Before Anna could return home and spring me, I hastily stuck the magazine under my mattress and patted down the covers to disguise any mischief. She still knew nothing, none of my family did.
It was better that way.
For the first few days after returning home, I'd wanted so badly to disclose everything to her, to anyone, but our evenings were filled with talk of Jenny and the baby and then, to top it all off, Jimmy Reilly, the weasel himself, dropped in for a visit.
No one even warned me; one minute I had been strolling down the hall to find my jumper, then next I was smack bang face to face with the wily man himself.
"Lizzie," cooed Mum, "look who I found at the hospital! Jimmy's come over to say hi to everyone, isn't that sweet?"
I swallowed, my eyes trailing from my mother back to Jimmy, standing inches from me. With a brief glance, I took in his appearance. The sleepless nights that had haunted my face certainly didn't appear evident under his eyes. He looked good, the jerk.
"Hey Jimmy, how's your crotch?" I asked icily.
"Lizzie!" exclaimed my mother, waddling over to the father of her first grandchild and clutching his arm. "I know what's happened isn't quite how we'd have liked it, but Jimmy's here to make amends and I, for one, am happy to extend the olive branch of forgiveness."
"The olive branch is a symbol of peace, not forgiveness…" I muttered, ignoring Jimmy for as long as I could.
"Some might say you can't have peace without forgiveness, Lizzie," Jimmy said, that signature level of charisma still ringing in his voice.
With that, I dropped my head and dramatically spun my eyes around to meet those of my newest least favourite guy in the world.
"Yes, well, some might say that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and look where we are…"
An inconspicuous blink from Jimmy was all the reaction he allowed himself, but I knew that he realized I was referring to Fiona.
Mum laughed nervously and hushed us for the intellectual undercurrents that were passing over her head. Her tone turned forceful as the distinct Reynolds brown eyes pierced me, full of expectation and duty. "What's done is done and we can't go back, so let's enjoy having Jimmy in the family, shall we Lizzie?"
Jimmy in the family… Jimmy as the father of my niece or nephew. I was inextricably linked to this man forever.
"Sure."
Turning on my heel, I muttered over my shoulder that I had to study. It wasn't a lie.
Holed up in my room, I listened carefully to the movements of the communal areas: Mum fussing about him, Mary and Shannon arriving home to greet him with wariness and adoration respectively. Afternoon coffee turned into pre-dinner nibbles and it seemed that Jimmy wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon. My plan to wait out his presence in the safety of an Antonio Banderas drenched room was quickly fading with each prolonged minute.
It wasn't quite the rescue I'd hoped for, but eventually the front door sounded its unlocking click and I purposefully bounded out of my room. Dad was home, and I wasn't about to miss this.
I skidded to a stop down the hall as I narrowly avoided colliding with Dad frozen in place, his mouth set in a grim line, his eyes fixed fiercely on the man of the hour who was quickly approaching, hand outstretched.
"Mr. Bennet? It's nice to meet you, I'm Jim-"
"Jimmy Reilly," my father interrupted, unimpressed, "Yes, I know who you are, my youngest daughter was quite eager to show me a picture of the man who'd knocked her up."
"I-… uh-" Jimmy stuttered and I smiled smugly, folding my arms.
"What I don't know is why you've come all the way from Margaret River to show your face in this house. Lizzie, get the shotgun."
Jimmy's characteristic swarmy smile lost the slightest hint of confidence.
"Dad, please. The AK-47 would be so much quicker."
Dad turned to me fleetingly. "I was thinking that too."
"Enough, you two, leave the poor boy alone and come sit down to dinner," ordered Mum, marching into the hallway and ushering her favourite pseudo-son away with all the protectiveness of an entire SWAT team rolled into one slightly overweight woman.
"Yeah, you better run," I muttered to the vacant space where Jimmy had been. Beside me, Dad hung up his keys and ran his hand over his face.
"What are we going to do with him, Lizzie?" he pondered softly.
"Hey, I've already punched him in the crotch… I don't know where to go from here."
Dad raised an eyebrow and smiled slyly, tossing a hand on my shoulder as we walked out to the light of the kitchen. "Did I ever tell you that you're my favourite?"
In a strange horrible twist of irony, I was left sitting next to Jimmy as my family grabbed hands and bowed heads. It occurred to me that I'd once held his hand before, voluntarily and under no enforcing social command.
What a fool I was.
Now I reluctantly let my small hand be engulfed in his ugly horrible one and pined with an unreasonable urgency for this hand to be interchanged with that of Will's hand.
No such luck.
Mary monologued her way through what was sufficiently a prayer of abject gratitude and then we ate. Every so often, I snuck a glance at Jimmy and marveled in auspicious reverence at what would possess a man to present himself at the place where he surely must know that he would be most harshly treated. What possible gain could he receive from this visit?
Placing the knife and fork either side of his finished plate, the man of my thoughts suddenly cleared his throat and garnered the attention of the table.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement."
"Should we wait for Anna?" questioned Mary.
"No, no," ushered Mum, turning to Jimmy. "She's out again tonight, very busy girl. She's studying Health Science, you know…" The pride in her voice couldn't be downplayed.
Jimmy grinned with charisma. "I did know…but then, all your daughters are very talented."
I rolled my eyes and couldn't stop myself. "He's right, I know that I have a talent for punching boys in the-"
"What is this announcement you have, Jimmy?" cut off Dad, but with a knowing smirk and a skeptical tone.
Taking a sip of his glass and placing it carefully back down, Jimmy's eyes panned the room.
"After talking to some friends of my father, I've managed to secure an apartment not five minutes from here, for Jenny and the baby when it's born."
Mum squealed in delight and clapped her hands but I broke in, unconsciously gripping the table. "I don't think we want help from your father's friends."
Rather than the draining of colour I'd expected at my threat of revealing his father's prison sentence, Jimmy peered at me strangely. Finally, he shrugged and resumed his smug smile.
"Jenny did."
"Tell them the other bit, too," gushed Mum, unable to conceal for the length of a conversation that she was, in fact, privy to formerly undisclosed information.
"As the father of this child, I will take responsibility for all costs. Rent, bills, living allowance…"
I rolled my eyes at Jimmy's magnanimity.
"Look, everyone, reality check," I commandeered the attention of the table. "Jenny's sixteen."
"I was fifteen when I moved out," answered Mum, with a hint of pride in her voice, "and I turned out okay."
"Yeah, but Mum, you didn't have a child to look after. Can you imagine Jenny with a screaming, squawking baby keeping her up half the night. Dad, surely you see the problem with this…"
I turned my gaze to my father, desperately searching his weathered face for any sign of support. His expression was one of reasoned deliberation.
I held out hope.
Then his eyes changed subtly; I would not have discerned the difference if not for the shape of his eyes being so like my own. This assertion, this plan, was putting down roots in his mind. The cogs were turning, the complications falling into place, the simplicity of it all appealing to him.
"Dad, no…" I pleaded.
"What's the alternative, Lizzie?" my father interjected calmly. "Two grandparents raising a baby in this house?" He turned to Jimmy. "You can tell Jenny that when the baby comes, she can move into this place you've got for her."
A/N - Hello! Thanks for all your lovely reviews, it's very wonderful to be back posting again, re-entering this world of Lizzie and her fun antics. I've returned home from sunny sunny Europe, back to the coldness of Perth, feeling every bit the forlorn resignation as when Lizzie returned from the Pilbara.
Two chapters in two days... I know you're all wondering, how often will I now post?
*the author laughs before falling off her chair*
We shall see.
Much love to you all, honestly, you are all so good to me.
M. xo
