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‘So you’ll be away a while?’
‘About a month.’ Normally the idea of getting away, of waking up in a different city every few days, would be appealing. Especially after an interlude with a woman who was getting too close for comfort. But today...it seemed too long.
There was a lengthy pause, and Ben cast around for something else to say to keep her on the phone. It had been so much easier when they were in the cottage, shut away from the rest of the world. Where he’d had her all to himself without having to share her.
‘Should I...?’ He took a deep breath and started again. ‘Can I call you when I get back?’
Luce’s voice was soft as she replied, ‘Yes, please.’
* * *
Luce was surprised, in a way, at how easily she slipped back into her old life. Her pre-Ben life. There was no reason to be, she supposed. After all, she’d lived without Ben in her life for a lot longer than when he’d been there. But still, those few days at the cottage had been transformative, somehow. She wasn’t the same person she’d been before she went. Even if it wasn’t obvious in her everyday life.
‘What are these files?’ Dolly asked, poking at a stack of folders on the dining room table a few weeks later, when she came over to indulge in Luce’s tea—and her biscuit tin.
Luce glanced over. ‘Just some stuff Dennis wants me to sort through for him.’
Dolly raised her eyebrows. ‘And this is more important than your own work because...?’
‘It isn’t.’ Luce swept the files into a box on the nearby dining chair. ‘That’s why I haven’t done them yet.’ Besides, Dennis was still sulking about her missing the lecture in Chester. Given the way she’d snapped at him when he whined, he probably wouldn’t be asking her to do anything else for him any time soon.
‘Good.’ Dolly settled herself onto one of the other chairs, tipping it back to rest against the wall behind her. ‘You’ve changed, you know. In a good way,’ she added hurriedly. ‘But you definitely seem different since you went away last month.’
Luce stopped tidying. ‘Do I?’
‘Yeah.’ Dolly slanted her head to the side and looked her up and down for long enough to make Luce blush. ‘Maybe more self-assured, I guess. Which is good.’
‘More self-aware, I think.’ Luce bit her lip as she considered her sister.
She needed to tell someone her news, and Ben was still away. She’d thought about calling a few times, always late at night when she was tucked up in bed, but she couldn’t tell him this over the phone. It wasn’t fair. But Dolly... She seemed more of an ally than she ever had before lately. She’d always been the baby, the one who needed the most looking after, but recently she’d been more of a friend than an obligation. Someone who cared about Luce rather than just needing things from her. She could tell Dolly.
‘What’s going on?’ Dolly let her chair tip onto four legs again, leaning forward to rest her wrists on her knees. ‘Come on—tell me. It’s obviously something big. You’re actually blushing.’
Luce’s face grew immediately hotter in response. ‘Okay. But you can’t tell Mum. Or Tom. Or anybody just yet.’
Dolly’s eyes widened. ‘Now I’m really intrigued.’
Gripping the edge of the table, Luce summoned her courage and said it out loud for the first time. ‘I’m pregnant.’
For a long moment Dolly just stared at her in silence. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth, not quite muffling the squeak that came out.
Luce sank into a chair. ‘I know. I know. It’s absurd.’
‘It’s wonderful!’ Jumping up, Dolly wrapped her arms around her, and Luce relaxed into the hug. ‘I’m going to be an aunt!’
‘You are,’ Luce said firmly. She’d considered the other options—of course she had. But this was her baby—hers and Ben’s—and it might be her only chance. She was financially capable of looking after it, she had her family around her...
‘God, how the hell are you going to baby-proof this place?’ Dolly asked, looking around.
...and she lived in a death trap.
‘That’s on my list of things to figure out,’ Luce said. ‘To be honest, given the length of the list, it might take me a while to get around to it.’
Dolly perched on the table beside her, looking down through her long dark hair. ‘Okay, I’m not asking the obvious question, because I figure you’ll tell me when it’s right. But just promise me it’s not Dennis’s.’
