I didn’t know her until recently. Giselle had talked to me that day as though we’d been friends for years, she didn’t hold back showing Peter off to me, she even blurted out that the father wasn’t ready to be a dad and had left her to it. We compared notes on shitty father figures, ended up having a bit of a laugh, and it was the best I’d felt in ages.
‘She kept coming back, pretty much every day, to bring me a morning coffee and something hot to eat now that it was autumn. We’d talk, about nothing mostly, anything from the stuck-up shop owner who’d asked me to move along to the stray dog that wandered the streets more than I did. We even had some laughs when she told me about her sister’s wedding, where the focus right after the speeches had been whether she should marry the father for the sake of her baby even though she didn’t love him. Giselle rolled her eyes at that one, pretended she was so strong, but I could see she wasn’t.’
Harvey gestured again for the record and this time Daniel gave it to him. ‘I never knew any of this. I assumed you’d left, found your feet and never looked back. Giselle must be very special to you – and, I hear, beautiful…word travels fast.’
Daniel took the record back as though they were those two young boys standing in the street, Barney refereeing between them. ‘She is beautiful, inside and out, and she’ll always be in my life. She moved things on even more for me by coming one day to ask if I’d help her out with some odd jobs around the house and garden. She said she didn’t want to give her family a chance to moan at her and tell her to beg the father to come home; they’d told her enough times she couldn’t make it on her own and one thing I quickly learned about Giselle was that she’s stubborn. Seems a common trait.’ He risked not an accusation but an observation at a Luddington family characteristic Harvey had definitely kept going. ‘I went to help, I was never going to say no. I cleaned leaves out of the gutters, fixed a roof tile in place, put a bolt on her back gate for her and fixed a leaky tap. When she asked me to come and jet wash her driveway, I called her out on it. I told her not to feel sorry for me, that I wasn’t a charity case. Do you know what she said? You can answer me without holding the record if you like.’
Harvey took the record and propped it up against the edge of the sofa, showing his confidence that they were mature enough to carry on without it.
‘She told me that she was the charity case, she looked forward to my company, she enjoyed it more than being with her own family because I didn’t come with conditions or constant questions and demands, or criticisms of her parenting. She said that she was a freakishly house-proud person and, yes, she did jet wash her driveway once a year, usually in the summer months, but with Peter’s arrival she hadn’t bothered. I went and did it, she cooked me a proper meal and it was that day she offered me her spare room in exchange for helping her out around the house. She said I could use her house as an address and get myself a job.’
‘She sounds like a really good person.’
‘She is. And that was my chance to turn things around. I was well aware it would probably be my only one before I went hurtling towards rock bottom and never found my way back up. I moved in, cleaned myself up, scored some interviews and got work as a maintenance man. It wasn’t a job I especially loved but it was a start. It was money coming in to live on and contribute to the household, it was the base for a future I never would’ve found without Giselle’s help.’
‘Is that why you guys got married?’
‘We were both in totally different situations but one thing we had in common was the strong friendship we’d formed. Getting married seemed logical. I did it to be grounded and because I thought it was what I wanted; Giselle did it for Peter, to give him a dad. We’d grown close spending so much time with each other, but