“Yep,” Claire said, thankfully putting down the knife. “She’s even got a date next week.”
I laughed, leaned over the breakfast bar and gave Claire a quick kiss. “I’ll make sure Nick knows. See you in a bit.”
By the time I’d returned, Claire was sitting with Vanessa and Katie in the kitchen which smelled of food. No one was telling her, but Jackson and Nick and I had managed to grab lunch at Borough Market, knowing that dinner was likely to be later than planned and if we headed back to mine sooner, there would be more jobs for us to do.
“You smell of beer,” Claire said as I pulled her into me. “And food.”
“We had a couple of drinks and they were serving food in the pub,” I said, not mentioning eating it. “Is there anything you need me to do?”
She turned around and smiled sweetly. “Yes. The cleaning up afterwards.” I pretended to grumble, grabbing her ass when I was sure no one could see it, and then Jackson and Nick came in. Nick had the twins and chaos resumed.
We ate late, beer and wine and conversation following. Katie was more relaxed and happier than I’d seen her, a twin asleep on her lap, while the other – Margot – fussed with her dad’s beard.
“They were all lovely,” Katie said. “I couldn’t tell you why I didn’t like any of them. None needed any work doing; they were all really secure. In fact, the third house I pretty much could’ve moved straight into.”
“So, what’s put you off making an offer?” Vanessa said.
Katie shrugged. “Didn’t feel right.”
“Maybe now’s not the right time,” Claire said, still nursing half a glass of champagne from when we’d toasted Katie’s Decree Nisi being granted. She still looked pale. “Sell yours and then you’re in a position to make a lower offer as you won’t be in a chain. And you might fancy somewhere out of the city anyway.”
I stopped listening to the conversation, instead watching Nick’s face as Katie talked about houses and where she wanted to live. He wasn’t enjoying himself.
“Nick,” I said. “Nick.” A little louder. His eyes were on Katie. I went up to him and poked him hard in the side of his head. “Come up to the loft with me. I need your thoughts before you have too many beers.”
He looked a little dazed. “Loft?”
“Yeah, I’m going to convert it and you’re going to be helping. Shift it.”
He shook his head. “Now?”
“Yes. To look at it. See what issues there will be.”
He looked between me and Katie and back again.
“You’re being more obvious than normal, bro. Let’s go. Then you can hit the beers.”
He stood up and followed me up the two flights of stairs, looking up at the large hatch into the loft. “Simple job to extend the stairs,” he said. “You’ll lose a bit of the space here, but it’s wasted anyway.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “If it stays empty it’ll end up with a cupboard for Claire’s shoes.”
“So, she’s moving in?”
I nodded, trying to act all cool about it and then the shit-eating grin spread across my face. “Yeah. She’s been here for weeks and she’s going to sell the apartment. We only talked about it this morning but…”
He slapped me on my back, harder than he needed to. “I’m pleased for you,” he said. “You’ve been mooning over her for long enough. May as well stick a ring on it too.”
I shrugged. “It’s on my agenda,” I said. “You don’t think we’re rushing things?” It had occurred to me that it was fast. Only a few weeks ago, we’d not been speaking civilly most of the time.
Nick shook his head. “No. What might be fast is the expanding for the number of people living here. Something you need to tell me?”
“No. We were going through what extra space we needed for Claire’s shoes. And guest rooms, plus when we do have kids we’ll need extra space. We’ve already had Seph turn up here three times wanting somewhere to stay after a night out,” I said. Seph clearly hated living on his own. Last week, he’d blagged a room at everyone else’s house and only stayed at his once. I didn’t mind him being here; the house was big enough that he didn’t cramp our style and he was a decent house guest, but clearly the guy had some issues he needed to work on.
“So, you’ve had the kids talk?”
I grabbed a chair from one of the bedrooms and stood on it to move the loft hatch. There were already ladders to pull down. Telling my brother about what happened that summer had been something I’d dismissed, but now I wanted to share it. We were close, always had been and the time we’d had together in the marines, although brief, had strengthened that. “We have.” He followed me into the loft, a vast high space that was completely empty. “She was pregnant when we split up.”
Nick nodded, using the torch app on his phone to look around. “I always figured it was something like that. How do you feel about it?”
