I shrugged my shoulder. ‘I like the city and – well—’
‘You wouldn’t get anything done if you were too close, would you?’
My lips parted. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘I saw how many jobs you were given in one afternoon. Is that why you chose to come to England at Christmas?’
‘Well, I had research to do to finish my book, and a deadline…’ I lifted one shoulder. ‘They don’t mean to. We all fall into roles within our family, don’t we?’
He was about to speak when Lucy opened the door, fastening a pair of dangling earrings as she welcomed us in. She’d changed out of her day clothes into a nice top and some cropped leggings ready for date night.
‘She’ll probably wake up at about eleven for a bottle, but we’ll be heading back by then, so if she doesn’t get off to sleep, don’t worry. She’s gone down easy, so all you guys need to do is keep an ear out and watch some TV, or, y’know, whatever you want to do to keep yourselves entertained.’ She dropped a big wink in my direction. I gave her an unimpressed stare.
They shuffled around fussing about where diapers were and the formula and the number for the paediatrician for another ten minutes. She caught me again at the door, whispering to me.‘Seriously, Elle, c’mon, you’re only young once. Have a bit of fun with him.’
‘That’s all it’d be though. Short-term fun.’ I kept my voice low as well.
‘How do you know? He’s just spent all day with our family. Why would he do that if he wasn’t fully invested?’
‘He was just doing what I told him. To make sure we got Dad on side.’
‘Yeah, I’m not convinced anyone could put up with watching the twins acting outRosencrantz and Guildensternwithout deeper motivation than that. But even if that is the case – Lord, Elle, do it for me, OK?’
‘That is wrong on so many levels.’
‘I never got to run around dating like you. I love Quinn but we met so young, y’know? Make the most of it and have fun.’
She kissed my cheek and closed the door behind them. I understood what she was talking about; I could appreciate that settling down so early made it feel like she’d missed out, but if she thought getting my hopes up and then dashed over and over again was fun she wasn’t really considering it from my perspective. But that was nothing new. With so many people trying to offer me advice on my love life, it was no surprise I didn’t have a clue what to do. I knew what Iwantedto do, but that didn’t mean Ishould.
The house was silent. I looked at Stephen and he looked at me. Quietly. Steadily. My stomach was doing so many flips it was like the meat I’d had for lunch thought it was still cooking on the barbecue.
‘Shall we?’ I pointed him towards the back yard. The shadows were lengthening and there were two chairs in a shady spot. I brought out the baby monitor and debated getting glasses of wine for us but it was already feeling dangerously romantic.
‘Where have they gone for their date night?’ Stephen asked.
‘The open-air cinema.’
‘Those are still around? I figured it was something from a bygone era. Like inGrease.’
‘It’s a rooftop one, not a drive-in. Thereisa drive-in, an old-fashioned one, up in Warwick. It was a tradition in high school, if anyone had a car, to drive out there at Spring Break.’
‘Sounds fun. The drive-in I mean, not the rooftop one, obviously.’ He gave a rueful smile.
‘Eh.’ I curled my lip. ‘The drive-in was a long journey and a lot of money to pay just to make out in a car.’
His dark eyes were in shadow, but I could feel how they were trained on me, unnervingly focused again. ‘You used to go just to make out in the car? Elle, I’m scandalised.’
‘Oh, notme. No. Boys weren’t interested in me in high school.’ I tilted my chin up, showing I wasn’t bothered.
‘More fool the boys,’ he murmured, the words silky, caressing over my ego.
‘Not really. I mean, this was prior to laser eye surgery and glasses were not chic like they are now. My body was growing out in all sorts of directions rather than upwards, which I tried to hide with frumpy clothes. I had a retainer…puberty was not kind.’
‘Would you have wanted to go make out at the drive-in, if someone had asked you?’
‘What teenager wouldn’t?’ Again, breezy voice. I didn’t want him knowing how hard those years had been. How much I’d longed forsomemale attention. So much so, I’d ignored my better judgement when the cutest boy at school looked my way. ‘I bet you looked just the same when you were a teenager – life is unfair like that.’
‘You think I looked like a man in my early thirties when I was a teenager?’ He raised an eyebrow at me.
