“I need help working out how I handle the meeting. Those first few moments. I walk into the room and—” She glanced at him. “And what? What do I do?”
“What would you normally do?”
“I’d hug everyone. Generally I’m not much of a hugger, but if you don’t hug family they just hug you anyway so you might as well go along with it and get it done.” She narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. “Are you laughing?”
“No. Definitely not laughing.”
“Are you sure? Because your eyes have gone crinkly at the corners.”
“It’s the sun.”
“Oh.”
“So what exactly are you asking me?”
“Do I hug Hayley? I’ve never met her before. Seems a bit much. Will she think it’s a bit much or will she expect it?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you take the lead from her.”
“Wait to see if she grabs me, you mean? Good plan. Okay, so that’s Hayley sorted out. The others are obvious, so that just leaves Declan. Am I supposed to hug Declan? I’ve beenavoiding him for so long I have no idea what a normal greeting would be.”
He kept his eyes on the road. “Did you used to hug him?”
“Never. He was a colleague. If I’d hugged him we both would have been hauled up in front of management. And when we were outside work he was just a friend so hugging would have been weird. Trust me, he would have found it weird too. But now? We’re related. It’s different. It’s going to be awkward.”
“Does it have to be awkward? It’s not as if anyone knows you have feelings for him.” He took the road that ran adjacent to the coast.
“Youknow.”
“I don’t count. There are plenty of things I know about you that other people don’t.”
“That’s true.”
In the distance she could see the jagged outline of a castle.
They were almost home. She felt slightly sick.
“Will you come in with me?” She blurted the words out. “I mean, you’re Jamie’s closest friend. It would be entirely normal for you to want to say hi right away and roast him about the fact he didn’t ask you to be best man and all those male bonding type of insults.”
He glanced at her briefly. “You want me to come in with you?”
“Yes. That’s pathetic, isn’t it?” She slumped slightly in her seat. “I’m pathetic. Since when have I needed to ask a man to hold my hand through something difficult? I hate myself.”
“But you’re not asking me because I’m a man, are you? You’re asking me because I’m a friend.” His attention was back on the road, so she could no longer see his expression.
“Yeah, you’re right. A friend.” And when you thought of it like that it sounded different. Better. “And it would mean I’d owe you. So you can call in the favour any time. If your printerbreaks, or you click on a link you shouldn’t have clicked on and download a virus—whatever. I’m your woman.”
A faint smile touched his mouth. “You don’t owe me, Becks. A friendship isn’t transactional.”
“Maybe not, but I won’t forget.” She studied him, wondering if she was asking too much. “So will you do it?”
He turned into the lane that led to the house.
“Will I come in with you and hold your hand?”
“Yes. Well, not literally. Metaphorically. Obviously I don’t expect us to walk in there clinging to each other. I just—it would be nice if you were by my side, that’s all. It would take some of the heat off me.”
Becky held her breath as she waited for his answer.
