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After the front door closed behind him, Beth glanced at the pile of their neatly folded clothes on the kitchen island, then down at Ellie. “What do you think? Is Trystan the loveliest man in the world or what?”
“I don’t know, Mummy.”
“Well I’m fairly sure he is,” Beth told her confidently.
* * *
The journey back to Plymouth was relaxed and easy. They made a couple of long stops and it was dinner time when they arrived home. Eager to finally have a proper conversation with Trystan, Beth got Ellie ready for bed a little earlier than usual.
“Can Trystan read my bedtime story?” Ellie asked once she’d polished off a glass of milk in the kitchen.
“No,” Beth said before he could get a word in. “Trystan’s been driving all day. He needs to relax. I’m reading your story.”
“Okay.” Standing beside Trystan, Ellie raised her arms for him to lift her up then squeezed him tightly. “Can you bring me to school tomorrow?”
“I think so …” He looked to Beth for confirmation.
“We’ll both take you,” she said before switching the conversation to ask how long Trystan was staying.
“I’ll need to head back tomorrow afternoon.”
Ellie pulled on his chin to get him to look at her. “Can you do my hair in the morning?”
“Okay.”
“Can you do a plait?”
“Um … sure.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek, then wished her goodnight and set her down.
Beth pursed her lips. “Can you really plait hair?”
His eyes sparkled as he gave an ambiguous shrug.
Smiling to herself, Beth ushered Ellie upstairs and settled her down for the night. She walked back downstairs ten minutes later to find Trystan stretched out on the couch, his phone propped on his chest emitting a gentle murmur of a woman’s voice from the video he was watching. He switched it off and sat up quickly when Beth cleared her throat.
She sat beside him. “Were you watching a tutorial on how to plait hair?”
“Nope.” His smile lit up his face. “Definitely wasn’t doing that.”
“You’re very sweet,” she said, bumping her shoulder against his. “You’re also very confusing. Last week I was convinced you were having second thoughts about being with me because of Ellie, but that really didn’t seem to be the case this weekend.”
He shifted to face her. “Last week I was freaking out because I thought I was completely out of my depth. You were right that spending time with Ellie on holiday was different to real life.”
“And you thought you couldn’t deal with it?” Beth asked, confused.
“I thought I was no good at it. When you were at work I felt as though I got everything wrong, but this weekend when Ellie was ill I looked after her fine.”
“I’m not sure what you got wrong.”
He sank back, running a hand down his face. “She asked me all these questions about her father, which I had no idea how to answer. I completely confused her.”
“No, you didn’t.”
He huffed out a humourless laugh. “You wouldn’t say that if you’d heard our conversation. EvenIwas confused.”
“Ellie seemed pretty clear on everything when I spoke to her.”
“But I didn’t know how to answer her questions. And if I wasn’t around, she probably wouldn’t have been asking questions about her father, would she?”
