Frisky Business (46 page)

‘Sorry to keep you waiting,’ he said, slinging an arm casually around Danny’s shoulders. He felt him start. ‘Aren’t you going to introduce me?’ he said, nodding to the couple. Fuzzy-Wuzzy’s eyebrows had shot up into his hairline – which wasn’t much of a distance, in fairness.

‘Oh, um … yeah.’ Danny recovered quickly and Kit felt his shoulders relax. ‘This is Paul,’ he said, indicating Fuzzy-Wuzzy. ‘Paul, Kit.’

Paul eyed Kit up speculatively as they shook hands, and Kit was pleased that he looked put out.
Yeah, in your face, sucker!
Danny’s done much better for himself. And that baldy weasel is much more in your league.
He didn’t think he was being arrogant. It was just realistic. By any objective standard, Kit knew he was way hotter than Paul.

‘And this is his … um, this is James.’ James was short and stocky. He looked older than any of them, but was refusing to make any concession to the fact that he was middle-aged. His close-shaven head was clearly meant to look like a fashion choice, but only drew attention to the fact that he was balding. His too-tight jumper was designed to show off his muscles, but unfortunately also clung to every roll of flab and didn’t quite cover his jutting beer belly. God, what ugly children the pair of them would have, Kit thought, feeling triumphant on Danny’s behalf.

When they were done shaking hands, Kit slipped an arm around Danny’s waist, pulling him into his side. ‘So, you’ve been shopping, I see,’ he said, nodding to the full trolley beside Paul and James.

‘Yes. We’ve just moved into a new place, so we’re starting from scratch,’ Paul said, with a wary glance at Danny.

‘Oh! Didn’t you take any of the stuff from your old place?’ Danny asked.

‘No, James didn’t think there was anything worth taking,’ Paul said.

Kit felt Danny flinch.

‘It’s not worth the hassle, is it?’ James said. ‘Digging things up and replanting them.’

‘Besides, James has a vision of how he wants the garden, don’t you?’ Paul said. ‘The old stuff wouldn’t really work.’

‘Well, it was a bit old-fashioned, wasn’t it?’ James said. ‘A bit chintzy. I mean, it was very nice in its own way, don’t get me wrong. But I want to do something a bit more contemporary – a bit funky.’

‘So,
what do you do, James?’ Kit asked, more to change the subject than because he wanted to know.

‘I’m in the music business.’

‘Ah. Right.’ That explained the desperate clinging onto youth.

‘How about you?’

‘I’m sort of between jobs at the moment, taking some time out.’ He didn’t want to say he was unemployed for Danny’s sake. ‘But I’m developing an old property I inherited and Danny’s helping me with the grounds. I’m completely clueless about gardening, I’m afraid.’

‘Well, you couldn’t have a better person to guide you than Danny,’ Paul said, earning a scowl from James.

‘I know. Coming here with him has been a complete revelation. It’s like a whole new world. And the café is amazing! Have you been?’

‘Er, yes, we went there earlier.’

‘Isn’t it fantastic? Such friendly staff! What was that girl’s name?’ he asked Danny.

‘Susie.’

‘Yes, such a pet! And the food! Did you have the apple tart?’ he asked James. ‘It is literally to die for.’

‘So I hear,’ James said, glowering.

‘I’ve been raving about it to James, but they didn’t have any ready when we were there,’ Paul said.

‘Oh, shame. Well – next time maybe. Come on,’ he said to Danny, ‘we’d better get going. Where’s that hunky boy who was going to take the stuff out to the car for us?’

‘If you mean Declan,’ Paul said, ‘apparently he’s not available today. They’re a bit short-staffed. We had to do all the heavy lifting ourselves.’

Danny looked around. ‘Oh no, there he is,’ he said, waving at the boy who was striding towards them.

‘Yo,
Danny,’ he said as he reached them. ‘And you must be Danny’s new fella.’ He turned to Kit. ‘Pleased to meet you.’ He held out his hand and they shook. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you.’

‘You have?’

‘Word travels fast in this place,’ he said with a grin. ‘So, you’re ready to go now, Danny?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I have your stuff out front, so lead the way.’

