The high-pitched ring of the doorbell pierced the air, and Skye erupted into a cacophony of barks. Sam and Clara froze, eyes wide with panic.
‘Shit!’ he hissed, frantically scanning the room for his jeans and shirt. ‘I need to hide in case that artist neighbour of yours is looking for a life model.’
Clara was already snatching up her t-shirt and pulling it over her head. ‘Where are my trousers?’
They scrambled to dress, bumping into each other in their haste. Sam hopped on one foot, trying to pull on his boxers while Clara shimmied into her trousers. The doorbell rang again.
‘Just a minute!’ Clara called out.
Sam nipped up the stairs to the loo and quickly tied off the condom and wrapped it in loo roll before shoving it deep into the bin.
He heard voices at the door but couldn’t make out what they were saying as he splashed cold water on his face, trying to calm his flushed cheeks. His pulse still throbbed in his ears as he smoothed down his rumpled shirt before opening the door and moving to the top of the stairs to listen.
‘Oh, I have a friend over,’ he heard Clara say.
Before he could move, a woman wearing a navy striped top and jeans looked up at him from the bottom of the stairs. She didn’t look like a mad artist. In fact, she looked a bit like Clara, though perhaps a few years older, with slightly shorter brown hair. Her curious gaze swept over Sam. A young girl with two long ponytails, no more than six, peered around her legs.
‘Ah… that’s him.’ Clara held out her hand, indicating up the stairs. ‘That’s Sam, and, Sam, this is my sister, Harriet, and my niece, Molly.’
Sam came down the stairs and offered his hand to Harriet. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you both.’
‘Likewise.’ Harriet’s eyes darted between Sam and Clara. ‘We’ve been visiting Dairvin Castle today with my in-laws. They’re in the car, so I won’t hang around, but we have a bag of Skye’s toys. She left them at ours when Clara was in Somerset, and I thought we’d hand them in as we were passing.’ Her gaze sharpened. ‘Aren’t you the friend she went with?’
‘Um… Yes.’
‘I see.’ She looked over at Clara, almost like she was about to laugh. Sam’s face grew warm.
Clara shot him a look that was equal parts embarrassment and amusement. ‘Do you want a coffee?’
‘No, we better not hang around. I wasn’t even sure if you’d be here. I was just going to leave the bag on the doorstep, but I saw your car.’
Skye bounded around, tail wagging furiously and Molly sank onto the floor to play with her.
Sam hovered by the stairs, acutely aware of Harriet’s expression. She was clearly trying to piece together the nature of his relationship with Clara.
‘Right, poppet.’ Harriet smiled at Molly. ‘I’m going to have to drag you away from Skye. Nanny and Papa are waiting in the car, so let’s go.’
‘You can come and see her another day,’ Clara said.
Sam kept smiling as Harriet chivvied Molly away from Skye.
‘Nice to meet you,’ Sam said.
‘And you.’ Harriet ran her fingers through her glossy brown bob, raised an eyebrow slightly, then turned to Clara and grinned with a know-it-all look.
When they were finally out of the house, Sam and Clara looked at each other and burst out laughing.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever been caught out like that in my life before.’ Clara covered her mouth. ‘You’re a bad influence on me.’
‘Me?’ Sam goggled at her. ‘I’ve never doneanythinglike that before.’
‘Same. I was very vanilla until I met you.’
Sam could relate, and it would be hard to go back to that, not now that he’d sampled something much tastier.
Sam spent the second week of the Easter holidays with the boys, which meant no overnight stays for Clara, but she joined them for a day he wouldn’t forget. They went to a trampoline park – where Sam discovered muscles he never knew he had – and later spent an afternoon at her cottage, walking the trails through the Glenvorneth woods with Skye bounding ahead. The boys and the dog hit it off immediately, racing through the trees and returning breathless and laughing, faces flushed with spring air. It had been years since Sam had had a dog of his own, not since the boys were little. He’d forgotten how comforting it wasto have that unconditional love and exuberant greeting waiting for you.
On the drive back, Sam took a small detour in Glenbriar to show his sons the high school as they kept reminding him they’d not seen it yet.
