Playing Nice

“Do you want to put him down and read his story?” I asked.

She nodded. “When I’ve had a glass of wine. Long day.”

“I’ll do it,” Miles said immediately.

“No, really—” I began, but he cut me off.

“You stay here and talk to Maddie. First chance you two have had to talk to each other all day, I bet. I’ll just read Theo a story and then I’ll be off.”

It was the words “I’ll be off” that persuaded me. It had been a long day for me, too. “All right. Thank you.”

Miles slid his arms under a limp, sleepy Theo, who allowed himself to be carried upstairs.

It was odd, but as they went up the stairs, with Theo draped crosswise over Miles’s arms, I couldn’t help thinking of a man carrying his bride over a threshold.

* * *

—

“MI CASA ES SU casa again?” Maddie said when they were upstairs.

“Yup,” I agreed.

“And what’s this?” She indicated the iBaby.

“It’s an internet-enabled baby monitor. A present from Miles.”

“Well…I suppose you have been complaining about ours for ages.”

“Yes. It’s very generous of him.” I hesitated. “Lucy told me earlier that Miles fired Michaela because he saw her on a nannycam, infringing one of his rules.”

“Miles has rules? Who knew?”

I nodded. “Surprisingly strict ones. And a one-strike-and-you’re-out policy.”

Maddie took another swig and topped up her glass. She did that a lot these days, I noticed: drink-and-refill, so her glass was never empty. And she filled it closer to the top than I did. “So?”

“Miles said he’s already set it up. All we have to do is enter our Wi-Fi password. Maybe I’m being overcautious, but…”

She was silent a moment. “You think he might be technical enough to hack it?”

“I don’t think he’d even need to be very technical. Look.” I typed some words into my laptop’s search engine and showed her. The search Are baby monitors easy to hack? gave over ten thousand results, and from what I could see, the answer from all of them was a resounding yes. “But if I’m being paranoid, tell me,” I added.

“I don’t think you are being paranoid,” she said slowly. “I mean, he may justify it to himself by saying that it’s his son, so why can’t he watch him sleeping. But there have to be limits, don’t there? When he comes down, I’m going to say something. About Easter, too. It’s time we got this sorted.”

* * *

—

“HE’S ASLEEP.” MILES CAME downstairs smiling. “God, he looks peaceful when he closes his eyes, doesn’t he? Like a little cherub.”

“It’s the only time he does,” Maddie said drily. “Incidentally, Miles…”

“Yes?”

“There are a couple of things we’ve been meaning to mention. I’m afraid I can’t take any time off at Easter—I’m just too busy at work. And one of my brothers and his family are coming over from Australia on the Saturday, so it would be almost impossible to get all the way to Cornwall and back just for one night. I’m really sorry—I think we’re going to have to bail.”

“No need,” Miles said cheerfully. “Bring them, too. The house sleeps ten, so there’s plenty of room at the inn.”

“I’m sure you’d rather fill it with your own friends.”

Miles’s smile died. “I said, bring your brother’s family, too. Easter was your idea, after all. And the house is booked and paid for. I can’t cancel it now.”

Maddie looked at me, puzzled. “I thought it could easily be canceled?”

“Well, it can’t.” Miles sounded peeved.

“Miles—it’s my fault. I should have said something earlier,” I said. “But Maddie hardly ever gets a chance to see her family—”

“Fine.” He gestured at Maddie, a slicing movement of his hand. “Maddie can stay in London and see her brother. You and Theo can come to Cornwall.”

“We’ll want to spend Easter together,” Maddie pointed out. “And my brother will want to see Theo.”

“Well, how else are you going to sort this?” Miles demanded. “I want to see Theo, too.”

He looked so exactly like Theo when Theo was denied something—mutinous and truculent, his lower lip thrust out—that without thinking I spoke in the same tone I used with my two-year-old. “We can’t always have what we want, though, can we?”

I realized as soon as the words were out that it sounded horribly patronizing, but Miles didn’t give me time to say so.

