“He looks like my brother.” She didn't sound too happy about the fact. “I really wanted him to look more like me, or Owen, but now Seph's all peacocking because his nephew looks more like his son.”
I laughed. I'd already heard Seph bragging about how the baby looked more like him than Owen. I knew why he was doing it; he was trying to wind up Payton and Owen, rather than being actually bothered. Although he was over the moon about the baby, and when I'd seen him holding Tomas, smiling down at him and whispering things that none of the rest of us could hear, I'd wanted to snatch back the words I'd said last week and swallow them.
“So what's going on with you and Seph? You're not coming to the wedding - we all hoped you would.” Payton was particularly good at getting straight to the point.
She and my sister had met once a few weeks ago and they'd immediately hit it off. They were both a little bit abrupt, both slightly dramatic, and both lacked a certain filter. Maybe that was why Seph and I managed to get along, we’d both survived siblings who were very similar.
“I'm taking Rose to see my mum in Spain.” It wasn't an excuse; it was something I really wanted to do, although there was a part of me that wanted Seph to come with us so she could meet him, and I could introduce him as something more than just my colleague and a friend who I’d been seeing.
I was just too chicken shit.
“Combine the two.” Payton's eyes were fixed on her son, although she had not made any gesture to say she wanted to take him back yet. “You can do both. and then you can stop Seph from being such a miserable bugger.”
“He's miserable? He's been pretty much the same with me.” Although we'd only slept together twice since I told him that I wanted to slow things down, and both times have been in the office. He hadn't stayed over at mine since. He hadn’t asked, and I suppose I hadn't suggested it.
“Seriously?” Payton gave me a look that suggested she thought I'd lost my mind somewhere in the Thames. “He might have been trying to put a brave face on in front of you, but he's been moping about everywhere. Whatever you said to him has really thrown him.”
I knew she was hinting for me to tell her what’s been said.
“I told him we needed to slow things down.”
“Why?” Her response was immediate. And short.
I shrugged, staring back at the baby and smiling at him. He really was perfect. “I'm worried we've been moving too fast. We were spending most evenings together, and Rose kind of took it for granted that he was always going to be there. I guess I didn't want either of us to get too used to him being around in case he changed his mind.”
Payton managed to raise one single eyebrow high enough so it looked like it was actually going to get lost in her hair. “Do you really think my brother was going to change his mind about you? Do you really think he’d have gotten so attached to Rose and have let her get so attached to him, if he didn't intend to stick around?”
“I wasn't sure.”
“Really? Seph's many things, but he isn't stupid, and he isn't unkind. He knows the effect it would have on Rose if she got used to him and then he disappeared. Georgia, he's absolutely crazy about you, and I guess it's only been a few months, but sometimes that's all you need to know.” She sipped at the herbal tea she'd ordered, still caffeine free, which I found rather admirable.
“I was with Rose’s dad for nine months when I found out I was pregnant. That's longer than I've been with Seph for. That's all I've got to compare it to.” I rearranged the baby in my arms. He was a decent weight already, and I hated to think what he was going to weigh in another few months’ time.
Payton looked out of the café window at the street that cut towards Borough Market. “Is Seph anything like your ex?”
I laughed, the comparison between them almost impossible given how different they were. “Nothing like him.”
“So why think that what you've got with Seph is going to turn out anything like what you had with him. For a start, if you got pregnant, I'm pretty sure Seph would throw a party.”
The waitress behind us spoke overly loudly to the people at the table there, giving me a few extra seconds to think of how to respond. Baby Tomas gurgled happily, and I let my mind go to that place from where I'd been trying to stop it from straying. The idea of Seph with our baby.
He was amazing with Rose. He was amazing with all of his nieces and nephews: fun, patient, kind, but I'd also seen him be firm and not let any of them get away with too much. I knew he would be a great dad, and that thought did more to my insides than even holding Payton’s baby boy.
“Oh, shit. Someone's broody.” Her smile was the same level of evil as what I'd seen on Maxwell Callaghan's face when he deliberately moved Jackson’s car and hid it.
“I'm not broody.”
Peyton laughed. “I promise I won't tell Seph that you only want him for his sperm.”
I groaned. At some point she’d say exactly that to her brother. I just hoped his reaction would be the right one.
Rose’s reactionwhen the doorbell rang was a little like what you would’ve expected if it had been Santa Claus in the middle of July. She leapt off the sofa and raced to the door, putting most hundred metre sprinters to shame. Opening the door was not something she was allowed to do, but she knew she could look through the letterbox and see who it was, which was exactly what she did to see if this was the person she was most looking forward to laying her eyes on.
“Seph’s here, Mummy!” She stood up and did a little jump for joy. “Can I let him in? Is he going to stay tonight so you can both walk me to Elspeth's tomorrow?”
My heart sank quickly to adapt at such a rate I was pretty sure it was getting the bends.
“I don't think he can, Sweetie.” I leaned over her and opened the door, spotting that brown head of hair belonging to my colleague, first giving her a big wide grin and then toning it down to me.
