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“I do believe I would,” I answer, glad he can’t see the huge dorky smile on my face.
“Brilliant. I’ll send my car ’round.”
I take a quick shower and get dressed, twisting my damp hair in a bun. I throw on some jeans and a T-shirt. But like my nicest T-shirt. I don’t want to be pretentiously overdressed for a glorified study session, but I also don’t want the doorman at Ben’s flat to lock me out and call the cops.
“Hey.” Lee pops in and throws himself on my bed while I’m picking out matching socks. “What do you say we go out to eat? Jamie’s gnawing on his arm down there, and I don’t feel like cooking.”
“Can’t. I’ve got plans.”
“Oh? Do you have pics?”
I grin. “Not those kinds of plans. Ben’s back in town, and he has some boxes for me to snoop through.”
Lee jerks upright. “At his flat?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Alone?”
“Are you asking to chaperone?” I inquire, rolling my eyes.
“Should I?”
I throw him a look. “It’s not a date. I haven’t even spoken to him in weeks.”
“But he’s back and you’re his first call.”
The suspicion clouding Lee’s face makes me laugh. “I sincerely doubt that’s how it happened.”
If anything, after a month on the Spanish coast, I’m sure he’s quite exhausted of female attention. Even the Energizer Bunny has to change out his batteries every now and then.
“Look, babe.” Lee crosses his legs, meeting me with his serious face. “That Tulley reputation is well earned. It isn’t all idle gossip.”
“I know that. Ben’s the first one to admit his family has its skeletons.”
“Yes. And he isn’t above reproach.”
Who among us, right?
“Whatever he gets up to in his off hours is his business,” I say, shrugging. “I’m not writing his memoir.”
“No, you’re just running over to his flat. In the middle of the night. Alone.”
It sounds sinister when he says it like that.
“Not the middle of the night,” I point out. “It’s only eight.”
“Abbey, luv.” Lee uses the tone he reserves for when Jamie does something stupid. “Eric and I have talked about our dear Lord Tulley.”
“Of course you have. Your boyfriend is a gossip,” I remind him. Gossiping is the only thing Lord Eric enjoys more than his fussy show cats and the tall fussy man sitting on my bed.
“Maybe. Doesn’t make him wrong. And he had some troubling things to say about Ben’s not-so-private predilections.”
“So what, he has a red room? Don’t all you posh Brits?”
Lee sighs. “I mean…at his age, there’s only one reason he gives attention to a college girl.”
“First, he’s twenty-seven, not thirty-five. And second, ouch, okay?”
