Page 25 of Avy

It was hard to believe he’d been with us for four months now. I’d know that Rachel wouldn’t be back for him after the month like she’d said she would.

Avy had insisted we hold a birthday party for him last week. It had been his third birthday. The look on his face when Avy had brought out his cake – his eyes were so big they took up most of his face and the smile of delight that he’d had when she put it in front of him. It made Avy’s day. Cally had been taking photos, and she’d caught him at just the right moment. Avy had the picture blown up, and I’d hung it in our hallway along with our wedding pictures.

I nudged him again, and when he looked at me, I asked, “You hungry?” He nodded, closing my sketch pad gently. Taking it from him, I put it on the table and then grabbed him, and blew on his belly, making him squeal with laugher, before hanging him upside down by his feet. His laughter gurgled out of him in a deep chuckle. Avy beamed a wide smile at us before turning to walk to the kitchen.

“More,” Kaleb shouted. I laughed and pretended to eat his belly, blowing loud raspberries on it. He was still laughing when I pulled him up and turned him the right way up, settling him on my hip.

Wrapping his arms around my neck, he hugged me tight. “Daddy, funny.”

I jerked to a stop as Avy’s wide eyes hit mine. It was the first time he’d called me Dad. He’d started calling Avy, Mummy about six weeks ago, but he’d not called me anything. I cleared the sudden lump from my throat and smiled wide at him.

“I’m funny, huh,” I teased, tickling him. Nodding his head, he squirmed against me, laughing his little head off. When he stopped laughing, I hugged him tight and kissed his head before depositing him in the chair next to Avy.

“This looks good, Sweets,” I said, sitting down. Avy had brought thick roast beef and horseradish sandwiches for us, crisps, fruit and drinks. It looked like Kaleb’s was cheese. Helping her, I dished up for Kaleb.

It was good to spend time with just the three of us. We got caught up on her day, Kaleb’s morning at nursery and what was happening with the pub.

We hadn’t had time to connect as a family, just the three of us for a while. The reason for that was that it had been crazy over at the main house, as all the babies had been born in the last few months.

Reaper, Abby, Onyx, and Rea had each had a boy, and Draco and Molly had a girl. While it had admittedly been crazy and chaotic, it was a good crazy.

CHAPTER 16

AVY

Another early morning found me rushing out of the house with Kaleb and Mila in tow. My quiet supper with Hawk and Kaleb last night a distant memory.

It was my turn to drop them off at nursery, as Rea was busy with the new baby. Getting them buckled into the car seats was a feat. But once I had them in the car and I was ready to go, the rest of the ride into the village was fun.We sang nursery rhymes most of the way. The two of them were cute as they tried to get their tongue around some of the wordier sounds.

The nursery car park was busy as usual. Carrying Kaleb, I held onto Mila's hand, taking them to be signed in. Kaleb and Mila's usual nursery nurse wasn't there to meet us; instead, there was what I assumed was a temp. She was a little brusque when I signed the two of them in not like the usual nursery nurse Hailey, who was both friendly and funny. I didn't have a good feeling, and almost didn't leave them, but instead decided to talk to the manager first to find out who she was. Hugging and kissing them both goodbye, neither seemed concerned about not seeing a familiar face.

In the background, I caught sight of one of the other familiar staff members and she'd given me a friendly wave and welcomedboth the children and helped them hang up their bags and sit on the mat in their room. The familiarity made me feel better.

I stopped at the manager’s office, anyway. Her door was usually open for parents at this time of the morning. Carol’s head lifted up at my knock on the door frame, and she smiled when she saw me.

"Avy," Carol greeted. "What can I do for you?”

“Morning Carol, I just wanted to check who the new member of staff was. I was wondering where Sally was today."

Carol made a face, "Sally had a car accident on her way home last night. She's in the hospital but should be released soon."

I felt bad for Sally on hearing the news, "Oh poor Sally, I hope she's okay."

Carol nodded, "She’ll be fine. She broke her leg and has a concussion so won't be back at work for a while. We've had to get a temp in."

"Yeah, that's why I'm here. I wanted to check that she's up to speed on who can pick up Kaleb and Mila."

Carol smiled, "Don't worry, we've let her know, and she's been updated on all the safety protocols. You don't have to worry about the children, Avy, they'll be safe. My word."

Feeling a little better, I thanked her and left, hurrying to the pub to get on with ordering and organising a band for this weekend. I’d been at work about two hours when my phone rang. Seeing it was the nursery number, I answered it, wondering if one of the children needed picking up early.

Answering the phone, I could hear straight away that there was something wrong.My heart sank at her words. Carol started speaking in a panicked tone as soon as I answered the phone, "Avy, oh my god. I'm so sorry. Kaleb's missing."

"What?!" I shouted, standing up rapidly, my chair hitting the wall behind me.

"No, no, no!!" I shouted, agony tearing through me at her words. "You said just this morning you had procedures in place."

I started to shake, wondering how this was happening. We'd put procedures in place to stop just such a thing from occurring in case Rachel turned up and tried to take him. One of my staff members put their head around the corner at my shout. I didn't look up to see who it was. I just shouted at them to get Hawk. Grabbing my car keys, I ignored Carol, who was sobbing and kept apologising that she was sorry. That they were all sorry.

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