Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cabarita Beach
The hot sun sparkled off the surface of the swimming pool.
Afternoon shadows lengthened from the Waratah Inn across the blue water, providing shade for Reeda, who sat on a banana lounge beneath an oversized black straw hat.
She sipped on a margarita mocktail as she watched the three children play.
At first they’d been reluctant to go into the pool, so she’d joined them in her one-piece black suit.
She’d made sure that the older two could swim well enough to make it to the side of the pool and put the youngest in a flotation vest. Then she’d climbed out of the pool, exhausted by the effort the whole thing had taken, the tears, the tantrums and the splashing, to rest on a comfortable chair and watch.
A few other guests sat around the pool. One swam laps up and down the length of it.
The children splashed on the steps and in the shallows close to Reeda.
She’d brought a picnic basket with afternoon tea and various drinks.
She was overcompensating, she knew. So many options, but she wasn’t sure yet what they liked and didn’t like, and she hated for any of them to go hungry.
It’d been a challenging three days since they arrived.
Each of the children had taken turns being more taciturn and disagreeable than the last. But she hoped that a visit to the inn to meet her sisters, enjoy the swimming pool and maybe even build a sandcastle in the sandy cove, might improve their attitudes.
Carly climbed out of the pool, her arms raised slightly by the puffy inflated vest she wore. She padded over to Reeda, dripping water as she went. She pouted and her eyes were still red from the crying fit it’d taken to get her into the pool ten minutes earlier.
“I’m hungry,” she said in a soft voice.
Reeda reached for the zipper on the girl’s vest. “Come here, and I’ll take this off. You can have some afternoon tea.”
She pulled everything out of the picnic basket and laid it on the small wicker table beside her chair. “Here you go. We have scones with jam and cream, choc-chip biscuits, savoury muffins, caramel slice, fresh vegetables, biscuits with cheese… What would you like?”
“I want chips,” Carly said, her brow furrowed.
“I don’t have chips. Sorry, sweetheart. But you can have anything on this table. And I’ve got some poppers, too. Apple or orange—which do you prefer?”
“Apple,” Carly replied.
Before long, she was happily sipping her drink and eating a piece of caramel slice when her siblings noticed and joined them.
“What is this?” Marc asked.
“That’s a savoury muffin. It has cheese and ham in it.”
Marc grimaced and threw the remainder of the muffin to the ground, then spat out his mouthful. The piece landed on Simone’s foot.
“Marc! Don’t spit or throw your food,” Reeda gasped.
Simone growled. “That’s gross!” Then she reached for a scone and pegged it at Marc’s head, leaving a smudge of jam and cream across his forehead.
Marc yelped, then grabbed a scone and slapped it against his sister’s face.
Reeda stepped between the two of them, holding out her hands to separate them. “Stop it! Don’t throw food. Stop that right now.”
But it was too late. Neither one of them listened. Simone screamed in anger and picked up slices of apple to throw at her brother, who filled his hands with caramel slice and ran to the other end of the pool, giggling with glee.
Reeda watched in horror, her hands pressed to her hips.
“Come back over here and put it away. We don’t waste good food.
” She rushed over to the children and attempted to grab the snacks from their hands, but they giggled, squealed and leapt out of her way, throwing the baked goods and fruit at one another like ammunition.
Marc leapt into the pool mid-throw, caramel slice going everywhere. It floated momentarily then sank like tiny, sweet warships into the cool blue depths all around his flailing legs.
Reeda was gobsmacked. She’d run out of words and energy. The past few days had sucked the very life out of her, and she had come to her end. What did she do now? She couldn’t very well tackle them both. She’d be arrested for child battery. Her words had done nothing so far—why should that change?
She spun to face Simone, who stood with a smirk pressed to her lips. She arched an eyebrow and then flung a cream-covered scone at Reeda’s chest. It left a smear down the front of her elegant black swimsuit. She watched in horror, feeling utterly powerless.
“You’re both in so much trouble,” she said, knowing full well how empty her words must’ve sounded to them. Even to her own ears, she could hear the tremor in her voice and understood her lack of power in that moment. They were out of control, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
Simone tittered, then tossed a piece of apple at Reeda as she ran past. The apple hit Reeda in the eye as Simone launched herself into the pool, the bomb she landed sending pool water spraying all over Reeda.
It soaked her hair and into her swimsuit, making the cream run down her torso in a wobbly line.
Reeda pressed her hands to her hips and glowered at them both as they squealed and splashed in the pool, with food strewn throughout the water and over the pool bottom beneath them.
“Get out of that pool now and clean up this mess!”
After a few moments, Simone said, “Come on,” and her brother followed her out of the pool.
Reeda felt a momentary rush of gratitude.
But it was soon squashed when Simone grabbed Carly’s hand, and the three of them ran out of the pool area, through the gate, and up the stairs into the back of the Waratah Inn, leaving a trail of puddles and smashed food scraps in their wake.
“Oh, no! The inn!” Reeda muttered beneath her breath.
She hurried after them, leaving everything behind in her haste.
It wasn’t difficult to locate them. All she had to do was follow the wet footprints.
They were snuggled up on the suede leather couch in the TV room watching a cartoon when she caught up to them.
Reeda spotted chocolate smushed into the arm of the cream-coloured sofa.
She grimaced and her chest tightened as anger boiled inside of her.
“Get off that sofa! You’re getting it wet, and it’s made of suede!
