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I purse my lips and go into my room to get dressed. My heart is racing, but I shouldn’t flirt like that. Yesterday I asked her what she’d do if Jayden wanted a second chance, and she didn’t answer. I’m sure she’d consider it for Millie, and I can’t afford to stand in the way of that.

And even if it doesn’t happen, it’s going to be tough for Millie if she becomes too attached to me. She’s already lost her father; it would be a shame for her to be upset when I go back to Wellington, too.

But what’s the alternative? I can’t not talk to Vix. Maybe I should find somewhere else to stay. Being in such close proximity to both of them is going to make this extra hard.

Musing on that, I pull on a T-shirt, then go downstairs to the kitchen.

Rudolph’s already there, buttering himself a slice of toast, and Vix is trying to get Millie to sit still.

“Mitch!” the girl says. “Sit by me!”

“I’m sorry,” Vix mouths to me, obviously exasperated, but I just smile and take the seat next to Millie. “I bet I can eat more than you,” I tell her, eyeing the plate of bacon, eggs, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, and baked beans with satisfaction.

Immediately, Millie starts digging into her breakfast, and I wink at Vix as she laughs and sits opposite me.

“So what have you two got planned for today?” Rudolph asks.

“Going to see Grandad at ten,” I reply.

“Um, yes, I offered to go with him,” Vix says. “Are you up for looking after Millie?”

“I want to go,” Millie says.

“No,” Vix replies. “We’ve got grownup things to talk about and you’ll get bored.”

“Awww…”

“Why don’t we go to the park?” Rudolph suggests. “We can watch them setting up for the music festival.”

“What time does that start?” I ask.

“Two p.m. I’ll bring Millie down until she gets bored.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I tuck into the breakfast. “I’m so hungry, I could eat a dolphin on toast.”

Millie bursts out laughing. “A dolphin!”

“Or a hippo. I’m not fussed.”

“Or a giraffe?”

“I think they’d be a bit bony. Maybe a whale.”

“I like fish,” she says.

“That’s cool. It’s good for you. But a whale isn’t a fish. It’s a mammal.”

“But it lives in the sea?”

“I know, but they’re warm-blooded. They have babies, not eggs. And they have to come to the surface to breathe.”

“Don’t fish breathe?”

“They have gills, which take oxygen from the water.”

“Oh.” She thinks about that while she eats.

Rudolph chuckles. “I’d be able to tell what job you did even if I didn’t know.”