She laughed and her cheeks pinked. “I’m not dating anyone at the moment. I need a man-free few months.”
“Why?”
“Too many idiots. I need to recalibrate. But thank you. I’m flattered. How about a non-date?”
“I’ll take a non-date. If you change your mind and want to make it an actual date, let me know. Shall I show you the Potter books?”
She swung her legs down and picked up what she’d been reading. “I just need to check my phone. It’s been so nice to be away from the office… holy shit.”
Her body stiffened and her face changed to petrified.
“What? What’s the matter?” I moved next to her, my hand automatically touching her shoulder.
Her eyes were wet when she looked up at me and I saw fear. “My sister’s pregnant, really overdue, and she’s just been rushed into hospital for an emergency caesarean. Maxwell and Seph have been trying to phone me—they’re already on their way.”
“What can I do?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t have a car and there’s a train strike on. She’s at a hospital in Oxfordshire near my parents. Maybe I can hire a car.”
* * *
It took just over an hour and a half to get to the hospital, then a further fifteen minutes to find out where Payton’s sister was. I’d driven like The Rock in a Fast and the Furious movie and I suspected I’d possibly picked up a speeding ticket, but Payton’s confident front had melted like an ice cream cone in a toddler’s hands as she’d started to panic over her sister. She’d spent most of the journey on the phone to her twin, who kept ending the call to get more updates from their mother, who I knew was called Marie.
I’d grown up an only child, but we’d always had people round us, and my mother had been the person who took in the waifs and strays who didn’t have family or were on their own for whatever reason, so I had no idea what shyness was. Walking into the waiting room with Payton’s parents, non-pregnant sister and four brothers (two with their partners or wives), didn’t faze me, although Payton, given the speed at which she forewarned me about her family, clearly thought it would do.
From what she’d described, they were a little bit crazy with more than a slice of oddness and I’d probably be interrogated without knowing it, given the stealth skills of her lawyer brothers. Again, I wasn’t worried. I’d been in too many rooms with completely new people to be so and I doubted that I would be even acknowledged, given the severity of what was happening.
“Payton!” A tall man wearing glasses grabbed her as she dashed into the waiting room. Three other dark haired men looked in our direction. “Where were you when I was calling? I wanted to wait but we needed to get here.”
She had her arms wrapped round his waist. “In Owen’s bookstore, reading. I had my phone on silent. Sorry, Seph.” She pushed him away gently and turned to me. “Owen, these are my family.”
I looked at each person as she named them and gave a slight nod.
“How do you two know each other?” the one called Max asked. He was the biggest although Seph was the tallest.
“We bumped into each other on Saturday and I’m now one of Payton’s clients.”
“What’s the case?” her father asked, his expression changing from worry to interest. “I was commercial lit like Payton is now.”
I looked to Payton. They were waiting to hear how her sister Claire and her baby were. The last we had heard was that she’d been taken in for an emergency c-section about twenty minutes ago.
“They’ll all be interested. And it’ll give them something else to think about,” Payton said, managing to give me a smile.
The brief version was still a good fifteen minutes in the telling, taking questions into account. Then Ava, Payton’s younger sister, started to ask questions about the renovations and décor of the buildings and the conversation turned to issues I had around the leases of the premises.
“Thanks, Owen,” Marie, Payton’s mother said.
I answered another question around expansion and a property I had been looking at in Bristol. “You’ve distracted us nicely. My husband won’t think of it as a distraction though: he’ll consider it a good use of his time. If he tries to bill you for it, let me know.” She cracked a wry smile. “I’m going to get coffee for us all and see if I can accost a nurse on the way.” Her gaze turned to her husband. “Come help, Grant.” There were the faintest traces of an American accent still there.
I sat down next to Payton and felt five pairs of eyes land on me. Looking around, I caught each pair until they stood down, knowing I was being assessed.
“How did you manage to get Payton out of work and into a bookstore during daylight hours?” Max said, his arms around the waist of a dark haired woman who was standing in front of him.
I shrugged. “She didn’t take much persuasion and I wanted her to see the Cases that my mum’s partner is part of.”
Max glanced at Jackson. “Can you persuade her to spend more time there this week rather than at work? She refuses to take time off.”
“No I don’t!” She’d been quiet for longer than I’d anticipated. “I have no reason to take time off at the moment. I’ve plenty to sort out.”
