He bit his lips together, mirth filling his eyes. “Never apologise for that, Georgie.”
I shook my head and dashed into my bedroom, knowing full well I was now redder than I had been when I’d been in the shower.
Exactly seven minuteslater and I was back outside, my traitorous sister wearing running tights and a tank top, standing with Seph while Rose explained in great, half-unintelligible detail about where the unicorn must go and the castle and the rainbow on her wall.
“Rose, I don’t think we’re allowed to do all that. I haven’t checked with the landlord yet.” As much as I didn’t want to disappoint my child, she had to learn to have her bubble burst at some point.
Seph turned to me. “As long as you put it back as it was if you move out, it’ll be okay. I double checked your contract.”
I vaguely remembered reading something. “How did you get it?”
“Ava’s company does the letting management for it. I checked with her.” He smiled. “You dry now?”
I glared. “Fucking hilarious,” I mouthed the words. “I think we should just go with one colour, Rose.” I was not the next Banksy or even the next local graffiti artist. “Next weekend we’ll do it.” When I was feeling a little less delicate.
“But Mummy, Seph said he’d do it. And he’s bought some muriels.”
“Murals.” I corrected this one. “Muriel’s a girl’s name. And Seph’s bought what?” I looked at him, unsure whether pushing him down the stairs would psychologically damage my daughter or just teach her an important life lesson about men who tried to do things without your permission.
Seph sent his kilowatt smile in my direction and I noticed Olivia swoon slightly out of the corner of my eye. I’d murder her later. When my hangover had gone.
“I remembered how Rose had wanted her room to look and my sister had these in.” He pointed to three very big rolls of something on the carpet. “I picked up paint this morning. Figured I could get started to give you a hand.”
I stared at him.
“I need coffee.”
“Mummy, can I have a foonicorn on my wall?” Rose tugged at my jumper. “Please! Pwetty pwease with sugar on top and sprinkles.”
The lisp was all pretend because someone had once told her it was cute and would get her anything. Yet another reason to use my sister’s corpse as fish food.
“I still need coffee.”
Two cupsof a coffee and a fresh croissant with strawberry jam and proper Irish butter later, I’d given in and my daughter was getting a huge fancy wall mural with foonicorns, a rainbow, castle and probably a handsome prince, which judging by the way she was following Seph around everywhere, would look just like him.
“I think my daughter’s got a crush on you.” I whispered the words to him as he stirred the paint that he was about to emulsion her bedroom with, after shifting all the furniture to the centre of the room. His T-shirt clung quite nicely and given how he’d looked at me when I stepped out of the bathroom, I didn’t bother to avert my stare.
“Like mother, like daughter then.” His words induced a shiver right to my nipples.
“In your dreams.”
His laugh was loud. “Yep. I can describe them to you, if you want.”
My mind and lady parts were having a serious disagreement right now. “Shall I get Rose out of your way? She’s going to want to ‘help’.” My mind won.
He shook his head. “Only if you’re bothered about her getting paint on her. I’ve brought a small brush for her to paint with. He pointed to where he’d laid out the brushes he’d brought.
“You’re prepared.”
He nodded, suddenly serious. “For stuff like this I am. For some things, I wasn’t prepared at all.”
Did he mean me? I felt my cheeks flush and my heart rate soared. This time my mind was in agreement with my lady parts.
“Why are you here? It’s a Saturday. Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“Nope. And like I said, I remembered what Rose had said about her bedroom and figured you hadn’t gotten round to painting yet. Thought I’d help acolleagueout.” His grin was sheer dirt.
“Fine. I have a date with the couch and Love Island.”
