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‘It’s a toss-up.’
‘Useless. All of them. We should run away to some women’s commune and raise her there.’
‘It might be a boy.’
‘Doesn’t matter. We’ll dress him in skirts.’ Dolly shook her head. ‘Except then Tom would just steal the house while we were gone, and that’s no good. So we’ll stay here.’
‘We?’ Luce blinked up at her sister
Dolly took a deep breath. ‘I thought I could move in and help you. If you want me. And not at all in a house-stealing sibling way. Because you already have one of those. I know I haven’t always been much help in the past, but I think it might be time for me to grow up and take care of myself.’
Luce tilted her head to look at her sister. ‘You have grown up. I don’t know what changed.’
Dolly shook her head. ‘Doesn’t matter. The only thing that does is that I want to be here to help you with the baby. To look after you for a change.’
‘That would be wonderful.’ Relief started to seep into her chest. She didn’t have to do this alone. Even if Ben wasn’t there she still had Dolly.
‘And besides, I thought the rent money might help you with doing this place up a bit. Making it safe for the baby.’
Luce stared at her. ‘You don’t have to pay rent. You’re still my baby sister.’
‘And I’m a grown-up now, remember? I can pay my own way.’ Dolly smiled a lopsided smile. ‘Maybe we can help look after each other. Because it seems to me that there’s going to be someone soon who needs your love and care a lot more than me or Tom or Mum.’
‘Especially if I’m the only parent it’s got.’ Luce slumped back against the arm of the sofa.
‘Idiot,’ Dolly muttered again. ‘But it doesn’t matter. You’ll be the best mum any child could hope for. And I’ll be the coolest auntie.’
‘Of course.’
There was a pause, then Dolly asked, ‘What did he say?’
‘He’s got a lot of work on at the moment. He offered me money.’ That was a reasonable summary, Luce felt.
‘How dare he!’ Dolly’s voice grew ever more vehement.
‘The thing is, he’s not a bad man. He...he looked shell-shocked at the whole thing. Trapped. Like he couldn’t see a way out.’
Dolly shook her head. ‘Doesn’t matter. He should have manned up and supported you.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Luce twisted her hands in the blanket. He should have. Of course he should. And she couldn’t quite believe that he hadn’t.
‘But...?’
Luce looked up at her sister. ‘The thing is, I think I might be a little bit in love with him.’
Dolly laughed and pulled her into a hug, her arms warm and comforting around her. ‘Oh, Luce. Of course you are. I’ve known that for weeks.’
‘Then how come I only just figured it out?’
‘Because you were too busy trying to come up with a sensible plan for all this. Except love isn’t sensible, and it can’t be planned.’
‘Is that why you fall in love so often? Because you’re not sensible and can’t be planned either?’
‘Exactly.’
How had her baby sister grown up so smart? Luce laid her head against Dolly’s shoulder and stared out into the darkened room. She knew where every stick of furniture was, exactly where each painting hung on the wall. They’d been there her whole life, after all. ‘What do I do now, Doll?’
‘You just take each day as it comes. It gets easier, I promise. And I’ll help you.’
Luce nodded. Time to try life without a ‘To Do’ list for a while.
* * *
Ben woke feeling jet-lagged and hung-over, and cursed his alarm clock before he’d even opened his eyes. A headache pounded behind his temples, beating a rhythm that sounded like a door slamming over and over again. Still, he had work to do. And since, after last night, work was all he had, he supposed he’d better make the most of it.
Dragging himself out of bed, into the shower and then into a suit took twice as long as normal. He skipped breakfast, his stomach rebelling at the idea. How much had he drunk after Luce had left? The mini-bar looked suspiciously empty.
Seb was waiting for him in the meeting room and raised his eyebrows at the sight of him. ‘Jet-lag?’ he asked, pouring Ben a coffee.
Ben dropped into an empty chair and pulled the saucer closer. ‘Amongst other things.’
‘Thought you’d be immune to that by now.’
‘Twelve time zones in eight weeks is hard on anyone’s body.’ Which was true. It just wasn’t why Ben felt so awful.
