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He bends, and before I can stop him, he lifts my feet onto his lap and slips my sandals off.
“I wonder how alike your boys will be,” Kennedy says, paying no attention.
“Hopefully very,” he replies. “It can be a lot of fun when you’re kids.”
I sit there, not moving, my heart hammering as he begins to massage my feet with his warm hands. It feels like such an intimate gesture, especially considering we’re not a couple, and my skin flushes with heat.
He looks at me, then lifts his eyebrows, looking most amused. “What?”
I glance around, but everyone has either not noticed or doesn’t care. I look back at him, not knowing what to say.
“Want me to stop?” he murmurs, pressing with his thumb up the arch of my foot. Ooh, that’s good. I give a small, shy shake of my head, and he continues, gently massaging, rolling the pad of his thumb over my heels and instep, while the conversation continues on.
“I can’t imagine getting pregnant again after having twins,” Kennedy says, eating a strawberry. “I’d be terrified of having another set.”
“One pregnancy at a time,” Mae says wryly. She gestures at the bowl of strawberries, and when I nod, she starts putting some in a dish for me.
“I don’t care if the next lot are twins,” Saxon says. “I think we should have three sets. Right?” He winks at me.
“We haven’t even had sex yet,” I remind him. That does draw everyone’s eyes, and I suddenly realize I said it out loud. I look down at my bump. “I mean, obviously, we have, but…”
Damon bursts out laughing, and that prompts everyone else to start. Saxon just grins.
“Do you think you’ll work right through your pregnancy?” Mae asks, passing me the dish of strawberries.
I choose one and bite into it. “I don’t know.” I glance at Saxon.
“We haven’t talked about that yet,” he says. “You can work as far into the pregnancy as you like, if you feel okay. Or you can stay at home, paint the nursery, and take up playing the guitar. I’ll teach you.”
Kip laughs. “If you want to learn guitar, I’m your man.”
“You’re not teaching my girlfriend,” Saxon states.
“Only because you know I’d do it better than you,” Kip says smugly.
Saxon pushes Kip’s chair with his foot. Kip almost falls off, puts out a hand to steady himself, and promptly tips half the food still on his plate over his T-shirt.
“Fucking hell,” he says, trying to brush the crumbs off.
“Kip,” his mother admonishes, and Saxon laughs because Kip got the blame.
“Are you sure you want two boys?” Kennedy asks.
“I don’t think I have much choice.” I smile. “If they’re anything like these two, I won’t be disappointed.” I’m still glowing inside at Saxon’s use of the word girlfriend. I don’t quite know what our relationship is at the moment, but I like his description of me.
Pam brings out some plates with small desserts on them, and Mae puts a few in a dish and passes them to me. I sit and nibble them and the strawberries, listening to the conversation around me, as the family gradually relaxes. Brandon takes Eddie and sits on the grass with him, flicking through a cloth book and pointing out the animals while he talks to Neal. Jenny chats to Mae, and after a while Saxon, Kip, Damon, and Jackson get up and start tossing a rugby ball around, with Pongo running between them trying to catch it.
“Come and have a look at the roses,” Kennedy says to me.
“Okay.” I slip my sandals back on, and we walk slowly across the lawn to the barrier at the edge. Music is still playing somewhere on speaker—I can see where Saxon gets his eclectic music tastes from. The playlist has included everything from Aretha Franklin to Elvis to the Jackson Five to Adele. Currently, Peter Gabriel is singingIn Your Eyes, and the sun is beautifully warm and bright.
“I didn’t really think you needed to look at flowers,” Kennedy says. “I thought you might need a break. How are you doing?”
I give her a grateful smile. “I’m all right, thank you.”
“Not too overwhelmed?”
“It’s very different from what I’m used to. But everyone’s so friendly.”
