‘I’ll give you a hand.’ Joe rolled up his sleeves and began filling the sink with water.
‘Thanks,’ she said, and she readjusted her hair clip. Joe smiled and then looked away.
‘Did you get the dog food?’ This was the level she needed to keep it at with Joe – mundane and perfunctory.
‘Yeah, I wasn’t sure I was going to get Jessie away from Tiny. She’s proper bonkers about dogs. But then I was the same at that age.’
‘I remember,’ said Lottie, failing to hide the sadness the memories brought to her eyes. She snatched up a Pyrex jug. They needed gravy, and she needed a distraction. She hastily tugged at the foil on a chicken stock cube, and as the foil gave way, the cube inside exploded in her face.
‘Ow! My eye,’ said Lottie, dropping the rest of the cube and feeling it crunch underfoot.
‘Here, let me look.’ Joe took her arm and guided her to the light of the window. ‘Head up.’
She struggled to look at him through her good eye, shewasn’t good at winking but she could see he was smiling. ‘Open your eye then.’
‘This isn’t funny,’ she remonstrated. ‘It’s really stinging.’
He gave a jolly snort. ‘Only you could get injured by a stock cube.’ There was pure affection in his voice. Or perhaps she was imagining it. Joe was so close he could have kissed her. For a moment she wondered if he was going to. Her pulse quickened. ‘Blink,’ he instructed. He tore off a piece of kitchen roll, wet it and gently dabbed around her eye.
‘Is it okay?’ she asked, continuing to blink with her mouth open in what she knew was a particularly unattractive manner – but she couldn’t help it. And at least that would kill any romantic notions.
‘Yeah, a dash of water and that’s the gravy done,’ he quipped. ‘It’s nothing a roast potato can’t fix.’
Chapter Seventeen
Emily wandered into the kitchen. ‘How’s it going?’ she asked.
Lottie squinted at her through one eye. ‘Not great.’
Joe was drying up a saucepan. ‘She got gravy in her eye,’ he said, with a smile.
‘Gravy?’
‘I was attacked by an exploding stock cube,’ explained Lottie.
Emily was puzzled as to how a stock cube could explode exactly. ‘O-kay. Can I help?’
‘Here.’ Joe threw the tea towel to her as he passed. ‘I need to make some happy Christmas phone calls to the States.’
Emily caught the tea towel and set to work.
‘Did you and Zach sort things out about the … adult films?’ asked Lottie.
‘Yeah. It was his mate who paid for them. I guess if there’s free porn on TV most men are going to watch it. And to be honest, it does sound like it was hard to avoid – they were sharing a room. And, you know, stag weekends,’ said Emily with a shrug.
‘Hen nights aren’t much better. People go a bit crazy.’
‘I prefer a nice spa,’ said Emily. ‘I’d love a massage right now.’ Lottie’s lips twitched. ‘Oh, not that I don’t want to be here. I’m having a nice time.’
‘How are you finding it so far?’ asked Lottie. ‘It’s okay. I know what a complete nightmare this family is – and that’s from someone on the inside. I can’t begin to imagine the horror it must seem from your perspective.’
Emily tried not to blush, but it was impossible. She turned to face the draining board. She didn’t want Lottie to see her when she lied. ‘No, it’s lovely. They’re all very … lovely.’
The laughter that came from Lottie was one step away from maniacal villain. ‘No, they’re not. It’s okay, you don’t have to lie to me.’
Emily relaxed a fraction. ‘I guess they are a bit quirky.’
‘Quirky? I’d like to say they put the “fun” in “dysfunctional” … but they don’t.’
