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“You’re all leaving us,” Charlotte complains, sticking her bottom lip out. “No fair.”
“Trust me, you’re better off where you are,” I counter. “At least that way you won’t end up like…” I trail off, unable to even joke about it.
“I’m sure she’s okay, wherever she is,” Penelope says, reaching out to squeeze my hand.
Little do they know.
“Just, look after yourselves, okay?” I say, refusing to acknowledge it.
She’s gone. They could be too, at some point.
For now, I’ve got to preserve my sanity as much as I can.
Luckily, Stephanie changes the direction of the conversation and we all start talking about her plans for swapping bands with Oliver. They’re not nearly as cute and romantic as Tamsin had been, but it is what it is.
“What’s this, a slumber party?” Oliver asks as the door opens, Nick and him finally turning up.
Jasper had been around earlier on, helping the girls and Wyatt to bring stuff over from the house, and I was beginning to wonder what the hell had happened to them.
“Not quite, baby,” Stephanie says, jumping up. “But we can have our own one soon. I‘ve seen the perfect suite with gorgeous red drapes just down there. Let me show you.” She grabs his hand and pulls him away without another word or a backwards look.
“I wouldn’t recommend anyone going in there after this,” Penelope says, wrinkling her nose.
“So, you guys picked a room then, huh?” Nick asks, looking around.
Smiling, I nod, going over to take his hand and show him around. It’s small, the smile, and it just about meets my eyes, but we can do this, together.
“So, the girls set all my stuff up in here, and we’ve left space in both wardrobes so you can choose where you want to put your things.”
“Cool,” he says, looking around, but it’s like he’s not really here, he’s unfocused, his mind somewhere else.
“Is everything okay?”
“Fine. I just had to help Oliver with a thing… I could have done without it, that’s all.”
“Are you sure?” I ask, turning and wrapping my arms around his neck.
He missed all the touching declarations earlier on, and it must be hard seeing this now we’ve already started making it our own space. He kisses me by way of a reply, deeply and wholly, waking up the ache in my core that I’d only just forgotten about.
“I’m still yours,” I promise, not sure why I feel like it needs saying. “But now, you get to keep Jacob too.”
Sure, it’s a touch more complicated than that, but Leo’s right, we could make this a lot harder than it needs to be, so let's just go with the flow.
“Sounds good.”
TWENTY-THREE
NICK
It sounds too good to be true.
And if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
We all know that, don’t we?
“It looks like you’ve managed to get everything set up beautifully, and if you’re ready for people, dinner should be about ready,” I offer, doing my best to get out of here.
“With a little help,” she agrees, pulling back, her eyes narrowing. “Are you sure it’s okay? Is this not what you wanted?”