‘Well, it was good to see you, Danny,’ Paul said. ‘Nice to meet you, Kit.’

‘Yeah, you too,’ Danny said.

When they had all said goodbye with studied politeness, Declan followed Kit and Danny outside where he picked up several bags of compost, and they loaded it into the car. When Declan had taken his leave and was walking back into the store, Danny burst out laughing. ‘Oh my God, that was brilliant! Did you see Paul’s face?’

‘Yeah. He looked like he’d just eaten roadkill and it didn’t agree with him.’

‘Thanks,’ Danny said shyly, slapping Kit on the back.

‘No problem,’ Kit said, relieved that Danny hadn’t taken offence at his interference. He had acted on the spur of the moment, and it was only afterwards that it occurred to him that Danny may not appreciate his little stunt. He was glad he had managed to cheer him up.

But once they were in the car, Danny’s buoyant mood seemed to evaporate, and he sat gazing out the windscreen, seemingly lost in thought. ‘I don’t know how James could say there was nothing worth taking from Paul’s place,’ he said sadly. ‘I’d put a lot of work into that garden, and we’d spent a fortune on it. It was really beautiful.’ He turned to Kit with big mournful eyes.

‘I’m
sure it was.’

‘I mean, maybe it wasn’t cool or “funky”, but Paul isn’t a cool, funky kind of guy, you know?’

‘I can tell.’ Kit sighed. ‘Look, clearly Paul doesn’t know a good thing when he has it. If he could throw you away, what would it cost him to get rid of a few trees and plants? You deserve better than him,’ he said, touching Danny’s cheek with the back of a finger.

Danny recoiled instantly. ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ His eyes were filled with confusion.

‘Sorry, I just—’ Kit’s eyes flicked to the window behind Danny. ‘It’s just that Paul’s there, looking right at us.’

‘He is?’

Kit nodded, glancing towards the window again. ‘Why don’t we really give him something to look at?’ he said before bending his head and pressing his lips to Danny’s in a soft, innocent kiss. He felt Danny stiffen in surprise, his lips remaining rigid, and he pulled back slightly. ‘Only if you want to,’ he said, searching Danny’s eyes, watching the conflicting emotions that passed across his face as he hesitated. Finally, he gave a barely perceptible nod, and Kit kissed him again, stroking the short hair at the nape of his neck until he felt him relax, his eyes fluttering closed. This time Danny’s lips were soft and yielding and they started to move tentatively under his as he started to kiss Kit back. His eyes were still closed when Kit finally pulled away. Then they fluttered open, a small smile lifting the corners of his mouth as he blinked at Kit.

‘Wow, that was …’ He shook his head. He looked confused, scared and happy all at once, which was pretty much exactly how Kit was feeling himself. He really shouldn’t have done that. And yet he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret it.

‘It was nice. You’re a good kisser,’ he said to Danny.

‘Um
… thanks. So are you. I mean, I know it’s not what you’re into – kissing blokes, but …’

Kit shrugged. ‘A kiss is a kiss. It’s like flirting. It’s nice whoever you do it with.’

Danny smiled, seeming a little reassured. Then he turned to look out his window. ‘I don’t see Paul,’ he said.

Kit followed his gaze. ‘Oh, he’s gone now. They just drove away. But believe me, he saw every second of that. He couldn’t take his eyes off us.’

‘Really?’ Danny grinned.

‘Absolutely,’ Kit smiled back, as Danny started up the car. ‘And if you thought he looked sick before …’

Had
developing always been this knackering or had she just forgotten, Romy wondered, several days later as she leaned wearily against the worktop of the gate lodge kitchen and gazed out the window into the darkness of the morning. She flicked on the radio while she waited for the coffee to brew, and ‘Fairytale of New York’ was playing, an unwelcome reminder that Christmas was fast approaching. She was usually prepared weeks in advance for Christmas, but this year she had nothing organised and the thought of it just made her feel even more overwhelmed.

