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He leant back into the sofa cushions and waved his hand over his lap. “By all means, I won’t say no.”
I knocked his thigh with my heel, but I couldn’t help the little giggle that escaped me. “Another glass and I might take you up on that offer.”
“I think you’ve had enough.” He rested his hand on my ankle, laughing with me.
“To deal with your sister again tomorrow? I haven’t had nearly enough.” I sipped to prove my point. “But no. I shan’t be sitting on your lap tonight or any other night, Lord Kinkirk.”
He hit me with a stern look. “I’ve told you not to call me that.”
“I don’t do well with authority,” I said breezily. “I tend to do the opposite of what I’m told.”
“How can you have issues with authority when you’re a PhD student?”
“I have daddy issues.”
He caught his tongue between his teeth and looked at me for a moment. “Are we talking mild daddy issues, or Hollywood-level daddy issues?
Worse.
Aristocracy-level daddy issues.
Not that I was going to clarify that.
“Somewhere in the middle,” I settled on after a moment. “It’s a testy relationship.”
“Clearly I’m an expert on dramatic family issues, if you haven’t noticed.”
I laughed, flexing my toes as his thumb brushed absentmindedly over my bare ankle.
Oh, boy.
I did not like the way that felt.
Actually, I did.
It was more accurate to say I did not like howgoodthat felt.
“There are a few here, I’ll give you that. Mine aren’t quite as large.” Mostly.
Sometimes.
Depended on if I was talking to Amber or my grandmother.
Both of whom I needed to check in with. My grandmother didn’t even know I wasn’t at home.
“Mine aren’t really,” William replied, looking at the fire. “They’re just ridiculous at this point. My parents aren’t ever getting divorced, and my grandparents aren’t getting any younger. Grandma’s already beaten cancer once—Grandpa will have to accept my parents’ help if it ever returns.”
“She has?”
“Ten years ago. It was caught early, thankfully, but there’s always a chance it can come back, isn’t there?” He smiled ruefully at me. “It would change a lot. She’s a lot… frailer now than she was before.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of her being frail. To me, she was anything but. Then again, I supposed I barely knew her, and for William, she probably was.
To me, Morag was a wonderful whirlwind of a person.
“You never know. Some people find the fight. Some people aren’t able to.” I smiled quickly and looked down into my glass. There was a little lump in my throat at the thought of that illness and what it had taken from me.
“I’m sorry,” William said after a second, stilling his thumb at the back of my foot.
