‘I’m sorry…sorry,’ Violet cried, covering her face with her hands.
Her mother enveloped her in a hug, patting her back and speaking soothingly, ‘Don’t take on so, dear. We all understand.’
‘It’s spoiled the day for Daisy,’ she wailed.
‘No, it hasn’t,’ Daisy insisted, going to her sister to add her comfort. If Ethan was put off by a child with a condition that sometimes defied control, then so be it. No family was perfect, but it was a poor family that didn’t give each other support when it was needed.
To her astonishment, Ethan joined her, appealing to her sister in a gentle voice. ‘Would you mind if I tried something that might interest Joshua, Violet, calm him down?’
‘Oh, dear God, what?’ she cried.
He whipped what looked like a slim black notebook from his shirt pocket. ‘Look! It’s a Nintendo braintrainer. Daisy told me Joshua was fascinated by numbers. I can bring up a program that might catch his attention. How about you take me to him and we can give it a go?’
Violet shook her head at him in wonderment. Daisy, too, was amazed at his initiative. Her mother took charge. ‘Go on, Violet. Give Ethan a chance of focussing Joshua’s interest on something.’
‘All right,’ she answered dazedly, and led him off to the bedroom wing.
Daisy and her mother started clearing the table, needing to do something. The rest of the adults left their chairs to help.
‘You’ve got a good guy there, Daisy,’ Ken commented approvingly.
‘He was great with the other kids, too,’ Kevin remarked.
She flushed with pleasure in their liking of Ethan, though she felt constrained to warn them it might not be a serious relationship. ‘We haven’t been together long,’ she started.
‘You don’t have to be to know you’ve found someone special,’ her mother slid in with an arch look.
‘Yes, I wouldn’t be letting him go in a hurry, Daisy,’ Keith’s wife tagged on.
‘Rope him in and nail him down,’ Keith advised with a grin.
They all laughed, though Daisy couldn’t help thinking they were missing the point. There was no question that Ethan was special. The problem was whether she was special enough for him. He was certainly making an extraordinary effort to draw her family onside with him. If he managed to pull Joshua into a state of contentment again, he’d be the hero of the day.
Her mother had opened Ethan’s gift box of chocolates and put it on the table for everyone to help themselves and they were just sitting down again to relax over cups of coffee when the three missing adults returned with smiles on their faces.
‘I can’t believe it!’ Violet crowed happily. ‘Ethan showed Joshua how to do Sudoku puzzles on that Nintendo gadget and he’s enthralled with it.’
‘Problem is, he won’t want to give it back, Ethan,’ Barry said ruefully. ‘If you tell me how much it cost, I’ll pay you for it.’
‘No, please…I’m happy for him to keep it.’
Barry shook his head. ‘Can’t let you do that.’
‘To tell you the truth, I didn’t buy it for me. I bought it for him, Barry.’
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Ethan shot Daisy an ironic grimace, then explained how he’d come to do it. ‘I’d already made the purchase before Daisy said I wasn’t to bring gifts for the children. She’d told me about Joshua’s fascination with numbers and it struck a chord with me because numbers have always played a big part in my life. Anyhow, I slipped it into my pocket, just in case the opportunity came up to share a game with him. I honestly have no use for it, myself.’
More silence that sent prickles all the way down Daisy’s spine.
This was the kind of buying-power thing she’d wanted to avoid—obvious evidence of how easily Ethan could acquire anything, cost no object.
The expensive gift could hurt Barry’s paternal pride.
It could instantly undermine the liking Ethan had earned earlier, making her family see him as the bigshot financier, intent on buying himself into their midst, so wealthy himself he was beyond empathising with the difficulties they’d faced and were still facing though their situations had improved. Partly because of him.
Although a gift could be welcomed out of sheer need, the giver could be deeply resented. Daisy was painfully aware of how negatively she had reacted to Ethan until she’d come to know him.
Violet broke the uncomfortable impasse. ‘That’s very thoughtful of you, Ethan. Very kind,’ she said appreciatively.
‘Yes,’ Barry backed her up, grimacing over his own lack of understanding of his son as he added, ‘I’ve always found Joshua’s fixation on numbers weird. I would never have connected it to a game he could play.’ He clapped Ethan on the shoulder. ‘I’m glad you did. It might be a step forward for him.’