“What?” Fredrik says innocently.
“You’re interrogating her!”
“No, it’s fine,” I say, laughing. “It’s actually really nice that anyone is interested.”
His parents look a bit confused by my comment, which I let slip without thinking. I try to gloss it over. “My parents aren’t fans of my chosen career path, so I’m not used to being asked about it.”
I take a mouthful, and as I’m chewing I notice a flicker of sympathy cross Emily’s face, so I quickly swallow in order to change the subject.
“So, did Ryan tell you about the rounders match we played at my friend’s birthday party? The one where I beat him but he was such a sore loser, he wouldn’t admit to it?”
Fredrik throws back his head to laugh, while Emily smiles into her glass.
“This sounds all too familiar,” Fredrik tells me. “We rarely play board games becausesomeonedoesn’t take kindly to losing.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Ryan holds up his hands. “Firstly, we don’t play board games because Mum always cheats”—Emily gives him a mock-indignant look—“and secondly, Harper, I think you’ll find that I got you out fair and square, and if anyone had been watching closely, there would have been no contest over the result.”
I gesture to him. “You see what I have to put up with in the office?”
“I don’t know how you do it, Harper,” Emily says.
“You’re a saint.” Fredrik nods.
“This is outrageous,” Ryan says, as I can’t help but giggle. “My team won that rounders match, no question about it.”
“If you tell enough people that, Ronan, maybe your localnewspaper will run a story on it,” I muse, swirling the wine around my glass.
Ryan sighs, burying his head in his hands.
“I like her,” Fredrik laughs, pointing his glass at me. “You can come again.”
After dinner, Ryan and I insist on clearing the table and washing up, allowing Fredrik and Emily to head into the sitting room. I laugh as we battle with Sully trying desperately to get to the plates as we load them in the dishwasher, and then Ryan takes charge of washing any pots that won’t fit in, while I head up drying duty.
“Sorry about them pelting questions at you,” he says quietly when we hear music on in the other room. “I hope it didn’t make you uncomfortable.”
“Not at all. They’re great.”
He smiles, passing me a soapy casserole dish. “Yeah, they’re all right.”
“I feel like I learned a lot about you tonight. The gardening talent came as the biggest surprise.” He laughs, and I glance out the windows at the garden now bathed in a dusk blue as the sun sets. “That blossom tree is so beautiful.”
“We planted that for Adam,” he says.
I turn to look at him. “I’m so sorry, Ryan.”
“There’s some photos of him in the sitting room, I’ll show you.”
“Was he similar to you? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“No, it’s nice to talk about him. We were both competitive, but we had very different personalities. He was much sportier than I was, and things came so easy to him. He beat me at everything but books.”
“Books?” I ask, putting down the casserole dish.
“Yeah, he wasn’t big on reading. Too easily distracted. He preferred being outside, always had to be doing something. That’s why when he got sick… well, it was just particularly hard seeing him in bed all the time, you know?”
I nod.
“I used to bring him books when he was going through his treatment; I picked ones about sports usually. Sometimes I’d read to him and do all the voices to make him laugh,” he says, smiling at the memory. “Even when he was sick, he still managed to remind me that I was a dork.”
