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‘Maybe. I don’t know yet.’ But that wasn’t exactly true, was it? Euan was special all right. Perhaps a bit too special for her.
‘Give it time.’ Ann settled into her chair, squinting across the lawn to where Euan and Paul were fiddling with one of the windows of the summer house, which seemed to need a shove to close properly. ‘Men and sheds, eh?’
‘It’s a summer house, not a shed.’
Ann grinned. ‘It’s made of wood, and not joined to the house, isn’t it? It’s all just a matter of scale.’
* * *
Euan had liked Ann and Paul. Paul’s quiet, easygoing sense of humour had thinly disguised what was obviously a keen interest in Euan’s work, and the part that Sam’s software would play in the charity’s operation. Euan had answered his questions as candidly as he could, brushing away Paul’s apology for being direct. The man had lost one daughter and was obviously keen to protect the other. Euan could only offer compassion for the former and agree with him with regard to the latter.
‘So what’s the matter with the window of the summer house?’ Sam was stretched out on the sofa in his house with him, doing nothing now that Ann and Paul had gone home. Doing nothing with Sam was better than doing pretty much anything else with anyone else.
‘It’s swollen a bit. Just needs a rub down and another coat of wood preservative.’
She nodded. Yawned, and shifted in his arms. ‘Thanks for today. I enjoyed it.’
‘Good. Would you like me to walk you back to the flat?’ He’d learned that if he suggested it as if it was a part of the natural state of things Sam was less embarrassed about going.
‘Um... No. Not yet.’ She snuggled in closer and Euan suppressed a grin. Maybe tonight she’d lie down with him to sleep. It would make him feel a lot happier about having sex with her, as if he wasn’t just taking what he wanted and then letting her go.
‘Do you think...?’ She tapped his chest with her finger, just in case she didn’t have his full attention.
‘All the time. What am I thinking in particular?’
‘Do you think I’m too...well behaved?’
‘Much too well behaved. Considering you do bad behaviour so well...’
She giggled and applied an elbow to his ribs. ‘I don’t mean that. Ann was saying this afternoon that I was too well behaved when I was little.’
An astute lady. ‘And...?’
‘I don’t know. I wondered what you thought.’
‘Well, at a rough guess...’ Euan dropped a kiss onto her forehead ‘...we all seek approval from the people around us. Some kids react to rejection by trying too hard. Being too well behaved.’
‘Mmm.’ She snuggled sleepily into his arms. ‘I’ll think about it.’
He chuckled. ‘Do that. And talking about bad behaviour, I personally don’t have any objection to you snoring.’
‘I don’t snore.’
‘Or if you fart in bed, or thrash around in your sleep. Or if you become a creature of the
night and try to bite me. Actually, that might prove interesting...’
She was laughing now. Just the way he wanted her to. ‘Will you stay tonight, Sam?’
* * *
Sam had thought that perhaps tonight, of all nights, she would sleep peacefully. But still she woke up, cold sweat pricking at her back and the tendrils of a dream clutching at her chest.
Euan was asleep, one arm stretched out towards her, as if he was reaching for her. If only she could just curl up in his arms and go back to sleep. The panic was still too real, though. She was afraid that if she even touched him the poison would somehow migrate from her veins to his.
She got out of bed and pulled on his dressing-gown, padding downstairs and pouring a glass of cold water from the refrigerator. The conservatory was in darkness, criss-crossed by moonlight, and Sam walked through, sitting down in one of the deep, squashy chairs.
‘Can’t sleep?’ She wasn’t sure how long she’d stared up through the glass ceiling at the stars before Euan’s voice made her jump.