Do you know how expensive that piece was?
” She’d picked it out herself from an Italian importer.
They’d given her a discount due to her connections in the interior design industry, but it was worth a small fortune as far as couches were concerned.
She couldn’t wrap her head around their disrespect—she felt as though she might explode.
She had to get out of there or she’d say something she’d regret.
With a slow blink, followed by another, she turned on her heel and stalked from the room.
She made her way to the office, hoping for some privacy and quiet in order to gather her thoughts, but found Kate there with the baby strapped to her chest, sleeping.
Kate tapped at the keyboard for a few moments, then glanced up.
Her smile faded when she saw the state Reeda was in.
“Why are you in swimmers? What’s that all over you?
Oh, no. What’s wrong?” Her eyes widened as she focused her attention on Reeda’s face—no doubt it was as red as a beetroot, given how Reeda felt.
She stood and hurried around the desk to place an arm on Reeda’s shoulder, her eyes full of compassion.
A lump formed in Reeda’s throat, but she resisted the urge to cry. She couldn’t let the children see her come to pieces. They’d win, and she didn’t know much about parenting, but she was pretty sure that would impact their respect for her, which was already at a dangerous low.
“The kids had a food fight in the pool,” she replied through gritted teeth. “Then they ran into the TV room, sat on the suede couch and rubbed their grimy, food-covered hands all over it while dripping pool water everywhere. And I can’t get them to listen or do anything I tell them.”
Kate shook her head. “Come on. Let’s go and talk to them.”
Reeda followed Kate as she strode to the TV room, past the guests reading in the library and eating afternoon tea in the breakfast nook.
The children were where she’d left them, a little more subdued now as they watched an episode of Round the Twist, where some magic underwear had given Pete superspeed.
Reeda had seen the episode years earlier when she was babysitting for a friend back in Sydney.
It was a good show, but she had to stay focused.
The children were fixated on the screen and hadn’t looked her way since she entered the room.
She really needed to go outside and get some clothes on—the guests had begun giving her strange looks.
She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped one foot on the floor.
“Children, look over here, please!”
They ignored her.
Kate found the remote and switched off the television. All of the children cried out in complaint and spun to face them with angry expressions.
“Hey!” Simone said, her face thunderous. “We were watching that.”
Kate shook her head. “Not anymore. You all need to get off this couch. I will give you some towels to wipe it down with. Then you’re going outside to clean up the mess you made in the pool.
This inn belongs to me and my family, and that includes Reeda.
She has taken you in, given you a roof over your head, and you will show her some respect.
You’ll also show this inn the respect it deserves. ”
“Or what?” Marc asked, his brow furrowed.
“Or no tea tonight,” Reeda said, immediately regretting her words. Couldn’t she have come up with something else? How would she enforce that particular punishment?
Simone exchanged a glance with her siblings, then hissed, “Fine, whatever.”
Reeda breathed out with relief, careful not to let them see any change in her expression.
She and Kate helped the three of them clean up the couch the best they could.
It would definitely need to be dry cleaned, and even then, Reeda wasn’t sure it would ever fully recover.
Then they headed outside to do the best they could with the pool.
They found Jack already there, working on picking up the food that lay scattered across the tiles.
Before long, it was in much better shape, although they’d have to filter all of the water to get the particles of food out of it.
The whole incident had turned into a very exhausting and expensive clean-up, and Reeda was furious.
She’d never seen anything like that before in her life.
They’d worked so hard to renovate the inn, to make it into a beautiful resort-style bed-and-breakfast that guests would love.
Watching the children pay no regard to caring for it had been difficult to bear.
She put them in the car. Carly already looked sleepy, and Marc was yawning. Then she said goodbye to Kate, who’d helped her carry her things out and placed them in the boot.
“Give them a chance,” Kate said with a wan smile. “It’s only stuff.”
“I know, but the disrespect…”
“You like everything to be perfect. I get it. You’re the queen of elegance—the perfect hair, makeup and outfit, with the perfect décor surrounding you.
I love that about you. You’re an inspiration to us all,” Kate hugged her.
“But life isn’t perfect, and kids definitely aren’t.
These ones have been through a lot. They might’ve made a mess of the couch and pool today, but think about what their parents have done to them.
The way that every adult in their life has failed them up until now.
How much of a mess has been made of them. ”
Reeda choked back a sob as compassion washed over her. “You’re right.” She inhaled a quick breath as tears filled her eyes. “You’re so right.”
“It’ll take time. Don’t give up on them. This is what you wanted, right?” Kate patted Reeda’s back.
Reeda rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me. But yes, this is what I wanted. I guess I didn’t realise what I was signing up for.”
“No parent ever does.” Kate dipped her head towards the sleeping baby.
As Reeda drove away, she bit down on her lower lip to keep from crying.
One glance in the rear vision mirror showed that Carly was fast asleep with her head on Simone’s shoulder.
Simone stared out the window with dark, defiant eyes.
Marc leaned his head against the other door, his eyes glazing over.
It’d been a hard day, her first real brush with outright rebelliousness.
Did that mean they hated her, or that they’d relaxed around her?
She wasn’t sure. But one thing she knew—as bad as it’d been, she’d won that round.
They’d cleaned up the mess and were sitting quietly in the back of her car headed home.
She wasn’t sure if she’d cope with whatever they threw at her, literally or figuratively, the next time, but she’d made it through today.