Page 49 of A Recipe for Romance in Brambleton

Liam glanced at her and then looked sullenly down at his page. ‘Dunno.’

‘Well, what do you really like? We can try to recreate that on top of a cake.’

Liam ignored her. Lauren got the distinct impression that he didn’t like her very much; that he was merely tolerating her because his dad had invited her over.

‘Would you like me to draw something out for you? How about a picture of Minecraft Steve, like you had on your cake?’

‘No!’ Liam snatched up the pad and pencils and stomped off to the window seat on the far wall of the kitchen. Lauren watched as he flumped down, chucking the pad and pencils on the floorboards.

Glancing towards the direction of the hallway, Lauren simultaneously wanted Marc to come in and mediate, but also to try to build a tentative bridge towards Liam herself. This is definitely out of my comfort zone, she thought to herself.

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Turning her attention back to Luca, who – seemingly used to his brother’s outbursts – was focusing all his attention on drawing the best stegosaurus he could. Lauren wondered what to do. Gingerly, she padded across the kitchen to where Liam sat huddled in the corner of the window seat.

‘Hey,’ she said gently. ‘Are you okay?’

Liam didn’t reply. Instead, he hid his face against the window, his breath misting the pane. At a loss, Lauren glanced over to Luca, but he was still contentedly working on his picture.

‘Was it something I said?’

Liam’s little face turned towards her, and Lauren’s heart ached for the boy who suddenly seemed so lost. He shook his head. ‘No.’

‘It’s all right,’ Lauren said softly. ‘You don’t have to draw anything if you don’t want to. We can just make up some patterns as we go along when we ice the cakes.’

‘It’s not that.’ Liam’s voice was small and so defenceless. So unlike the dominant twin he’d seemed all the other times Lauren had encountered him.

‘Is it anything you want to tell me?’ Lauren wanted to reach out a hand and hold one of his, clenched against his knees, but she didn’t want to presume it would be welcome.

There was a long, long pause. Lauren was about to utter something reassuring, when Liam spoke again.

‘I’m rubbish at drawing.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ Lauren replied. ‘Why don’t you give it a go?’

Liam shook his tousled dark head furiously. ‘It is true.’ He gave a choked cough. ‘Dad put Luca’s drawing from school up on the fridge last week, but he didn’t put mine up.’

Ouch. Strike one for Marc. Lauren wondered how he’d missed such an obvious thing. It had clearly upset Liam.

‘Maybe he didn’t realise you’d done one?’ She hated the unconvincing tone in her voice, but she had to try.

‘I left it on the table for him, with Luca’s.’

‘Oh.’ At a loss, she leaned back on the window seat next to him. ‘What was the drawing of?’

‘Me, Luca, Dad… and Mummy.’

Oh.

Lauren really did want to reach out and give the boy a cuddle, now, but she didn’t feel as though she knew him well enough yet.

‘Do you think it might have got lost?’

Liam, despite his upset, gave her his best withering look. ‘No. I’m very careful.’

Lauren couldn’t help but smile. He still had his spikes, even when he was upset. ‘I’m sure you are.’ She was pleased when he gave her the faintest ghost of a smile back. ‘What was Mummy like?’ she asked.

Liam paused and then answered. ‘Beautiful. And she smelt nice. But I can’t remember much else.’ He gave a pause before adding solemnly, ‘She died.’