared down at the gorgeous brightly coloured fish. He didn’t have a single clue what any of them were. A large one swam past right underneath their noses. It was turquoise blue with pink stripes and little dashes of yellow. It looked like a painting Tristan would do at nursery. It was followed by a few much smaller, zebra-striped fish.

‘I like that one,’ said Tristan. ‘Can we give it a name?’

Caleb smiled. ‘Sure we can. What will we call it?’

‘Tristan,’ he suggested.

Caleb tried not to laugh. ‘We’ll have to see if we can buy a book somewhere to tell us what all the fishes are.’ He looked around. ‘And there are lots of boats. Maybe one day we can swim along the coral reef and go snorkelling.’

‘What’s snokling?’

Caleb laughed. ‘It’s where you go under the water and breathe through a little tube. You have a pair of goggles on so you can see all the fishes.’

‘We can go and swim with the fishes?’ Tristan looked mesmerised.

‘Sure we can. Daddy will find out how today.’

Tristan’s innocent gaze narrowed. ‘You won’t forget?’

Something twisted inside him. That was what his four-year-old associated with him—Daddy always forgetting his promises?

‘I won’t forget,’ he said quickly. It felt like a kick somewhere painful. There was something horrible and uncomfortable about his little boy asking him that question. It was one thing for Addison to call him on his misdeeds, it was quite another for his four-year-old.

But there was something else. His brain was still spinning. Review a contract, phone that client, check the small print on another contract, speak to their lawyer about an impending business deal. He moved uncomfortably and glanced around. His shoulders were tense. His little boy was playing around him and his mind was still full of work things. Work things he could do nothing about.