Maybe it was because he’d called me out but also given me space to figure out my feelings and start to accept what I was going through.
“Good, because I found some,” Harper said, triumphantly producing a packet of chocolate chips from the back of one of the cupboards. He tilted his head curiously and frowned as he looked over at me. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Just thinking how much I liked kissing you last night.”
Harper’s cheeks flushed slightly but there was a wicked glint in his eye that made my stomach twist. “Good, because I liked kissing you too. And I think we should do more of it.”
“So do I.” I closed the gap between us and put my hand on his waist to pull him against me, sighing as I finally got another taste of his strawberry lip balm.
Breakfast was going to take fucking forever to make. And for once, I didn’t give a shit.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Harper
“Harper, over here!”Hannah waved at me through the crowd, her pink summer dress making her instantly visible, Jack beside her in a tiny Lincoln Knights shirt and fire engine red shorts. I almost wanted to keel over from how freaking adorable he looked.
He waved as soon as he spotted me, bouncing up and down on the spot. “Harper! It’s me!”
“Hey,” I said as I slid through the throng of fans heading for the stadium. I barely had time to greet Hannah before Jack threw himself at me, his whole body practically fizzing with excitement as I scooped him up. “Hey, Jack, how’re you? Have you had a fun weekend?”
“Yes! We went to the zoo and saw giraffes! And penguins! There was penguins, Harper!”
“Penguins? That’s so cool. I love penguins.”
“Penguins are Mummy’s favourite,” Jack said in a stage whisper. “She said they’re cute and have wobble.”
“They waddle. But they are very cute,” Hannah said. She looked a little more tired than she had on Friday, but since I didn’t look much better due to my two-in-the-morning bedtime, I couldn’t judge. “And you got your face painted, didn’t you, pumpkin?”
“You got your face painted?”
“Yeah! Like a tiger,” Jack said, following it up with his best tiger roar as he made little claws with his hands.
“Don’t worry, I took pictures,” Hannah said. “I meant to send them last night but I crashed as soon as Jack went to bed.”
“I can totally understand. I don’t know how you do it with the jet lag.”
I was pretty sure she was alluding to the exhaustion of keeping up with Jack’s energy levels, but one thing I’d learnt as a nanny was that sometimes you needed to lie or twist the conversation slightly so parents didn’t feel bad. I’d once hidden the fact a child had started walking until his mum saw it herself over the weekend because I hadn’t wanted her to be consumed by guilt that she’d missed it. I think she’d figured what I’d done, but she’d never said anything. But she had given me some lovely Christmas presents with a handwritten thank-you note for everything I’d done for her.
“You get used to it after a while, but it still catches up to you when you least expect it, especially if you’re busy,” she said, smiling fondly at Jack. “Shall we go in? Did Matty get you a pass?”
“Yes and yes,” I said and produced the required ticket from my pocket, ignoring the nerves simmering in my gut. I’d not been to a lot of large sporting events and never a rugby match, and going to one with the mother of the child I nannied and whose ex-partner I’d spent a considerable amount of time making out with last night was not how I’d envisioned my first experience of the sport.
“Perfect. We’ll go up to the family lounge and get a certain someone a sausage sandwich.”
“Me,” Jack said, wiggling out of my arms to grab my hand. “I want gogagges.”
“We don’t actually watch a lot of rugby, so I hope you weren’t planning to enjoy the match,” Hannah said as we walked towards the gate we’d need.
“Confession time, I don’t know anything about rugby, so I doubt I’d know what was going on anyway. The closest I’ve come to watching it are clips on Instagram. And I think those are Sevens? But I had to look that up too.”
“I’ll explain as much as I can, but my grasp on the rules is tenuous at best.”
“We can figure it out together,” I said, making sure Jack stayed close beside me as we went through security. The guards all seemed to know Hannah and Jack, and several of them gave him little high fives or fist bumps.
My nerves bubbled up again as we climbed the stairs to the lounge. I didn’t know who’d be here and while Matty had given me a few names, I hadn’t wanted to bother him for more details when he was deep in pre-match preparation. Hannah must have been psychic, though, or seen the worry on my face because she paused at the top of the stairs and said, “Have you met anyone from the Knights yet?”
I shook my head. “No, not yet.”
