“Cwunchy cuddle?”
“Yeah, one with tickles. We can practice on Daddy.” Jodi lifted Indie up onto his shoulders and caught Rupert’s surprised gaze. “Ready?”
“Erm, okay. Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t—”
“Shut it,” Jodi said. “I’m coming.”
A while later, Jodi found himself at the top of a steep slide with Indie on his lap. “It’s a long way down. Sure you don’t want Daddy to catch you at the bottom?”
“No! Let’s go! Let’s go!” Indie banged her fists on Jodi’s thighs.
Jodi laughed. Indie was a sweet girl, but her chubby cheeks and slender bones belied the rambunctious daredevil who’d been tearing around the park and run both him and Rupert ragged. He pushed off the slide and sent them zooming to the bottom where Rupert plucked Indie from Jodi’s lap and swung her over his head. His grin was a mile wide, and Jodi was transfixed by the pair of them, identical in all but eye colour. Had he ever seen anything as innocently beautiful?
Not that he could think of, and the sight of Rupert and Indie dancing around the park in the sun reminded him that he’d crashed their playdate. “I’m gonna chip off,” he said. “Call me later?”
Rupert set Indie on the roundabout. “Gotta get back, eh? Work to do?”
“Always. I’m home tonight, though, if you fancy a Skype chat?”
Rupert rolled his eyes. Jodi had been trying to persuade him to get Skype since they’d met, but he held firm. Apparently, technology was wasted on him. “I’ll call you. Indie? Jodi’s going now.”
Indie hopped nimbly from the roundabout and climbed up Jodi’s legs until she was safe in his arms. “Can we go ice skating next time?”
“Next time?” The thought of seeing her again was more heartwarming and appealing than he’d ever thought possible. “Sure, but you’ll have to stop me falling on my arse—er—bum, okay?”
Rupert coughed, hiding his grin, and pried Indie back. “That makes two of us you’ll have to supervise, kiddo. Say bye to Jodi.”
They said their goodbyes, and Jodi left them to it, fighting the urge to glance over his shoulder as he walked away. Kiddie time in the park wasn’t how he’d expected to spend his afternoon, but he’d loved every moment, and though he really did have work to do, going home was the last thing on his mind. He caught a bus back to Tottenham. As Harringay disappeared behind him, he pulled out his phone and sent a text to the one person in the world he loved as much as he was coming to love Rupert.
Fancy some pie and mash?
* * *
Sophie met him in Tottenham at their favourite hole-in-the wall café, a dive that served all-day breakfasts and the best pie and mash in London. Jodi’s Mediterranean brunch felt like a lifetime ago. He ordered as much as he dared before Sophie reined him in.
“Flipping heck, Jodi. I haven’t got hollow legs, you know. Some of us can’t eat our body weight in gravy and get away with it.”
“Fuck off. I’m having two pies.” Jodi placed his order, paid for both of them, then steered Sophie to a table by the steamed-up windows. “Besides, you’re bloody gorgeous and you know it. More of you, the better.”
Sophie pulled a face that did nothing to make her any less lovely. She’d put on a few pounds since she’d quit her job as an estate agent and retrained as a nursery nurse, and she looked amazing.
“So ...” Sophie dumped sugar in her tea. “To what do I owe the pleasure? I’ve been trying to get you to buy me lunch for weeks.”
“Hey, that’s not my fault. You’re never around when I’m free.”
“That’s because I work all day and sleep all night, like the rest of the world. Try it some time.”
“I’ll have you know I went to bed at eleven o’clock last night.” Jodi didn’t add that by then he’d been up for thirty-six hours, rushing to meet a deadline he’d neglected in favour of rolling around on the floor with Rupert. He didn't have to. Sophie knew him well enough to fill in the blanks.
“So when do I get to meet this hunky fireman, then?” she said on cue. “How long have you been seeing him?”
Jodi counted back in his head. He’d met Rupert on Boxing Day, and it was April now. “Four months.”
“Pictures.” Sophie held out her hand for Jodi’s phone.
He relinquished it, waiting until a waitress had set their plates on the table before he directed Sophie to the album where he’d stored the precious few snaps he’d managed to sneak of Rupert.
His heaping plate of two steak-and-ale pies with mash, peas, and gravy proved a welcome distraction as Sophie scrolled through them. He’d made good headway by the time she passed the phone back with a low whistle.
