Page 31 of Forbid It

Except maybe that I left.

“Why is your nine year old on the internet?”

“Why are you driving around Cassandra?”

“Can you stop saying it like that?”

“Like what? Cassandra?”

“It’s just Cassie.”

“Just Cassie, eh?” He sends me a knowing look that I dutifully ignore. I prop my my phone on the counter as I pull out chicken and rice my nutritionist left me from the fridge.

“Look,” I tell him, concentrating on my tupperware. “She’s the owner's daughter, she comes to games, there’s not much else to say.”

“Can you ask your boss?”

I level him a flat look through the screen.

“Okay, fair play,” he says, running his hands through his messy hair. “Well, at least I can tell her I tried.”

My gut sinks at the thought of letting Ffion down. She has such a tiny face and huge brown eyes, and she knows just how to wield them.

“Fi,” Iwan calls off screen. “Come say hi to Uncle Robbie!”

I wipe my hands over my face before said big brown eyes appear on the screen.

“Hi Uncle Robbie,” she yells excitedly, squeezing into the frame beside her dad.

“Hi Fi.” I wave, leaning closer to the camera. “You okay?”

“Yeah-is-it-true-you-know-Cassandra?” she asks with the breathless excitement that only a nine year old can exude.

Iwan hides a smirk behind his hand through the camera.

I sigh. “I don’t know know her…”

Ffion visibly deflates in front of me and I find myself blurting out, “But I’ll see what I can do about an autograph.”

“Yay!” Ffion squeals hitting a decibel I’m not sure dogs will even be able to hear. “You’re the best Uncle ever.”

“I’m your only uncle,” I remind her.

“That’s why you’re number one.”

She blows me a kiss through the screen that I catch and return before she dashes off to wreak havoc somewhere else.

“You’re evil.” I stab my fork in my chicken.

Iwan cackles. “You fold too easily, mun. Hold firm.” He raises his first in the air.

“You hold firm,” I grumble. “How’s Sammy?”

He’s quiet for a second. “He’s good, but he’s missing his favorite uncle.”

“Again”—I take a bite of chicken—“I’m his only uncle.”

“I tried to get him to play some one-on-ones with me in the garden at the weekend, and he wanted nothing to do with it. I’m chopped liver compared to you.”