Chapter 9
BLAME
The Lionheart Volunteer Fire Station was quiet in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. Nev walked in the unlocked front door and up cement stairs to the office.
Reg looked up from his desk, pushed back his chair and stood, extending his hand automatically. “G’day, Bickerman.”
Nev shook it. “G’day, Madonna.”
“How ya goin’?”
“I’m going to sit,” she said.
The fire chief gestured to the empty chair. “What’s going on?” He crossed his arms.
Nev sat down and rested a boot on her opposite knee before she explained about the frozen corn.
Reg rubbed his face and looked overwhelmed.
“Will you deal with it, or should I?” Nev asked.
“Definitely not you. Stay out of it,” Reg said. “She wants to be more independent. I can’t always swoop in and rescue her.”
Nev stood up and put her hat back on. No one had ever swooped in and rescued Ron. That was the problem.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “And don’t do something stupid. This isn’t time for heroics.”
She frowned. It never was, was it? She glared at him. “I thought you changed.”
“What does that mean?”
He knew bloody well. She tipped the brim of her Akubra. “Enjoy the rest of your arvo.”
When she was out the door and halfway down the hallway, Reg called her back. He leaned forward on his elbows at his desk. “Shut the door.”
She did.
He held his forearms. “How do you think custody is split?”
Nev raised her eyebrows. “Maude majority, Ron partial?”
Reg shook his head. “Did she tell you she has partial?”
“I know she does.”
Reg sighed. “She gave Rainbow up for a closed adoption. She doesn’t even have visitation rights.
No contact. Maude was a caregiver when Rainbow was with her nan, then became foster parent and later adopted her.
There’s no way to undo an adoption unless they file a joint petition together.
We’ve all researched it. Maude would have to consent to share custody with her.
Maude lets her have every other weekend because Brum pays pretend child support and she’s a free babysitter, but there’s no paper trail.
Maude doesn’t have to let her see Rainbow.
She could cut us off at any time and move away, not tell us where she went. ”
Nev swallowed. “Right.” The idea of the Madonnas losing Gumball turned her stomach. “Why didn’t you and Blaise take the baby?”
“We tried. I’m not on Brum’s birth certificate and Matilda-Jane never married me—”
Nev couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Does this man think he’s Ron’s biological father? If so, god bless…
“So I couldn’t talk to her for two years when she was in that place, you know.
I waved to her from the car park. You don’t know how much you love someone until you can’t see them.
They arrested me for trespassing, it was a whole deal—that place is a bloody nightmare.
I’m shocked no one’s burnt it down yet. After she got out, I adopted her, but it was too late.
Rainbow was in the system. I did what I could.
You know, she’s not the brightest bulb in the box, and without someone advocating for her… ” He popped his knuckles.
The nuclear family was a scam. “We need to get Maude to sign papers.”
“Brum does. She should have asked Maude to let her have some parental rights back years ago.”
Ron must be terrified to lose every other weekend with Gumball. Nev would be in a constant state of anxiety if she was her. The situation was worse than she thought. How had Ron been functioning all these years?
“I wish she had told me.”
“What could you have done?”
Nothing.
Reg made her a cup of tea in the firehouse kitchen. He should have gone into politics. He handed her a chipped mug with a fire department logo on the side. Nev cleared her throat. “Who moved her truck this morning?”
He shook his head. “Not me. I assumed you did.”
“You know what they say about assumptions.” Nev blew on the Earl Grey.
Reg also drank his tea without milk, but his was basic black tea that came in a big box. “Are you two dating yet?”
Nev snorted. “No.”
Reg opened a bag of biscuits, offered her one which she refused, then dipped it in his tea and ate it. “What has she told you about the bloke who knocked her up when she was fifteen?”
Caught off guard, Nev uncrossed her legs. “Nothing. Why?”
Reg looked thoughtful. “She’s still protecting him, then. I think he’s older.” They were alone in the firehouse, but he glanced at the door behind her before he continued in a low voice. “I’m afraid it’s one of my mates.”
Shit... Now she felt sorry for him. That must be a nightmare, not knowing who he could trust. She felt a pang of guilt that he didn’t know about the break in, but it wasn’t her story to tell, and it wasn’t any of his business.
Maybe he was trying to trick her into spilling the beans with a fake heart-to-heart.
Reg frowned and swore under his breath. “This isn’t an interrogation, mate. Why is your guard up all the time? Who did this to you?”
It was a fair question, but the answer wasn’t a person.
Reg continued. “I reckon we’re two angels on her shoulder. On the other shoulder there’s demons, but I don’t know who they are. I think there’s another bad influence out there, maybe the baby daddy. Someone worse than Maude.”
Who could possibly be worse than Maude?
When he put it like that, he was probably right. Weird for him to say that to his daughter’s boss over a cup of tea on a Tuesday afternoon. Reg was a bit of a drama hound, come to think of it. Nev snorted.
He got up and washed his mug, set it to dry in the rack next to the sink. “What would we talk about if Brum had her shit together?”
Good question. “Footy, obviously.” Nev washed her mug. Her conscience pricked her again. It was generous of him to accept a stranger into their lives and make her feel like she belonged.
She set her mug in the drying rack and wiped her hands on a towel. Reg watched. She wondered what he thought about her.
She jammed her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “How old are you?”
He blinked, then broke into a wide grin. “Forty-five.” She could believe that. He was lucky he still had a full head of hair. “How about you?”
“Guess.”
He chuckled. “I was taught never to guess a lady’s age.”
“I’m forty-six.”
He looked surprised.
Nev put her hat on. “Thanks for the tea. In the future, don’t talk to me about Ron.” I’m not a member of the family and I’m not your friend.
“You came to me, remember.” His expression softened. “I’ll see what I can do.”