Darcy swallowed the lump in his throat and hugged her again. “Great idea, pumpkin. Do you need some paper?”
“I’ve got it.” She rummaged around in her school bag and pulled out a notebook.
Darcy turned back to the kettle and closed his eyes. Lara would be fine, and no matter what, he would be here for her.
That night, after Lara was asleep in bed, Darcy was desperately trying to concentrate on the mystery show on the television, and not obsess about the Sofia meeting. His phone beeped, making him jump.
How’d it go?
Faith. Glad for the distraction, he said goodnight to Amy and Brandon, and headed to his bedroom. He briefly debated texting her back, but he wanted to hear her voice. He plugged in her number.
“Hey, Darcy. How’s Lara?”
Her voice soothed some of the tension from him and he lay on his bed. “Coping better than me. She’s asleep.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“Yes, and no.” He sighed. “She took the news well. She’s written a list of topics to talk to Sofia about.”
Faith chuckled. “I can’t imagine Lara ever running out of topics to talk about.”
He smiled. “You’re right.”
“So what are you worried about?”
“Everything,” he confessed. “That it will go badly, and Lara will be devastated. Or that it will go well, and Lara will fall in love and want to move to Melbourne and be with Sofia.” It felt good to vocalise all the thoughts running through his mind.
“OK, so let’s take that one thing at a time,” Faith said, her tone soothing. “If Lara’s devastated, she’s still got you and your entire family to support her. She’s a strong girl. She’ll get through it.”
He knew she was right, but it didn’t stop the fear that his baby would be hurting.
“Secondly, even if Lara falls in love, I can’t imagine her wanting to move to Melbourne. She told me she hated Perth because it was noisy and smelly.”
He straightened. “When did she say that?”
“At pony club,” Faith replied. “She might want to visit Sofia, but Lara loves Retribution Bay. She loves Starlight, and the ocean, and she loves you. That will never change.”
Darcy closed his eyes. To have her say that, someone who didn’t know either of them particularly well, really helped. The fear settled into low-level white noise. “Thanks, Faith. I needed to hear that.”
“My pleasure.”
He exhaled. “So, how was your day?”
The next day, when Darcy waved Lara off to school, her face was pale and she clung to him a second longer than normal. “She will be at the café, won’t she?”
“She will,” Darcy promised. He’d hunt Sofia down and drag her there if he had to. “I’ll meet you out the front of school and bring a change of clothes and your bathers in case you want to go swimming afterwards.”
“Do you think she’ll swim with me?”
“I don’t know, pumpkin.” But he’d suggest it. The café was right on the beach front.
Finally she climbed on the bus and waved at him as it drove down the road.
Darcy spent all day worrying that she would be worrying and had returned to the house with plenty of time to shower and get ready. He called Sofia, but it went straight to voice mail. He swore. “Sofia, it’s Darcy. I’m heading into town to pick up Lara and wanted to confirm you were meeting us at Ningaloo Café at three-thirty. I’m taking Lara’s bathers if you want to swim after the café.” He wouldn’t have reception on most of his drive into town. “Text me when you get this.”
It was the best he could do. On his way out of his bedroom, he checked the mirror. He spent so much of his life in work gear that it was odd to see himself in normal clothes. The blue T-shirt was old, but he wore it so rarely it was still in good condition and he threw on his best jeans. Sofia wouldn’t have a reason to turn her nose up at him, and he wanted to look nice for Faith as well.
He smiled. She was so easy to talk to, and they’d talked long into the night about things from their childhoods and her love of riding. She hadn’t sounded excited about going back to Perth, but he refused to get his hopes up.
