Chapter Thirty-Seven

The next morning, Blake and I arrived at his house. For the first time, Blake had decided to stay at mine, while Angela took London home for the night so we'd get the chance to catch-up and regroup for our plan to talk to Tori the next day. It surprised me that Blake would let London out of his sight, but the dark bags under his eyes indicated he needed to sleep. Angela and Tori are sitting in the lounge room sipping on coffee while London is in her portable cot rolling around making cute noises. When Tori's eyes catch mine, the smile falters from her face. I take a step closer to Blake and squeeze his hand. He squeezes my hand and let's go. "How are you, baby girl? I missed you last night." Blake ignores the tension between us and walks straight over to London. He scoops her up and cuddles her close to his chest, then presses a kiss against her forehead tenderly. "I will leave you guys to talk." Angela places her coffee cup on the table and then quickly shoots out the door, leaving us in a pool of water, Tori being the shark. "What is she doing here?" Her eyes land on me. "Tori, we're going to have a discussion like civil adults, okay?" He lays London back in her cot, then beckons me to come and sit on the couch with him. I plop down, leaving some space between us, however, Blake tugs me so that my leg is pressed against his. "Ava is just as much a part of this conversation as you," he adds. "Fine." Her eyes flicker to the ground and she sinks lower in the chair submissively. "I want to discuss visitation rights, and I would like to keep this out of a courtroom and between us so that it's flexible and low key," he says. "Are you doing this to make things go your way?" asks Tori. "No." He shakes his head, "I want it this way because it gives us freedom to change and adapt to how you're coping with London. I like the idea of you coming to visit and then progressing to night stays, but with a court order, that puts a limitation on us, and I don't want that," explains Blake. "Oh." She slowly nods her head, "It can't hurt to try." "We could plan visits weekly and eventually do a sleep over. I would prefer London stays in the house because it's familiar and all the equipment needed is here. I could make the guest bedroom up for you when you stay," he offers. Tori uncrosses her arms and places them on her lap. Her hard facial features soften as she slowly begins to come around to the idea Blake is proposing to her. "How about taking her out?" "We can step up to that when the time is right." He nods his head. "I don't want you to feel as if I'm taking her away from you, but helping you warm up to the idea. I don't want to stress you out and go back to square one, Tori, I want to help you be here for our daughter." "Okay, I can do it. But what about Ava?" He eyes flicker to mine, uncertainty pooling in them. Blake grabs my hand and squeezes it tightly to show me support. Tori looks taken back by the move, but she doesn't comment on it. Her eyes flicker away to something behind us. "Ava has been a massive help towards London and myself, but she is never going to replace you as London's mother, that can never happen. London will never doubt you're her mother, please believe me." Tori puts her hand in her face and her shoulders shake. She's crying. A small sob escapes her lips. Blake gets up from his spot on the couch and walks over to Tori. He wraps his arms around her, and presses her body to his chest in a supportive hug, which makes me smile, another reason to love Blake. He is confident and stable with our relationship that he didn't need to think twice about comforting Tori. Sure, they had history but Blake never made me feel like I should be better than her – that it was okay to always be myself. "Shhh," he whispers, "you're okay, everything is going to be okay, and I'm here for you." "Thank you," she mumbles. "I almost believe everything will be." London starts crying, so I jump up and grab her. Instead of soothing her straight away, I take London and I pass her along to Tori. She quickly takes London in her arms and starts gently rocking her and then kisses her forehead, telling London that mummy is here and everything will be okay, just like Blake had done for her minutes ago. "Thank you." Her tear stained face looks up at me. "You're welcome." Blake pats his knee, so I sit on his lap. "You three are my special family, I wouldn't let anything happen to you." Blake squeezes us closer to his chest and then rests his head on my chest. He smiles up at me, a genuinely happy grin that sends happy butterflies into my stomach. "Good, now let's do something fun that isn't all depressing and tears," I say. "Hey, I'm sitting right here." She laughs. "We should invite Jude over, have a lunch or something?" I offer, trying to sound excited and casual by the idea. But Blake stiffens up and I instantly know my plan is foiled before he delivers a verdict. "Maybe another time." He shrugs, his voice quiet and disinterested. We've managed to get Tori on our page with London, I just needed to get Blake onto Jude's page as well. How I'm going to figure that out, I'm not completely sure. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the fact Tori doesn't hate our guts and we might actually be friends in the future. I never thought Tori was a bad person, she just never knew how to handle herself. But now, I think she'd make a great role model for London. She's so lucky to have so many people care about her.