He thought her boyfriend was an arsehole. “I think if he wanted to tell you that he misses you, he would have said so. Or he could have called.”
Reeti nodded. “He’s just not that into you.”
Dee’s lips curved. “Are you really giving me relationship advice from a movie?”
“It was a book first.”
Tim had no idea what they were talking about.
“I’m just saying, he’s not going to a lot of effort,” Reeti continued.
“Then why text me at all?”
Reeti shrugged. “Who cares about his reasons? Especially after what he did to you.”
Dee flushed.
Whatdidhe do? Something unforgiveable, Tim thought. Not cheating. She could forgive cheating. Which made her a bigger person than Tim. “You deserve better,” he said.
“That’s it?” Reeti asked. “That’s your male perspective? I could have told her that.”
“But you wouldn’t be as objective,” Tim said. “Not being a man.”
She sputtered.
The corners of Dee’s mouth indented, as if she were trying not to laugh. “Thank you. Not just for the... For saying that. For the peas and the Chelsea buns and the wine and all.”
“D’you want to spend the night?” Reeti asked.
Tim’s mind blanked, flooded with fantasies of Dee spending the night. With him.
“I wish I could.” Dee stood. Reluctantly, it seemed. “But I have to get the girls off to school in the morning.”
Tim lurched to his feet like one of his mother’s well-trained dogs. “I’ll take you home.”
“I can catch the bus.”
“It’s raining,” Reeti said.
Tim waited, willing Dee to say yes. Hoping she would say no.
“Well...” Her smile hit him square in the chest. He almost rubbed his scar. “If it’s not too much trouble...”
“No trouble at all,” he said coolly.
He couldn’t find and kill the arsehole ex. But he could deliver her home safe and dry.
The Rover’s interior wrapped them in a bubble of leather and intimacy. The wipers beat against the comfortable silence.
“It’s your turn,” Dee announced.
He looked at her, fingers pleated together in her lap. Apparently, she did not find silence comfortable. Or perhaps she wasn’t comfortable with him.
“My turn?” he repeated.
She nodded vigorously. “I’ve been going on about me all evening. Now’s your chance to talk.”
“About...”
