I want that with Anita.
That thought prompts me to speak as I watch Liv make her way into the kitchen.
“Drink?” She stands with the fridge door open.
“I’ll do it,” Mase says, taking some milk from her hand.
She rolls her eyes at him then she looks at me. “Dec, do you want a drink?”
“Where’s Anita?” I ignore her question but have found my voice at least.
“Home.”
I absorb her reply before a frown mars my brow. “She doesn’t have a key. How long ago did you drop her off? I don’t want her hanging around for me.”
I get the roll of Liv’s eyes now.
“You men are so conceited and cocksure! I said she has gonehome.” She overemphasises the word home as if she is trying to convey some other meaning, but it is wasted on me.
I stare at her, silently fuming that I am no closer to knowing where my lady is, but silently accept that although she is being a bit of an arse about it, this is a situation of my own making, not Liv’s.
A very small, but unamused laugh leaves Liv’s mouth. “She has a key toherhome. She has gone home.”
“Why?” My question doesn’t need an answer and I am relieved when Liv doesn’t offer one. “You took her there instead of here!” My tone is accusatory and that was my intention.
“Declan,” Mase warns.
Liv steps closer. “Declan, I am a grown-up and another grown-up asked me to take her home. I knew you wouldn’t be happy, said as much to her, but it was her choice, just like it was yours and Mase’s to lie to our faces. Now, normally, you’d be welcome to stay, but assuming you don’t want the drink that was offered, Mase and I have an argument to have before I go to bed to sleep because my baby considers two in the morning the time to lie on my bladder and then I struggle to get back to sleep.”
She rubs her belly and smiles softly.
“Yeah. Sorry. Mase, I’ll catch you tomorrow, and Liv, I don’t need to know when you are peeing.” I lean in and land a kiss to her cheek before rushing back to the lift.
Before the doors have closed, I hear Liv speak. “Who the fuck is Audrey and why have you lied to me?”
I swallow down my guilt and will the lift to travel quicker so I can go and explain myself to Anita, not that I have actually thought that plan through because it is now after midnight and I assume her and her parents are all in bed.
Pulling up outside her family home that is in darkness, I briefly question if this is a mistake. I push that thought down and am out of my car and heading to the front door. Pausing, I look at the doorbell and the darkened house again. Maybe I should wait. Or not. I pull my phone from my pocket and type a message.
Anita
I’ve tossed and turned from the second I got into bed which was about half an hour after Liv left. However, I am struggling to get to sleep. I have so many questions in my head. Questions for Dec and for the first time since returning home, I begin to wonder if I should have waited for him. No. If I’d waited, we would have ended up arguing because I am angry as well as hurt.
My mind turns to that woman, Audrey. Who is she and what could be so awful that Dec felt the need to lie about her identity and drag his brother into it? I brush off any guilt I feel emerging for Mase. He’s a big boy and although I know their intentions are well meant, Mase and Liv think nothing of offering opinions on my relationship with Dec. I love that Liv cares so much and I do acknowledge that Mase is a little more reluctant to be involved, but they are.
The sound of my message alert breaks my thoughts and then I hear something else. A tapping sound but without any regular pattern or rhythm. I hear it again as I sit up and reach for my phone to find a message from Dec.
Then the tapping sounds again. Shit! It’s something hitting the window. Dec.
I rush to the window before he wakes anyone else. Pulling the curtains back I see him standing beneath my window and as I open it something hits me, a small piece of gravel, the sort we have on the ground around the path. At least I know what he was throwing at my window.
Dec drops his hand, presumably releasing more stones.
“Window’s open,” I whisper down. “You can go now.”