“That’s so true, Pete. So very true.” He sounded strangely distant and unemotional, almost as if he were speaking to himself.

And then he was gone, a blast of cold air from the door he’d left open behind him chilling our little sitting room.

40

Case no. 12675/PU78B65, Exhibit 21, email from Justin Watts, Fox Atkins LLP, to Peter Riley.

Your Matter

Dear Pete, This is just to confirm that I have submitted our letters of claim and have received a holding response. I will let you know when I have further news.

Kind regards, Justin Watts Associate Partner Fox Atkins LLP

41

PETE

I TOOK THEO TO the Lamberts’ next morning feeling slightly apprehensive. The change in Miles’s manner had been so abrupt—the cheeriness and bonhomie visibly draining from him—that I was sure he must have been genuinely offended. Not that I regretted what Maddie had said—it was only what I’d been struggling to say myself—but I did regret my own tactless intervention.

On the other hand, I decided, if Miles had taken offense, it was a chance to talk it all through and thrash out some details—a weekly timetable of visits, say, or at the very least agreeing to check by text before we turned up at each other’s houses. It was becoming increasingly clear that Miles was going to need quite careful handling if we were to keep relations as smooth as they’d been initially.

But in the event, Miles wasn’t home, and Lucy seemed her usual friendly, if high-strung, self. “Oh, hello, Pete,” she said in her vague way, as if it was a surprise that I’d managed to find my way to Highgate at all, let alone bang on nine A.M. “And Theo. How lovely to see you.”

I’d taken an old play mat of Theo’s, a quilt with various insects and animals sewn on it—a ladybird, a frog, a caterpillar that squeaked when you squeezed it, a spider hiding under a leaf. I lifted David onto it and read him The Very Hungry Caterpillar while he ate some grapes that Tania had washed and cut in half. When I’d finished, I put the book behind me and said gently, “Can you see a hungry caterpillar anywhere on the mat, David?” He looked around, and I pointed toward the caterpillar, then squeezed it, making it squeak. He laughed. I suddenly realized I’d never seen him laugh before. It lit up his whole face, and just for a moment he didn’t look brain-damaged. He just looked like any little kid having a good time.

A little kid with Maddie’s eyes.

“Squeak squeak!” I said. “I’m still hungry! Give me some grapes!”

I pretended to feed the caterpillar one of the grapes. “Squeak squeak! That means ‘thank you’ in caterpillar.”

“You’re so good with him,” Lucy said, watching.

“Well, he’s sweet.”

“Miles thinks he might be musical when he’s older. Because he’s sensitive, and he listens a lot.”

I nodded. I tried to think whether Maddie and I had ever had a conversation about what Theo might do as an adult. But perhaps it was different when your child had a condition like David’s.

I patted David’s head and got up. “Incidentally, Lucy…”

“Yes?”

“Did Miles say anything about last night? Only I think I might have spoken a bit tactlessly.”

“Last night?” She looked bemused. “I didn’t even know you two were meeting up last night. Did you go for a drink? He didn’t say anything when he got home. And I’m afraid I was asleep when he left this morning—he likes to get off to work early, after his run.”

“I’m probably overthinking it,” I said. “I’ll send him a text or something.”

* * *

—

AROUND LUNCHTIME I LOOKED at Facebook. Lucy and Tania had taken the children to the zoo. Lucy had already posted half a dozen pictures—Theo at the penguin pool, Theo petting a snake, Theo standing next to a giraffe’s leg. David was in a stroller, so there were fewer of him.

The problem with this arrangement, I reflected, was that Theo was never going to learn to share better while he was with a child so much less advanced than him. If anything, he was just going to get used to having the undivided attention of two adults at once. And what was having a nanny with limited English going to do to his speech delay? It really was only a stopgap solution.

But I suspected Miles and Lucy didn’t see it that way. I wondered how long it would take to get some kind of payout from the hospital. After that, hopefully, we’d be able to sort out our own childcare again.

* * *