Raising Isla | ENGLOT AU

Chapter 16: I Love You

The garden wasn't empty of furniture, there was technically enough placed to sit, but Emery found herself and those of her friends who weren't masterfully watching over the barbeque reclined sharing the two wooden sun loungers. It might have been a tad precarious, but there was a coziness too it, a necessary level of familiarity she'd exceeded with them years ago.

She watched as Isla discovered a patch of daisies in the grass a distance away, the sun and the warmth of the afternoon had encouraged the flowers to open, it almost seemed mean to allow her to pick them all. But Emery found herself not minding as the three-year-old tottered over, barefoot across the grass, and asked for help making a daisy chain.

Tommy had exhausted his capacity for playing with his new friend and was now doing what little he was allowed to help prepare lunch under his mother's strict supervision. So Isla climbed into Emery's lap, as she and Meena began tutoring with gentle and maneuvering hands, how to assemble the flowers into a crown. Isla tried, but her fingers were too clumsy to weave the stems together, so the white-petaled creation was left in the hands of the women sat beside her.

"How have her counseling sessions been going?" Heidi asked, the question directed at Emery, curious, but not prying, as she reached out to collect a few from the pile of dainty flowers.

Emery redirected the question to Isla. She could have answered herself, easily - they'd both been vigilant enough over the matter to write a whole thesis, but it was far cuter to hear the three-year-old say it. "Isla, what do you think of P'Sun?"

"He's nice!" Isla proclaimed, checking Emery's hands to see the progress of the daisy chain. "I like him."

Isla had yet to grasp what a therapist actually was, Emery knew, but the little girl was never slow with endorsements.

"What do you two do when you're together?" Emery prompted, her hands still busy weaving.

"We talk," Isla explained, as if that was an expectation but not a highlight. "He has lots of pens. I get to draw."

The consequence of the three-year-old being let loose with arts and crafts for an hour every week was blooming over the refrigerator door, magnets holding the paper in place. But they were running out of room now - they would either need a new system, or a new fridge. Emery smiled at the thought, finalising the daisy crown and placing it carefully over Isla's head as the little girl's face beamed in thank you, but she seemed too content to move from Emery's lap just yet.

Emery heard the knocking at the front door then, her head turning towards the source of the sound, meeting the hesitation in Calypso's eyes from where she stood with the others and Marima near the patio table. Had Ashley changed his mind about joining them? Everyone else was already here.

"Sorry sweetheart," Emery excused herself, shifting Isla towards Meena's lap as she nervously followed Calypso back through the house and towards the front entrance.

Cal was only a few steps ahead - three, two. So Emery didn't have time to stop her as the silhouettes through the frosted glass became recognisable. The words running through her mind before she had the chance to say them out loud, her feet threatening to freeze in place. Please don't open the door.

But Calypso did.

"Uh, hi..." She heard her say, a question as much as a greeting.

Emery pushed past her, shielding the entrance with her body, though she recognised it was a pitiful attempt. As she stared down the faces of her parents, her expression cold, the tone of her voice unfriendly. "What are you doing here? I told you not to come."

...

"Well," Emery's mother turned to face her, the year of absence between them bringing no warmth to her voice. "Are you going to let us in?"