I keep my eyes fixed on Lottie while she plunders the bag. ‘Flew in today.’
‘And you came straight here?’
‘I messaged him,’ Tay says quickly. ‘I thought Lottie might enjoy seeing her Uncle G while Mum and Dad are out having fun.’
We’rebabysitting?
There go tonight’s plans.
And what message? Because I sure as shit would’ve liked a heads-up just to keep my mouth shut.
‘That was quick work, considering we only messagedyouan hour ago,’ Theo says, eyes flicking from Tay to the bag. ‘And you, coming with supplies too.’
‘I was in the area,’ I say, easy. ‘And this is London, right? Shop on every corner.’
‘Ri-ight,’ he echoes, nodding like a man witnessing a crash he can’t look away from.
‘Well, we’d best go, or we’ll be late for the show,ba-aby,’ Sadie says, taking his hand – the way she says ‘baby’ making my eyelid twitch.
‘You’re right,ba-aby,’ he replies, and now both eyelids twitch.
I get to my feet and check Tay, but she’s virtually hiding –dying– behind her hand.
‘Thanks for stepping in last minute, guys.’ Theo’s eyes aregonna dance themselves out of their sockets at this rate. ‘We really appreciate it.’
‘Any time,’ Tay chirps, while I grumble the same.
‘And you’re sure you’re okay with her staying over, sis?’
There goallof my plans.
‘Of course. We’ll have a whale of a time, won’t we, Lottie?’
The kid’s already tucking into the chocolates, wrapped in the new blanket like a snack-eating burrito. ‘Yea!’
They leave in a flurry of goodbyes and Lottie’s wet kisses, while I head to the kitchen, crack a beer, and thunk my forehead against the fridge.
Tay finds me groaning into it seconds later.
‘How bad was it?’ I mumble. ‘On a scale of one to ten.’
‘Ten being catastrophic?’
‘Mm,’ I grunt like Henry fucking Cavill inThe Witcher.
‘I’d say eight.’
‘You think they know?’
‘If they do, we’ll hear about it soon enough.’
She’s right; there’ll be no stopping Theo with his ‘interventions’, and Sadie will be worse. Much, much worse, drilling Tay until the cows come home.
And why the hell ain’t she freaking out with me?
‘I’m sorry,’ she says, softer now. ‘I should’ve messaged you, but it all happened so fast. Granny Anna was supposed to have her, but her flight’s grounded and?—’
‘Grounded? Where?’
