‘I can help,’ she offers.
I wave her off.‘I’ve got it.’
We move around the kitchen in easy tandem, making breakfast for Luke and Darcy – her slicing fruit, me cracking eggs – as if we’ve done this a hundred times before.We pass each other utensils without thinking.Bump hips without apology.
It’s unsettling how easy this feels.
Ella leans against the counter, sipping her second cup of coffee while she eyes the pile of folded linens on the couch where I was supposed to sleep last night.‘So … I take it you and Luke are on good terms again?’
I pause over the pan.‘I suppose.’
‘Wanna talk about it?’
I sigh.‘Given my track record, probably not.’
She raises an eyebrow.‘Is that the excuse you’re running with?’
I shrug.
Ella smirks.‘Go big or go home, hey?’
‘Naturally,’ I mumble and flip the eggs.
Her smile falters slightly.‘Be careful with him, okay?’
I stiffen.
‘I’m serious.He’s lost everything.’
My jaw ticks.‘Can you stop talking to me like I’m the villain inMcLeod’s Daughters?’
Ella doesn’t flinch.‘I didn’t say you were.I’m only asking you not to become one.’
I open my mouth to argue, but the rumble of an approaching engine cuts me off.
The boys are back.
Luke and Darcy enter through the side door, covered in dust and sweat.Their shirts cling to them in all the wrong – and right – places.Luke tosses his hat on the dining table and pours a glass of water from the fridge as I suspect he’s done every day of his life.
Darcy scoops up Daisy from the spare room.‘There’s my girl!’
Ella grins and kisses him on the cheek.‘She was supposed to be napping.’
Darcy cradles his daughter as if she’s made of the finest porcelain.‘We should head off soon.I told Dad I’d be back to help with the vet.’
Ella nods and starts plating food first.Pancakes, eggs, fruit.Darcy digs in.
Luke offers me a small smile – the kind that twitches at the corners of his mouth.As if he’s glad I’m still here.Like he forgot, for a second, why I came in the first place.
‘Thanks for making breakfast,’ he says, voice scratchy from the dust and the sun.
‘Don’t mention it,’ I reply.
Darcy swallows a mouthful of eggs and says, ‘This is one of the key advantages of marriage.’
Ella smacks him in the back of the head.
Luke’s eyes flick to mine, amused.Then he spots the mug on the counter.‘You figured out the coffee machine.’
