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Her eyes fucking shone yet again. “I’ll meet you at nine and you can even teach me to skip stones, but the word date will in no way be attached to any time we spend together. Ever. Okay?”
I looked up at her and was pleased that someone was using their big brain here. “Thank fuck.”
“Wow, took a load of convincing,” she laughed.
“I’ll see you here at nine.”
“Sure, Lombardi.”
I gave her a nod and jogged inside, trying to ignore this stupid, unusual feeling in my chest. Instead of rushing to my room, I gravitated to the kitchen where Mum and Maddy were getting dinner ready.
“It looks like Uncle Roman’s here to help as well,” Mum said.
“Sure,” I answered slowly.
“Yay!” Maddy cried and I realised that there was one other person who looked at me like they were actually happy to see me.
And I hadn’t done anything to deserve it from either of them.
“Then you can cut the onions,” Mum said as she pushed them to me.
She gave me a gentle smile and I knew she was thanking me for trying. I gave her a nod and got to cutting the onions.
Laughter in the kitchen wasn’t the strangest of occurrences these days. Despite the unfortunate fact that her mother was my sister, Maddy was a happy soul. She laughed easily, she hugged readily, and she made it hard to be quite as brooding and mysterious as I tried to make myself.
What was strange was that I was involved with the laughter in the kitchen. We cooked together and Maddy giggled as I waltzed Mum around the kitchen island like I hadn’t done in years.
By the time Mum was sitting in bed with Maddy in her PJs and I was slipping out the back door to meet Piper, Mum gave me a warm smile that could have been confused with pride…or at least appreciation.
As I walked over to Piper – who was on her phone – I felt a weird bubble of something in my chest. I lit up a smoke and dragged the shit out of that fucker in an effort to calm down. Not that it worked. So, when I saw her dressed in the same jeans as earlier, but in a thick jacket, I was feeling a little sassy myself.
“I’m about to run out of things to be gentlemanly about here, Barlow.”
She looked up from her phone and shoved in it her pocket. I couldn’t help looking her up and down like she may as well have been naked. I still appreciated the view, no matter how many layers she wore. I dropped my smoke butt and crushed it out.
“And just what does that mean?” she asked.
I must have been feeling well sassy. “Well, you rugged up, so I won’t need to offer you my jacket. I’m already walking you down to the lake – so, your safety’s all good. If you’re not careful, you’ll be a completely independent young woman.”
She scoffed and started walking. At that moment, I was sure she was the only person I’d ever follow anywhere. “Gosh. Wouldn’t want that, would we?” she teased.
“How would Carter come swooping in to save you if you were all independent?”
She turned to me as she stepped over roots. “I don’t need anyone swooping in to save me, thank you.”
“Well, I’m all right with that.” I mean, a part of me was not. “But I highly doubt that he knows how to be anything but the chivalrous white knight.”
“No one would ever confuse you for the chivalrous anything, Lombardi,” she said cheerfully. “Don’t worry.”
“I am very chivalrous in bed, thank you.” I felt she needed to know. “I’m all about giving. I’m very gallant. Some have even called me a romantic.”
“Had they been dropped on their heads as children?”
Ugh. Fuck. Me. A guy might have swooned had he actually had a romantic bone in his body. I stopped in my tracks and could do nothing more than clap.
She paused and gave me a rueful smirk. “What?”
I bowed, just cementing the fact I was in an odd mood, but I leant into it. “No stutter. Quick retort. Why Barlow, I think I’ve ruined you.”
