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“Morning,” she says, about to get up. “Do you want a coffee?”
“No, it’s fine, I’ll get it. Would you like one?”
“Well, if you’re offering…”
I smile, go over to the coffee machine on the table to the side, and start making two espressos.
“What time did you get here?” James asks.
“Around 12:30 a.m.”
“Long journey,” Henry says. “Did you bring the Jag?”
“Yeah.” I turn the machine off and bring the cups over to the table. I take the seat next to Juliette and pass her one of the cups. “She drove like a dream. Belle loved her.”
“You let Belle get behind the wheel?” Juliette teases.
“I did. She’s a better driver than the rest of us put together.” I glance at Alex, my heart giving a little bang as I see him sitting back, studying me. He doesn’t say anything, and for a moment I think Belle must have told him what happened on the journey, and I wait for him to leap across the table, grab me by the lapels, and punch my teeth down my throat.
Instead, he says, “I’d love an espresso, Damon, thank you.”
I just chuckle, and he rolls his eyes. “Did Belle tell you that Kaitlyn’s arriving today?” He never calls his mother Mum, which tells you a lot about their relationship.
My eyebrows rise. “No. I don’t think she knew.” I’m sure she would have mentioned it if she had.
“Is Ryan Webster coming with her?” James asks. She met the famous movie star on the set of one of her action flicks, and they’ve been glued to each other’s sides on social media for over two years now.
But Alex shakes his head and says, “They broke up, apparently.”
“There was a photo on Insta of her at the airport, crying,” Juliette advises us.
“Staged or genuine?” James asks.
Juliette shrugs. “It looked genuine. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and she was trying to hide her face behind her collar. I’ll show you.” She taps on her phone.
I exchange a glance with Alex. His relationship with his mother is complicated. They both have hot tempers, and it’s rare for them to have an exchange without it devolving into a shouting match. I once heard him call her a pretentious, heartless witch. She responded with, “And you’re a grumpy, soulless bastard. I guess you really are my son, right?” It’s mostly superficial—he obviously loves her to bits, because he wouldn’t get so angry if he didn’t. But I’m aware of an undercurrent, presumably something to do with his father and the reason they broke up. He doesn’t like to talk about it, though, so I remain in the dark.
“Here,” Juliette says, turning her phone to show us. It reveals a photo of a woman almost unrecognizable as Kaitlyn Cross—her hair hangs loose and untamed around her shoulders, her face is free of makeup, and she looks fragile in the jacket she’s pulled tightly around her as she tries to hide her face from the cameras, something she rarely does.
“We always knew that Gaby and Tyson were never going to be the stars at their own wedding,” Alex says sarcastically. “This has only cemented that.”
“She looks vulnerable,” I comment mildly. “Maybe don’t go in with guns blazing straight away.”
He mutters under his breath and glares at his laptop, but he doesn’t disagree, so hopefully I’ve dissuaded him from yelling at her as soon as she walks in the door.
“Where’s Tyson?” I ask.
“He’s gone with Gaby to pick Kaitlyn up,” Juliette advises. “He’ll be in later.”
“We ready to start?” Henry asks. “I’ve got a Zoom call at ten and I wanted to go over THOR’s specifications.”
“Yep.” Alex nods. “Let’s start.”
We spend the next couple of hours working. Just before ten, Alex says, “Okay, Henry’s got his Zoom call and I’ve got a meeting. Shall we meet back here at eleven?”
We all nod. “All right if I work in here?” I ask the others.
“Of course,” Juliette says. “You need anything?”