The work had always been tiring, but in a satisfying way
that left her feeling content and guaranteed a restful, refreshing sleep. She had missed the physicality of it, the satisfaction of doing something practical and seeing real, concrete results for your efforts. But they were only three days into the project and she was so exhausted she felt physically sick – and work had barely begun. Perhaps she had been away from developing for too long and had gone soft. She couldn’t seem to summon her old energy, and she couldn’t remember feeling this bone-aching weariness before. But then, she hadn’t had a small baby to look after in those days. Maybe she had been naive to think she could just go back to her old routine and expect everything to be the same now that she had Luke.

It was probably just lack of sleep, she told herself, yawning and rubbing her eyes. Luke had been peevish the previous night and had woken up several times. She had only just got him back to sleep about half an hour ago. However, despite her exhaustion, she had been unable to fall back asleep herself. These dark winter days didn’t help either; it was almost eight o’clock and there was only the merest hint of light creeping across the sky. It was hard to feel energetic when it was so gloomy all the time.

At the start of the week, she had moved down to the gate lodge with Kit and Ethan, and together they began to do what work they could on the house while waiting for planning permission. At the moment, it mainly consisted of gutting the place of all its junk and old furniture, stripping walls and laying bare foundations, while Romy lined up contractors and sourced materials. The roofers were due to start tomorrow, so at least they should be able to get something major accomplished before Christmas.

Having Ethan staying with them meant that Romy and Kit had to keep up the pretence that they were together, and share
the double bed she had installed in one of the bedrooms along with a cot for Luke. But it didn’t feel awkward now that sex had been taken out of the equation and she knew they would never be more than platonic friends – and she enjoyed the giggly, whispered conversations they had in the dark. Besides, she was glad to have Ethan there. As well as being hard-working and energetic, he was great with Luke. Kit always showed willing and tried his best to do the dad thing, but Ethan was a natural. It was good having him around as long as she didn’t let herself dwell on how much she’d rather be sharing a bed with him than Kit.

She was just pouring herself a mug of coffee when the door opened and Ethan came in, bringing a blast of cold air with him. She looked up in surprise. ‘I didn’t think anyone else was up.’

‘Yeah, I went out for a run,’ he said, still panting slightly. He was dressed in light grey sweats and he looked energised and vital, his cheeks flushed and his eyes bright. She could practically feel the energy rolling off him and she felt a little stab of envy.

‘Coffee?’ she offered.

‘Yes please.’ He rubbed his hands together.

‘It must be freezing out,’ she said, handing him a mug.

‘Yeah, but it feels good when you get going.’ He cupped his hands around the mug, warming them.

She knew just how that felt – lungs bursting with cold, crisp air, heart pumping, the sheer animal energy of it. ‘God, I miss that,’ she said as they sat at the table together.

‘Miss what?’

‘Running.’

‘You run?’

‘Well, I used to. I stopped when I was pregnant, and since Luke was born, it’s all I can do to have a shower.’

‘I’ll
watch him, if you want to go out.’

‘You would?’

‘Sure.’

Despite how tired she felt, the thought of running was appealing. She knew how invigorating it could be. Maybe if she started running, she could get back to the right kind of tired. ‘Thanks. I might take you up on it tomorrow.’

‘You look tired,’ he said, his eyes raking over her.

‘I’m knackered,’ she said, rubbing her hair. ‘Luke didn’t sleep much last night.’

‘Yeah, I heard him.’

‘Sorry. I hope he didn’t wake you.’

‘Not so that I couldn’t get back to sleep. Did Kit get up with him at all?’

‘Oh, yes. He takes his fatherly duties very seriously,’ she said with a wry smile.

‘He does.’ Ethan laughed softly.

‘Sometimes I think he’s almost convinced himself that he’s really Luke’s father – which he’s not, by the way,’ she added.

‘I know he’s not.’

‘I don’t know why he feels he has to act like he is. It’s almost like he thinks it’s expected of him or something.’

‘I think Mom’s largely to blame for that,’ Ethan said. ‘I’ve heard her lecturing him on the responsibility that comes with going out with a single mother. He’s had dire warnings about being good to Luke and not messing you around.’