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Over the next few days Raoul remained pretty scarce, which served as a source of ently include him in ed to duck away before she had a chance On the bright side, the brief interaction Ruby had shared with her father seemed to have piqued her curiosity about the stern-faced es of her little world Instead of crying every ti and barrel forward on all fours toward him if he so much as made a step into her periphery

It was both highly a to see him realize that Ruby had fixated on him, and a bit sad, as well, that he distanced hiain so effectively afterward

One step forward at a time, Alexis reminded herself She and Ruby fell into an easy daily routine, helped in no small part by the fact that Catherine had enrolled the baby into a playgroup down in tohere she happily interacted with other children her age and slightly older It was good for both of theet out of the house and interact with other people Despite having been born a little early, Ruby was only inally behind her peers when it came to developmental markers, Alexis observed

One of the young mothers came over to Alexis and sat down beside her

“Hi, I’ht smile “That’s my little tyke, Jason, over there” She pointed to a little boy in denihtly colored suspenders busily co toward the sandpit

“Alexis, pleased to meet you,” Alexis replied with a smile

“Have you heard how Catherine is doing? We all have been wondering but didn’t want to be a nuisance”

“The surgery ell She’s at her sister’s ho into Christchurch at all, I’m sure she’d love it if you called by to visit”

“Oh, thanks, that’s good to know”

Laura sat back and watched the kids playing for a while Alexis sensed she was trying to dru out the best way around it Eventually, though, she seemed to come to a decision

“We were surprised e heard that Ruby was staying with her dad Especially given” Her voice trailed off and she looked unco but is everything okay at the house? We were, nancies and our partners and Raoul all got along pretty well We had our own little social group going Aside frouys have tried to reach out to him since Bree died, but he’s just cut ties with everyone”

Alexis nodded It was hard to come up hat to say, when it wasn’t really her place to say anything

“Things are going well at the house We’ve settled in to a good routine,” she hedged

The fact that routine didn’t include Ruby’s father went unsaid Raoul continued to spend the better part of most days in the winery He’d made his displeasure clear on the few occasions when, at the beginning, Alexis and Ruby had walked down to bring him his lunch

“Oh, oh, that’s good,” Laura said with a relieved smile “Better than I expected to hear, anyway You were friends with Bree, weren’t you?”

“Since kindergarten,” Alexis said, sing against the bitter taste of guilt that rose in her throat “We went through school together near Blenheim and kind of drifted apart a bit when she went up to Auckland for university We used to catch up whenever she was hoh, and stayed in touch until she married and I went overseas”

Even as she said the words, she was reain of how she’d jumped on the opportunity to leave the country rather than remain and witness her friend’s happiness Sha her breath hitch and a sudden wash of tears spring to her eyes

“We allthe reason behind Alexis’s distress

Laura reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze Alexis felt like a fraud accepting the other woman’s sympathy She hardly deserved it when she’d been the one to abandon Bree She hadn’t been here, hadn’t even knoas going on, when her friend had needed her most—and all because she hadn’t been able to keep her wretched hormones under control She owed Bree a debt It hy she was here now, and why she would stay as long as Ruby needed her, no matter what Raoul chose to throw at her