Isla: WHAT.
Imogen: Excuse me?? Plot twist I did NOT see coming. Teddy is adorable!
Isla: He’s screwed.
Imogen: Correction: you’re both screwed. Have you seen what Sebastian looks like?
Me: That’s it. I’m telling Harrison.
Zoe: Play nice. He obviously needs this more than you realise.
Amelia: Oh my! Wait until Bradley finds out.
Me: Oh he already knows…
Zoe’s message lingers on the screen longer than the others. While the others tease, laugh, make it feel like gossip, Zoe’s words cut deeper. Grounding me. My grin slips, the weight of it pressing in. I drop the phone into my lap and stare out at the front door, determination settling in my chest. Because this isn’t just a job, and it sure as hell isn’t about proving my brothers wrong.
This is about Teddy. About not failing him. About not failing myself.
Inside, the house smells like coffee and Mum’s lemon polish. Xavier’s at the kitchen table. He looks up, shakes his head slowly, and I brace. “You’re brave showing your face here.”
I grab an apple from the fruit bowl before sinking into the chair opposite Xavier. “Oh, so dramatic. Relax. I told you, you don’t need me on the farm.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t want you there,” he mutters, but his voice is low enough that it almost doesn’t land. My chest tightens. Of course, he wants me there. I’m his little sister, and this is what we do. Dad shuffles into the kitchen slowly. He doesn’t say anything, just lowers himself into his chair with a soft grunt and wraps both hands around his mug. His silence is a language all on its own.
“I got a new job,” I say into the quiet.
Mum perks up instantly. “Oh? Doing what?”
I hesitate for half a second. “Uh… babysitting.”
Her brows shoot up. Xavier snorts. Dad takes a long sip of coffee, eyes fixed on the window like he’s watching the fields grow.
“Babysitting who?” Mum asks carefully.
“Sebastian Daniels’s son,” I blurt.
Xavier chokes, coughs, then manages, “No fucking way.”
I frown. “Didn’t Bradley tell you this?”
“Obviously not.”
“Okay,” I shoot back, trying for nonchalance even though my heart is pounding. “It’s just a job. He needed someone. I needed work. Simple.”
Mum tilts her head, considering. “Sebastian’s a lovely man. Always polite. And his boy seems real sweet.”
“See?” I point at her like she’s just delivered the closing argument of my case.
“You have work here,” Dad says, his voice steady, unbending.
I exhale hard, gripping the apple tighter. “Dad, it’s not the same. I wanted something for myself. Something that wasn’t handed to me. Something I found on my own.”
His gaze doesn’t shift from the paddock. He just nods once before lifting his mug again. The silence that follows is heavier than any lecture. Mum reaches across the table, her hand warm as it closes over mine. “As long as it makes you happy, Liv.”
Xavier shakes his head, muttering into his plate, “You’re so bloody stubborn.”
I grin, even as my chest squeezes. “Runs in the family.”
