“Out of style. You should hear my friend Jess on the subject. You met her. She was one of your speed dates. Tall and thin?”
“Don’t remember any of them, sorry. Tell her she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. And what you’re meant to be saying here is all the waysIfell down during our non-dates, not how you did.”
“Oh, yes,” she said. “What would that be? Buying breakfast for me, my grandfather,andmy three hungry children? And, I suspect, buying someveryexpensive rugby tickets for all of us, too? Fixing my pipe? Looking like … like you do?” She waved a hand. “The body and all? Therugby?I keep having these thoughts about you, because I can’t help it, and then my kids start talking about pooing cats and dead rats, and you’re kissing me because you feel sorry for me, and my grandfather starts putting moves on your grandmother!”
“Looking like I do, eh,” he said. “And the rugby.” He was starting to smile now.
“Stop looking so smug,” she said. “I didn’t mean to say that. Obviously.”
“And I didn’t kiss you because I felt sorry for you. I kissed you because I wanted to. I want to again now, if we’re being honest here.”
“We’re not …” She could feel her cheeks getting hot. “I’m not that … I don’t have casual relationships, all right? Even if I could. Which I can’t.”
He had his hand in her hair again. Just touching a curl, that was all. Winding it around his finger. “So if I kissed you now, that would be bad?”
“Yes.” She wasn’t sure how she managed to say it.
“Even if …” His hand was on her face again. Would hestopthat?
A voice from behind her.“Mum.”
She jumped a mile, then turned. It was Finlay, of course. She pasted a smile onto her face. “Yes? How’s it going up there?”
“You said ten minutes,” he said. “Or five minutes. It’s been ages.” His eyes were, once more, going between her and Zane. “It’s going to be George’s bedtime, too,” he added virtuously. “You always say bedtime’s important, and it’s a school night.”
“Yes. Right.” She got up, smoothed her shirt, smoothed her hair, and tried to stop her heart from beating so hard. It didn’t work.
Zane got up, too, of course. “Right,” he also said. “Bedtime here, too.”
Finlay went up the stairs again, looking back in a suspicious manner to make sure she was following him. “Like he’s going to catch us having sex on the stairs,” she muttered to Zane. “I have the most puritanical children.”
He uttered a bark of laughter, put his arm around her waist, and squeezed. Just for a moment, and then he let go. “And we never even got to the hippo.”
“We’ll save it for another time. As we seem destined tohave another time. But I’m probably still not going to want to talk about the hippo.”
“Fine,” he said. “As I don’t much want to talk about it either. Or our grandparents. Sex on the stairs, now …”
“Then why did we just havea talk?” They were walking around to another staircase now. This was the most unusual house.
“I think you know why,” he said. “Call it your animal magnetism.”
17
NOT THIS
The next Saturday, and the conclusion of their first week under the new system, which mostly amounted to the kids doing their homework for an hour at Zane’s with Granddad while, Finlay said, “Scarlett totally hates us being there. Not exactly fun, Mum.” Until Skylar came to collect them and took them home, that is, at which point it amounted to, “Granddad isn’t here, so it’s down to us.”
Today, that had meant a family meeting in the morning to discuss the plan, and then cleaning house. At the moment, Finlay was hoovering, and Olive and George were dusting and emptying rubbish. Supposedly. She could hear the hoover going, at least. Until she couldn’t.
She was nearly upside-down in the bath with her scrub sponge when she heard her name called—if her name was “Mum,” which it generally seemed to be. She extricated herself from the white porcelain and asked, “Yes?” Patch of cleanser on her gray shirt, she noticed. It would probably bleach out the color, too. Oh, well. It was an exercise tee, and she exercised at home.
All three kids were in the room. It made for a prettycrowded space. It got even more crowded when Snowball trotted in, saw the water running in the bath, and leaped back as if he’d just seen Godzilla before streaking for the exit. Snowball was a major drama queen. Meanwhile, Finlay, the spokesman, said, “I think we should change this plan.”
She wiped some sweat from her brow with the back her hand, turned off the water, and asked, “What seems to be the problem?”
“My part takes too long,” Finlay said. “Olive and George are done, and I’m only halfway through. It’s not fair.”
“I told you,” Olive said, “that I have to use the mop after you hoover. I’m waiting for you to be done with the kitchen and dining room.”
