It was dusk, and the sky was pink and dreamy. His soft white robe covered me from my neck to ankles, and I felt warmer by the second. My insides heated at the smell of him on the robe, the particular brand of washing powder he used.
“I’m decent,” I called. “You can look around.”
He grabbed a towel and held it up to me. “Come and sit on the blanket.”
Again, I wasn’t totally sure where this was going. Were we being friends or…
“You’re safe,” he reassured me, and his tone felt genuine. “This is not some douchey seduction move, I promise.”
Part of me wished it was, but I didn’t realize how much I’d missed our friendship too. The easy way we could be together. If only he weren’t so darn handsome.
I collapsed beside him on the blanket under the elm tree, hyperaware of everything about him.
I took the towel from him and gave my hair a good rub.
I could only imagine what I looked like.
“Is my hair all matted and sticking out all over the place?” I asked.
“Yes.” He was smiling, and his brown eyes were soft, making me melt at the tenderness I saw there.This is the best friend I used to know.And even though I’d been with Perry for four years, he’d never done anything so genuinely thoughtful. I’d needed this moment of fun, and Tim had known that.
I touched my hair. I could feel it was sticking up like candy floss all over my head, and I laughed.
He laughed too and bounced his fingers around my head.
“It looks just like a halo.” His lips quirked.
“Yes, let’s just call it that, shall we?”
Tim pulled out champagne from the basket. “Ta-da!” He uncorked the bottle and poured the sparkling liquid into one of Mum’s crystal glasses and handed it to me. I scooted back against a tree, stretched, and crossed my ankles. Then he laid out cheese, crackers, and grapes on the plates with napkins. The man had thought of everything.
“Thank you.” I sighed. “I could get used to this.”
“You deserve to get used to it.”
“I like working hard, and I don’t need a big house or even a big flat or name-brand clothing or purses. I just wish my parents would get their act together, so they weren’t leaning on me for the rest of my life.” Talking about my parents was starting to interfere with the peace I’d found in the water.
“I’m still sorry I made it harder for you.”
I shrugged. “You didn’t know. I didn’t really want anyone to know.”
“I can’t believe your parents accepted your money. You deserve better.” His mouth was hard and his eyes intense, like he seemed angry about that.
“Your parents are so lovely. Your dad was such a nice man and so devoted to your family.” I felt a little hesitant bringing up his dad, worried it might upset him.
“Yeah, I’ve been lucky. We never had much money. Mum and Dad, well you know, had to get married out of high school because Mum got pregnant. Mum wanted to be an accountant, but instead, she worked as a bookkeeper, and Dad wanted his own construction business, but he was a laborer all his life.”
He looked into the dusk sky of pink and orange. “But he never made Amy and me feel like they’d sacrificed their lives for us. We were always close.” With a softness that undid me, he pressed the towel to my cheek, drying the last drips of water from my hair. “Tabs, you deserved that too.”
I knew what I deserved, including this downtime. “Let’s not talk about my parents. I want to forget them—until I have to see them at home.”
I smiled and he gazed at me, his pupils dilated, turning his eyes into a deep, melted chocolate. My heart shimmied in a dance, slow-hipped and languorous against sensual music.
Was this something, or was his gaze friendly and concerned?
He looked away sharply. I sipped my champagne, my stomach tight, thinking about the possibilities of the two of us here alone. We could kiss. We could… Well, there was a footpath close, but we were hidden behind trees, so we could do anything, really.
He made me a cracker with cheese, and when I bit into it, I groaned. Amazing.But do I want Tim to kiss me?I knew my body did—I was still keen to erase memories of Perry from my life, but still.Timdidn’t seem to want that. At least, he hadn’t when I was drunk. Now, I wasn’t so sure. And this picnic at dusk leaned toward romantic.
