Oh, God. Now he was trying to make me feel better. But to deflect from me, I said, ‘OK, favourite colour?’ Lame, but it was all I could think of right then.
‘Green.
What’s yours?’
‘Yellow.’
‘Because it’s happy?’ he asked with the faintest tone of humour in his voice.
I rolled my eyes. ‘Gigs or listening to music alone?’
‘Gigs. Alone.’
‘Ooh, interesting and a bit sad.’
‘I like to focus on the music.’
I held my hands up. ‘I get it. But I do like going to gigs with Tash; she always makes us go right to the front. Take-out or cook?’
He made a face. ‘Woeful cook, I’m afraid. Take-out, eat out. You?’
‘I like cooking. Staycation or vacation?’
‘City break.’
‘Staycation.’
‘You’re a home girl.’
I hadn’t really realised it till then, because I’d focused so much on getting away from Scotland after Callum had died, and because I rarely went back home. But I’d missed it. It unnerved me to realise this and I said almost defensively, ‘Maybe I am.’
Brodie took his hands off the wheel momentarily. ‘No judgement from me. Actually, I really like London. I love how you can walk down a street that’s frozen in time from a couple of hundred years ago and right around the corner there’s asomething bright and modern. And London does parks very well.’
‘I thought as a property developer you’d see green space as the enemy.’
He put a hand to his chest. ‘I’m not a monster!’
I snorted, but inside I was more than unsettled by how easy it was to talk to him.
Then, as casually as I could, ‘Relationships?’
‘Not if I can help it.’ He glanced at me. ‘You?’
‘Nothing substantial,’ I said carefully. ‘The longest one was in university, probably lasted a couple of months.’
‘Why did it break up?’
‘He was only using me to make someone else jealous.’
‘Wow. What a dick.’
I liked that he said that. I glanced at him and tried not to notice how fucking gorgeous he was. Even in profile. He had no bad angles, not even with the scar. As much as I wanted to know about it I instinctively held back.
Instead I went another controversial route. ‘What about that actress? That can’t have been nothing.’
I noticed Brodie’s hands clench on the wheel. ‘She was a mistake,’ he said eventually.
‘Ouch.’
