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“Eating properly?”

I smiled. “Yes, Mum.”

She let out a relieved sigh and dropped her hands. “Glad to hear it. Now, I need your help in the kitchen.”

I held in a laugh.

I spent the next twenty minutes helping Mum finish the meal and get everything dished up, straining to hear the conversation floating through from the living area and hoping that Kerr was coping okay on his own with my family. Dad chatted to him about his veterinary work before Seb started up a conversation about rugby, his favorite sport. Luckily it sounded as though Kerr followed it too, having played when he was at university.

My shoulders relaxed a little as I realized there were no awkward silences and that the intonation in Kerr’s voice sounded relaxed. I carried the plates through to the dining room, meeting his eyes where he was sitting next to Seb on the sofa with a skip in my pulse. I wasn’t sure how the guy seemed to get hotter every time I laid eyes on him.

He placed his glass onto the coffee table. “Nisa, can I give you a hand?”

“That’s okay—” I started to say, until I was cut off by Mum calling from the kitchen.

“No, she can manage! You stay there, Kerr.”

He looked at me, seeming torn, but I gave him a reassuring smile before returning to the kitchen to do a couple more trips to and from the dining table.

“That’s it. Ready,” I told them, gesturing for the group to come through.

Everyone took a place at the table. I ensured that I got a spot next to Kerr. Aisha and Seb were across from us and Dad at one end of the table. Mum came through, apron now off, and took the spot at the head of the table, with Kerr on one side of her and Seb on the other. I’m sure she bloody loved that.

We chatted through dinner, Dad quizzing Aisha on her latest ventures, and Mum fawning over Kerr and giggling after everything he said. Seb kept attempting to interject, but he seemed to be old news in Mum’s eyes. The telephone voice and simpering laugh had shifted from my brother-in-law to my boyfriend, much to Seb’s chagrin. Poor Seb, it seemed he had fallen prey to women’s preference for dark-​haired broody heroes over blond-​haired preppy ones.

Seb drained his wine a little quicker than everyone else, and Mum clocked it as she chatted to Kerr. “Nisa, go and fetch Seb another wine, would you?” She then resumed her conversation.

I stood, Kerr shooting me a can I help? look. I squeezed his shoulder in reassurance.

I brought a fresh bottle of red and poured some for Seb, placing it onto the table afterward, hoping to futureproof against being ordered to fetch anyone else a glass. I sat down again, tuning in to the speech Mum was giving Kerr about how she disapproved of the new self-​service checkouts at the local shop. “I can’t trust that disembodied voice. I like voices to be attached to actual people,” she said, taking a dainty sip of wine as a means of punctuation.

Kerr, to his credit, was nodding patiently, even though on the inside he must have been thinking What the actual fuck are you talking about?

Everyone had now finished their meals, and I caught Mum’s eye being drawn to the plates. “Nisa, can you help me clear away and get dessert plated up?” she said, making to stand.

Feeling like I’d only just sat down again, I began to follow suit. But I halted my movements when Kerr’s hand clamped on my thigh.

“No, you relax, Nisa,” he said, standing up in tandem with stopping me from doing the same. “You’ve been on your feet all day at work and you deserve a rest.” He met my mum’s eyes as he said the last part, and I was pretty sure that he was sending her a subtle message. “I’ll clear the plates away. Seb,” he added, making Seb’s head snap up from where he’d been chatting to Aisha and Dad, “why don’t you help me, and then you can show me where the dessert plates are and we can bring everything through.”

Seb appeared stunned for a beat before he nodded enthusiastically, getting to his feet and coming around the back of Mum to follow Kerr. He paused behind Mum, giving her shoulders a squeeze and encouraging her to sit back down. “Yep, yep, good idea, Kerr. You relax, Kirsty, and let us handle this.”

Mum placed a hand on her heart. “Well, that is so lovely of you boys,” she said, positively beaming. “Thank you.”

I tried not to laugh as I listened in to Kerr asking Seb where things were kept in the kitchen and Seb admitting he didn’t know, even after two years married into the family. Kerr made short work of finding everything he needed, giving Seb instructions on getting the dirty plates loaded into the dishwasher as he sorted dessert.

A few minutes later the two of them brought bowls full of chocolate mousse and placed one in front of each of us. I glanced around at everyone, attempting to recall a time I’d had a meal at this table where it wasn’t solely me helping in the kitchen.

Mum continued to praise Kerr and Seb as if they deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for one single act of domesticity, and by the end of dessert Dad jumped to his feet and insisted that he be the one to clear away the bowls and get them in the dishwasher. Clearly he wanted in on the praise too.

When we moved into the living room for one more drink post-​dinner, Kerr blocked every attempt from Mum to get me to run around after everyone. He showed me to a seat and insisted I stay put while he fetched a soft drink for me, telling everyone that I deserved some R&​R after working so hard to look after everyone else’s needs all day at work and also after the recent stress of the fire.

It seemed like a bit of a light-​bulb moment for them all, as they nodded in agreement and started asking various questions about work and how things were for me post-​fire. I even told them a little bit (in vague terms) about Anna, and Drew and Aileen’s news of the pregnancy, plus the discovery of how Drew had run over Izzy. Mum, who previously had been a card-​carrying, banner-​waving fan of Drew, and who I suspected (due to a few passive-​aggressive comments) blamed me for “driving him away,” was most aggrieved by this news on my behalf.

“How dare he!” she said. “That is terrible, lying like that. And you must have been heartbroken to receive that text, Nisa darling.” She reached over Kerr sitting between us on the sofa to squeeze my hand. “You deserve better.” She glanced at Kerr with a smile. “And looks like you’ve got it.”

Kerr gave me a bit of side-​eye along with a little smile. The man was some kind of undercover family-​relations genius.

By the time we got our shoes and coats on to leave, my family were all clamoring to hug me goodbye and tell me they loved me and what a great job I did as a nurse and so on and so forth.