Page 64 of Never Too Late

Cillian jerked his head at the phone still sitting next to me. “Who were you talking to?”

“I’ll give you one guess,” I said.

“Laurent,” he said, spitting the name out like it was something sour on his tongue.

“You like Laurent.”

“He is slightly less obnoxious than he used to be.”

“He’s looking after our cat, remember?” He was, Laurent offering to take Quasimodo when the cattery we used didn’t have space on the dates we needed. Seeing him spoil Quasimodo rotten made me wonder why we’d never thought to ask him before.

“We need to find him a boyfriend,” Cillian said.

“Laurent’s bisexual.”

Cillian shrugged. “Fine. Or a girlfriend. He looks at men more than he does women, though.” He had a point; I’d noticed that too. “I mean,” Cillian continued, “if you stand far enough away and squint, Laurent’s not that grotesque.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“No need. I’ll tell him myself.”

“I think the whole thing with his dad means he doesn’t want to drag someone else into it.”

Cillian went silent for a moment, his expression pensive. “That’s very noble of him, but if he found the right person, they’d understand, and the support would be good for him.”

“See,” I said with a smile. “I knew you liked him.”

“I’m just trying to come up with a solution that’ll have him coming around less. I still get flashbacks, you know.”

“It was one kiss.”

“One too many,” Cillian grumbled. “How would you feel if you walked in on me kissing Amrita?”

I swung my legs off the sun lounger to face him. “Honestly?”

“Yeah?” Cillian said with a challenge in his eyes.

“I’d pull up a chair and get popcorn. And I’d probably call an ambulance and have them on standby for whatever was left of you when she’d finished with you.”

“Good point,” Cillian conceded.

He reached across the space and lay his hand on my bare thigh, the loving look in his eyes one I’d been on the receiving end of more times than I could count, but that I never grew tiredof. “Will you come for a romantic stroll along the beach with me tonight?”

“Erm…” I pretended to think about it. “I’ll have to check my schedule.”

“Finn…”

I laughed at the note of frustration in his voice. “I’ve checked it and do you know what it says?”

“No. What.”

“Do whatever the incredibly sexy man wants you to do.”

“Anything?” Cillian queried with a glint in his eye.

“Almost anything,” I qualified. “Anything that won’t get us arrested and thrown into a Greek prison.”

The beach at sunset was beautiful, the low sun on the horizon casting a fiery glow across the sky and turning the brilliant blue of the day into shades of orange, pink, and purple. “Look at that,” I breathed. “Isn’t it gorgeous!”

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