Connie woke with a smile the next morning and stretched out her body, expecting warm, strong arms to wrap around her and pull her back into the land of sleep. When she found the rest of the bed cold, her eyes flickered open and a frown replaced her smile. She listened for noise in the apartment, but when nothing could be heart, she climbed out of bed with a sigh, pulling her dressing gown around herself as she walked into the lounge to pick up her phone.
'Where are you? I thought you were staying today?' Connie typed, and then instantly deleted the message. She hated seeming clingy. Instead, she replaced the message with 'No breakfast in bed this morning? You're slipping, Mr Masters.'.
A reply was almost instant and a smile once more pulled at Connie's lips as she read, 'Warm croissants in the kitchen for you. Grace and I are outside x'
Still smiling to herself, Connie unlocked the balcony door, and as soon as it was open she could hear the noise of her daughter laughing. She had missed that sound so much while Grace was away, and the thought of her asking to leave again still plagued Connie every time they argued.
"Mum!" Grace yelled, for she'd seen her mother step onto the balcony. "Mum, look!" She wobbled slowly along on the bike, Jacob walking just behind her, but when Grace lifted her head to look and see if her mother was smiling, her balance faltered and the bike tipped.
Connie's hand flew to her throat, but Grace didn't seem at all worried, sure that Jacob would save her, and sure enough he grabbed onto the bike in time to right it, and their laughter once more filtered up to Connie.
"I'll be down in a minute," She called, stepping back into the apartment.
"You and mum should get married," Grace decided as she set off cycling slowly again.
"Where did that come from?!" Jacob asked, jogging after her.
"I like her lots more now you're here. I'll help you choose a ring, we can go after school next Thursday." Grace decided, increasing her speed nervously.
...
When Connie finally made it downstairs, now dressed and with a full face of make up, Grace and Jacob had stopped for a break and were sat chatting happily and sharing a banana. Connie paused for a moment to take in the scene before approaching them with a smile.
"You're learning quickly, Gracie!" Connie offered as she perched herself on a wall next to where they sat on the ground, handing a mug of coffee to Jacob.
"I know. " Grace replied, biting into the last of her banana. "We only had to stop because Jacob fell over. He says there was a bump, I say he tripped over nothing."
Jacob held up the hand with a skinned palm as evidence and Connie tutted, taking the hand into her lap to assess it.
"Jacob says when I'm good enough, if you say yes he'll ride with me to school some mornings. That will be alright, won't it mum?" Grace continued.
Connie kept her eyes firmly glued to Jacob's hand and tried to keep her voice light as she asked, "You've only got a week left of term though, sweetheart. Do you think you'll want to stay here for next term as well?"
"I want to go back to Daddy," Grace began, and Connie felt her heart sink. "But only for the holidays. Maybe you and Jacob could come too, and I could show you everywhere?
As Connie opened her mouth to say she was unsure if she could get the time off, Jacob replied, "We'd love to. We'll sort something out. Now, ready to set off again?"
As Grace nodded and jumped up, Connie mumbled to Jacob, "You need to wash that hand or it will get infected."
"Bossy, isn't she?" Jacob asked Grace, who laughed.
"Very, but we love her anyway!" She dropped a kiss to her mother's cheek and then rushed back to her bike.
Connie's hand lifted to her cheek and she looked up at Jacob with surprise.
"I think you've got your little girl back, sweetcheeks."
"Did you have a good birthday?" Connie asked softly a couple of hours later, her fingers adjusting the badge on Jacob's work shirt.
"Very good. Great. In fact, so good I might even consider celebrating my birthday again," Jacob replied, pulling Connie closer by her waist to try and get one last kiss before he left.
"Does that mean proper expensive presents, or will you be able to make do with presents like the one you got last night?" Connie smiled, but still didn't lift her head for a kiss, her smile widening when she felt Jacob release a frustrated burst of air from his nose.
"Last night was better than a room full of expensive gifts. Although…I wouldn't say no to BMW." Jacob tilted his head to the side thoughtfully.
Connie finally looked up at him with a smile, capturing his lips for only a second before she pushed him away. "Go to work, you."
Connie had promise Grace that if she behaved all week at school they would have a movie night on Saturday, so they were now sat in front of the TV surrounded by Grace approved snacks.
The girl had only been back 3 months, and Connie was still finding her feet as a mother. She'd started taking the weekends off, aside from paperwork which she'd do when Grace was in bed, and she had found that the more she compromised, the more Grace seemed to respond positively, hence the stir fry for dinner followed by all manner of chocolate.
"Mum," Grace suddenly turned to Connie half way through the movie. "Are you and Jacob going to have a baby?"
"We…I…where did that come from?" Connie asked, confused.
"I just thought…if you and Jacob have a baby, then when you do something wrong and he leaves, it will still mean we're sort of related, so I could still see him," Grace offered, turning back to the TV.
'When'. That word reverberated around the doctor's brain, and it was several minutes before she was able to formulate a reply. "We haven't discussed it, sweetheart."
"That's okay, I'll send him a message and ask," Grace pulled out her phone and had typed and sent the text before Connie had even registered what she had said.
At the hospital, Jacob was in the middle of his dinner break and pulled out his phone with a smile, hoping from a text from Connie. Instead, he found one about her.
Grace received a reply within seconds that made her giggle and Connie found herself curious about Jacob's thoughts on the subject. Though they'd been together just over a year, Connie still found herself reluctant to believe they were serious. "What did he say?"
"I asked if you two were going to have a baby, and he said no, he's just eaten too much food the last few days," Grace read, giggling again as she sent a reply back.
As Connie watched Grace, her own phone beeped and a message from Jacob appeared. 'Something you want to tell me?'
'Grace thinks that if we have a baby, WHEN I do something wrong, she will still be able to see you.' Connie typed back with a frown.
'a) That doesn't answer my question, and b), that's all she has seen from your relationships, Connie. She expects that to happen, so we just need to prove to her that we're different.' Jacob replied, frowning down at his phone as he typed, aware that his reply needed to be exact to stop her worrying.
Connie smiled at the reply and glanced up at the giggling Grace again, "What's he said now?"
Grace held up her phone, showing her mother a selfie of Jacob sitting at Connie's desk with his feet up. "He asked would having a baby with you would give him extra privileges."
After the incident in resus, Jacob made sure to mention the word privileges often, and it become something of an in joke to them. Now, Connie smiled to herself as she looked at the picture Grace showed her. "Tell him to get back to work."
