‘It means everything. If I could go to the bank with his backing, it would make securing the funds I need a whole lot easier.’ Harry made himself busy adding thick slices of tomato to the now-toasted ciabatta then smearing each slice with the creamy cheese mixture from the bowl before replacing them under the grill. ‘It’ll only be a few minutes if you want to put the kettle on.’
Kat leapt into action while Harry gathered his stuff from the kitchen table and shoved it on one of the spare chairs. Soon they were seated opposite each other, plates heaped with the cheesy ciabatta slices and steaming mugs of tea to hand.
‘Gosh, this looks amazing.’ Kat picked up a slice and nibbled at one corner. The noise she made was positively filthy as her eyes fluttered half-closed and Harry found his head full of equally filthy thoughts of coaxing those kinds of sounds from her in other ways. He glanced down, embarrassed at his lack of self-control, and found himself staring at the jumble of words from when he’d tried and failed to write an introductory paragraph for his business plan.
If he couldn’t string together a few basic sentences, what hope did he have?
‘Will you show me what you’ve got so far?’
His head rocked up in horror. ‘There’s nothing to see yet.’
Her expression softened as she reached across the table to touch her fingers to his. ‘There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Harry. I’ve known words and numbers don’t come easily to you since that first day we sat together at school. I wish I could’ve helped you more at the time.’
He turned his hand palm up and curled his fingers around hers. ‘You did more for me than most people. I didn’t understand what I was going through at the time, and neither did the teachers, so don’t you dare go blaming yourself. I’m amazed you’re even willing to speak to me after the way I behaved back then.’
‘Oh, Harry, now who is blaming themselves for something that was outside their control? You must’ve been so confused and angry. I can’t even begin to imagine.’
‘It wasn’t great.’ Master of the understatement, that was him. ‘The only other person who vaguely understood was Ed. He didn’t know what was wrong, but he did his best to cover for me where he could. He even used to do my homework for me until we got found out and both ended up in detention. I knew I was holding him back and things would only get worse, so I did my best to get suspended so at least he’d be able to concentrate better without me distracting him.’
She laced their fingers together. ‘You’re very protective of him.’
He sighed. ‘Too protective, apparently.’ God, this was turning into a complete pity party, but Kat was just so easy to talk to. He untangled their hands. ‘Eat your food or it’ll be cold.’
She did as he said, but only long enough to swallow one mouthful. ‘You’re very good at deflecting, did anyone ever tell you that?’
Harry scowled, hating but maybe secretly liking that she saw through him so well. ‘And you’re too good at poking your nose in.’
He knew he’d made a mistake the second she slumped back in her chair. ‘I’m sorry, I was only trying to help.’
Damn it.
Kat rose and picked up her plate and mug. ‘I’m going to finish this in my room, I think. Let you enjoy the rest of your day off.’
Double damn it.
‘Ed’s mad at me because I covered up for him when he had his accident all those years ago.’
Kat didn’t say anything, but she did retake her seat opposite him.
Harry took a deep breath and continued. ‘I thought he was going to die when we were waiting for the rescue crew to retrieve him and I didn’t want our parents to be angry with him so I told my dad it was my idea to go climbing on the rocks.’
‘Oh, Harry.’ He could see tears glistening in the corners of her eyes and he had to look away and swallow the lump in his throat.
‘I told myself I didn’t care they were angry with me, that they could be angry about it for the rest of my life as long as he came through it alive. I didn’t even care when they sent me to live with Ma and Pa because it meant Ed was getting the attention he needed to get better.’
‘Still, it must’ve been hard for you to be separated like that when you were so worried about him.’
There she went again, being all understanding about his messy baggage. He sniffed and laughed. ‘Yeah, it was awful at first but Ma and Pa were amazing. I hate the circumstances thatled me to going to live with them but honestly it was the best thing in the end.’
Kat propped her chin on her palm and smiled at him. ‘They’re very special people, you’re lucky to have grandparents who are still around.’
‘You don’t have any still alive?’
‘Not that I know of. Dad’s parents were older and I don’t really remember them much as they both died when I was quite little. I’ve no idea about Mum’s family; it just wasn’t something that was ever talked about so I guess I always assumed they were dead too.’ She raised her eyebrows at him. ‘How exactly did we end up talking about me again, Mr Deflection?’
‘I wasn’t deflecting this time, I promise!’ He held up his hands. ‘So, yeah, things with Ed are a bit all over the place and we ended up having a row on New Year’s Day. I had hoped to get him involved in the cookery school, make a partnership of it, but he shut me down.’
‘What did you want him to do?’
