Nick rolled his eyes, frowned at Alex’s bare chest and stomach, and then gestured at Abi. “Seriously, you make the rest of us look bad.” Alex caught the way Riley flinched, and he wanted to clap a hand over Nick’s mouth. “And you give Abi ideas of grandeur. She’ll expect me to look like that, and it’s just not happening.”
“Don’t worry.” Abi patted Nick’s belly and gave him a kiss. “If I made you exercise, then I’d have to join you, and that’s not happening either.”
“Was that meant to be a “you’re perfect just the way you are” speech?” Nick elbowed her gently.
She laughed again before reaching up to give him a kiss. “You’re perfect, and I love you.”
She grinned at him, and Nick leaned in to whisper something Alex couldn’t quite catch, thank God.
Riley huffed from where he was pouring out three coffees. “Go back upstairs if you’re going to be all—” He waved his hand about. “—coupley. I can’t put up with that for another two days.”
Abi let go of Nick’s hand and walked over to join Riley. She bit her lip, and all of a sudden, she seemed far too shifty for Alex’s liking. “Well, actually you won’t have to.”
Riley set the milk down on the worktop and turned to face her. “What do you mean?”
She glanced at Nick. “Nick got called in to work.”
“What?” both Alex and Riley said at once.
Alex moved closer, set his mug on the kitchen worktop, and looked from Abi to Nick. “I thought you were off until Tuesday?”
“I was supposed to be, but they’ve suddenly got four nurses off sick with this flu thing that’s doing the rounds. They’re really short-staffed and asked if there was any way I could go in.”
“Why didn’t you say no?” Would Alex go in if his dad phoned up? Maybe… probably.Ugh.And Nick was a nurse, not a mechanic.
“Because I don’t want to leave them in the shit.”
Alex sighed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” As much as he wouldn’t want to go back early, he could see Nick’s point, and he didn’t want to be a twat about it. “Let’s have some breakfast, and then we can get packed up and go.”
This time Nick was the one to appear shifty, and Alex started to get a bad feeling. One glance at Riley told him he wasn’t the only one. Riley’s expression was darkening by the second as he listened to them explain.
Nick ran a hand through his hair. “We’re actually going to head out in about half an hour or so. We’re all packed.” He pointed out the window at the sky, now beginning to cloud over slightly. “They forecast snow at lunchtime, so we want to get on our way as early as we can.”
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Alex grumbled. “You might have to wait, because there’s no way I’m driving back without breakfast. And I’ll need at least twenty minutes to get dressed and put all my stuff in the car.”
“You can stay here.” Abi lifted her chin a little as she spoke. “There’s no point in all of us going back. We can take Jake and Dylan in our car, and you can bring Riley home on Tuesday.”
She winced as she finished talking, and Alex stared at her, incredulous.
“It was your idea for us all to come up here. We only arrived yesterday.”
“I know, but….” She shrugged and fell silent.
Were they really doing what Alex thought they were doing? In the most unsubtle move of all time, were they leaving Riley and Alex on their own at the lodge on purpose? Either Alex wasn’t the only one who thought their relationship had gone a little awry, or there was something else going on he wasn’t privy to. Either way, it felt an awful lot like they were being set up, and he didn’t like it one bit.
Riley shot Nick a fierce glare, then marched past them all and up the stairs. A door slammed a few seconds later and the three of them jumped.
“So.” Alex leaned back against the worktop and folded his arms. “Anyone care to explain what the fuck’s going on?”
Nick copied his pose. “I really do have to go into work tomorrow, and snow is forecast.”
“Fair enough.” Alex glanced up at the stairs pointedly. “But that doesn’t explain why we aren’t all going back together, or why Riley just stormed off in a fucking mood.”
Abi handed Nick a coffee, then met Alex’s gaze. “You can’t fit more than two people in your car, so not everyone can stay. And there’s no point in us all missing out on the last couple of days.”
Alex waited for more, eyebrows raised.
She gave in. “Ugh, fine. I think you and Riley need to talk, and this is the ideal opportunity.”
