“Let’s hope it’s that. Where’s Roman?” Her fiancé wasn’t usually too far away, unless he was working.
“He’s in Amsterdam of all places on a business trip. The company’s investing in a hotel there. Are you in the sunroom?”
“We are.” The conversation meandered around where I’d shown Iris in the town so far while we worked our way through to the sunroom. More people had gathered there, Thane was on the floor with Finn, his twin daughters lying on their bellies colouring which was low key for them. Fleur had sat down with Iris and Romy, Clover joining them, her baby daughter in her arms while her older son was happy to be with Elias.
Amelie helped me dish out the drinks, including taking hers and the gins over to where Iris was still, sitting down with them.
I knew there would be a disguised interrogation going on. I knew that there was curiosity about Iris and had been for some time, which theories being exchanged when my gossiping friends didn’t think I could hear.
I’d stopped my fuckboy ways before Ivy had died, not because of Ivy but because I’d watched Finn grow close to Ruby, seen Thane be taken down by Fleur and my cousins settle down. The dates and almost relationships I’d been in since had never taken off, some for no apparent reason other than the chemistry wasn’t there, or it petered out too quickly, or I just wasn’t interested enough.
There had been speculation whether it was because of Iris. I talked about her a lot. My brothers and therefore the rest of town knew we wrote to each other and we were close. They didn’tinterfere, and neither did Freya or Ruby, but comments were made.
They suspected something.
They were right to.
“How’s it going with your guest?” Finn came to sit down at the table where Roe was, leaving Cassian to manage the kids on the floor.
“Good.” I was obviously going to be a man of few words today.
“That’s all we’re getting? Good?” He inhaled the first twenty-five percent of his pint. “How long’s she staying here for?”
“Undetermined. No end date.” This was all true. I could add more details, such as it might be permanent but that would lead to interestingly painful questions.
My twin hadn’t said anything yet. This worried me on many levels. We did have that weird twin thing going on when he knew roughly what I was feeling and then because he knew me better than anyone, he could work out the finer details. He’d asked me least about Iris, but I knew he hadn’t missed anything anyone else had said.
“What’s she doing while she’s here?” Finn glanced over to where the laughter was peeling from.
“Taking photos. Spending some time just relaxing. She’s got a few big jobs this year, but she’s cut out the smaller ones.” For a very good reason.
“She’s not going travelling or something?” Roe frowned. “She’s just hanging out here in Puffin Bay?”
“For now, yeah.” I took another mouthful of beer. “Good brew this.” I lifted the glass up to Finn. It was one of his ales, direct from the brewery in Manchester.
I watched Iris holding Romy’s baby, cuddling him close and murmuring to him. She’d told me how she longed to be a mother, to have her own family, a child she could look after.
“Thank you. I take personal responsibility for every keg.” He knocked back more of his. “Ruby’s excited to meet Iris. She’ll be gutted that she’ll be the last one here.”
“There’s plenty of time. I just hope we don’t scare her and send her running.” It was a genuine fear. “She’s not used to big families.”
“She’ll be fine. She doesn’t look like Ivy.” Finn was watching her hard enough for Iris to notice.
“They weren’t identical twins.” Sometimes that did need pointing out to him.
Obviously, Roe and I were identical, but no one would ever argue that Finn wasn’t closely related to us. Someone had once thought we were triplets, and Finn was the non-identical one.
“No, but you can see – yes, there it is. Her eyes. They’re the same as Ivy’s.” He looked pleased with himself. “And she moves like Ivy.”
Iris was moving over to us, clearly disturbed by my brother’s stare.
“Hey.” She sat down next to me, her big eyes trying to communicate something but I wasn’t sure what.
“You okay? Is everyone being nice?” I shoved a cheeky grin in there, hoping she was alright and I hadn’t left her for too long with the sharks.
“More than nice. Are you okay if I go to Amelie’s tomorrow afternoon? She’s having a gin tasting session.”
There was a collective groan from my brothers. Gin tasting sessions never ended well for any of them.
