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I peered up at him. “What for?”
“Whatever it is that’s making you look like that,” he replied softly, holding my gaze.
I smiled tightly. “Uh, sorry. My mum died of cancer when I was fifteen. It’s a bit of a raw subject.”
“Then I’m really sorry.” He stroked his thumb across my skin, almost absentmindedly this time, and the touch was so comforting that I allowed myself to like it.
Just for a moment.
“It’s okay. In the end, I got to torment my dreadful stepmother for three years until I moved out, so it wasn’t all bad.”
“What are you, Cinderella?”
“I might as well be. My mere existence is the bane of her life,” I told him. “Trust me. It brings me great joy.”
His mouth slowly pulled up into a half-smile. “It’s that bad, huh?”
“Amuses my grandmother to no end. Granny hates Carmen.”
“Your dad’s mum?”
“My mum’s mum,” I clarified. “I’ve never known someone to hate anyone as much as Granny hates her. She’s not allowed anywhere near her, or she’d be in prison for murder.”
“Wow. Does she feel that way about your dad?”
“She calls him a ‘lousy ratbastard’ almost every time we speak about him, so I’d say so.” I paused. “Sometimes her language is rather more colourful, and often includes a word I’d rather not repeat.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Dare I ask?”
“Um… If he’s not a lousy ratbastard, he’s a no-good, lousy see-you-next-Tuesday.”
William blinked at me. “Ah,” he said after a moment. “That’s not just colourful, Grace. That’s the whole rainbow.”
“A bit like her. She’s a walking rainbow.”
“Literally or figuratively?”
“She has a penchant for bright clothing that doesn’t always match,” I replied slowly. “And she also has a girlfriend who she insists is just her friend. I think she does that just so she doesn’t have to admit I was right the time I guessed it.”
“Ah. That’ll be where you get your stubbornness, then.”
“Pretty much.”
He laughed. “I’m surprised you admitted it.”
“Why not? I think it’s an excellent quality, especially since I’m usually right. There’s nothing like digging your heels in for a week only for someone to admit that you were right the entire time.”
William ran his tongue across his lips as they curved into an amused smirk, andoh, my God, would he stop doing that?
It was doing things to me.
Bad things.
Maybe I had had enough wine…
“Have you done that before?”
“What?” I asked.
