‘Thank you.’ I reached up and planted another slow kiss on him when I got him safely indoors.
Megan clapped beside me before squealing. ‘You must be Henry. I’ve heard soooo much about you.’
‘Megan,’ I threatened.
‘All good, I hope?’ Henry said, giving my sister a sunny smile.
‘Something about a little piece of metal…’
I picked up a brush and threw it at her.
But I didn’t care.
Henry was here.
He’d chosen to be here.
And for the first time, trying didn’t feel like a risk.
thirty-three
HENRY
The Maldives'sun baked my skin, toasting me like an oversized Scottish marshmallow. It was late January, thirty degrees Celsius, with the sea stretching out as far as the eye could see. I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head around the fact that I was there.
Half lying and half melted into a private sunbed with Amanda tucked against my chest, one leg thrown over mine as if she’d claimed me.
She was scribbling numbers into a Sudoku book with utmost focus, her nose crinkling as her eyes followed the rows and columns. It was like gobbledeygook to me. Really, I was just enjoying the view of her in today's spectacularly small bikini.
‘No, look,’ she sighed, tapping her pen against a box. ‘If the seven goes here, then the five has to be on this row, and the three can’t go there?—’
‘Right,’ I said, even though I didn’t follow a damn thing, but I liked that she enjoyed it. She filled in the next three numbers with effortless precision.
I stared at the page, then at her, then back at the page. ‘Is that it?’
‘Sure is.’ She took a sip of her cocktail before flopping back against me, basking like an upturned lizard.
‘That took you all of about eight seconds.’
‘It was an easy one to be fair.’
I love how smart you are. The brains to my brawn.’
She blushed, but tried to hide it by fiddling with the pen.
‘It’s just numbers. Is there anything else you adore?’ she asked lightly, eyes flicking up, devilment waiting in those brown orbs.
‘Oh, plenty.’
‘Go on, then.’
‘Alright…’ I leaned back, letting the sun warm my chest. ‘I adore the way your nostrils flare when you’re being a complete control freak.’
She swatted my thigh. ‘Charming.’
‘And the way you soften when you finally stop overthinking and let me take care of things.’
She didn’t swat me for that one. She just bit her lip and smiled.
