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‘I encouraged you before I realised you were in so deep,’
Maria censored.
‘Well, I’m not. Look, I’ve had fun, but now it’s done. I doubt I’ll even see Jake again before the closing dinner.’
‘Is that right?’ Her sister pulled a suspicious face.
‘It is,’ Flávia concluded firmly.
‘Well, you won’t care that he asked you to meet him tomorrow, then.’
As bait went, it was a powerful one. Flávia felt her heart stop. Then lurch. She glared at Maria, who looked equally defiant.
‘Meet where?’ she demanded.
‘What does it matter?’
‘Maria?’
Okay, so she was in deeper than even she had realised. But she knew there was a deadline to their relationship.
Jake would be leaving. And as long as she remembered that, she could certainly handle anything else.
‘Where does he want me to meet him, Maria?’
Maria pursed her lips and then finally relented.
‘For breakfast, at the café opposite Paulista’s.’
‘When?’
‘About seven.’
Flávia drew in a breath and tried to rein in the galloping in her chest.
‘Thank you,’ she told her sister at last.
‘Livvy—’
‘I know,’ she cut her sister off, moderating it with as gentle a smile as she could manage. ‘I’ll be careful.’
Only, Flávia had a feeling she was already further gone than she would ever have wanted to be. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to care.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘DID YOU TELL your uncle what you saw on the adventure trail yesterday?’ Flávia asked Brady as he finished his eggs and sat back, replete.
Brady wrinkled his nose.
‘Uncle Jake isn’t like us. He doesn’t like animals—he only likes his hospital work.’
There was no animosity in the boy’s tone, no making a point, just a simple statement of fact. Which arguably made it all the more damning an indictment, as though for every three steps forward he seemed to be making with his nephew, they then took two steps backwards.
But before Jake could say anything, Flávia cut in, her voice light and encouraging.
‘I think he’d be really interested to hear about the otter Maria told me you saw, though.’
Brady didn’t look convinced. He just turned his head, and Jake could only categorise his expression as wary. It cut, deeper than Jake might have thought.
