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‘Oh, I’m fine. Keeping busy, you know. You sound like you’re driving.’
‘I am. Actually, I’m in Spain.’ Hannah paused, trying to read his silence. ‘I’ve been here playing tennis, and now I’m having a road trip.’
‘Oh,’ her dad said in surprise. ‘How lovely. Can you come and visit?’
‘I was hoping you wouldn’t mind, just for a couple of days. We’re only two hours away right now.’
‘We? Is Luke with you?’
There was a pause, where Hannah let the lie take shape in the back of her throat. ‘No, he couldn’t come. Graham’s here.’ She winced, an acidic feeling lining her stomach like a duvet of guilt.
‘Really? Graham is with you? That’s wonderful. When can you get here? I’ll make up the spare room.’
Hannah paused, having not previously considered that her dad only had two bedrooms. She glanced at Rob, who gave her a helpless grimace. Scrumpy was snuggled into his chest, the seatbelt securing both of them like they’d never spent a moment apart. Hannah looked at the grinning, happy dog, and swallowed her reservations. ‘We can be there for dinner?’
‘Perfect. I’ll look forward to it.’
‘Me too, Dad. See you in a bit.’ She pressed the button on the steering wheel to end the call, watching the road with a determined expression.
‘Are you OK?’ Rob asked.
‘Three days,’ she replied. ‘You’ve got three days to convince him to either look after your dog, or find someone who will. We’re leaving on Thursday so we can get this road trip back on course.’
‘OK,’ said Rob, nodding frantically. ‘I can definitely do this.’
‘There’s no way he’ll believe you’re Graham. I’m going to have to tell him the truth.’
‘Wait, what?’ Rob looked horrified. ‘You can’t do that.’
‘Why not?’ Hannah said. ‘I have to.’
‘No, you can’t. If you tell him about Graham, he’ll be focussing on that rather than falling in love with my dog.’
Hannah was quiet for a moment, chewing her lip. This was the stupidest idea ever, but Rob was right. The alternative definitely wasn’t going to help Scrumpy. ‘Our dog,’ she said quietly.
‘What?’
‘Our dog,’ she repeated. ‘If we’re married, Scrumpy is our dog. We found him on the street in Granada a few days ago, and he followed us home.’
Rob grinned. ‘So you’re going to let me do this?’
‘Yes,’ said Hannah, pushing aside a million reservations. ‘But only because it will help Scrumpy, and it’s only for three days. And because you’re probably arrogant enough to pull it off.’
‘Right,’ said Rob determinedly. ‘I’m going to absolutely fucking smash this.’
‘No swearing. The minute you swear, it’s game over.’
‘Ah, shit. OK, I can do this.’ He sat upright and cleared his throat. ‘Goodness, what a complex and interesting challenge.’
‘OK, now you sound like you’re constipated.’
‘And I’m a solicitor, right? I don’t know anything about solicitors.’
‘Yes, but you can probably dodge that. Just say you’re on holiday and don’t want to talk about work.’
‘Is he going to ask me loads of questions about the church? Get all nostalgic for the old days?’
‘No, we never talk about that. Also you need to be thirty-two.’
