Page 49 of Only Ever You

Maybe saying that had been a bit too on the nose?

From his bag, he took out sleep shorts, a t-shirt, and then dropped the duffel by the wall before excusing himself for a shower. Faye picked up her phone again with the purpose ofactually checking her messages and emails instead of dead scrolling to avoid Bash’s gaze when he came back.

There hadn’t been any figurative fires today whilst she’d been gone – at least none she’d been made aware of. No “Please come back? We need you!” texts from Chandra manning the bakery. Her blood pressure stayed low for that, but at the same timeno newswasn’t entirely calming to see.

She drafted a text to send to Maisie and Sienna, and copied it to Ellie as well.

Faye

Everything here at Bash’s parents’ is lovely. His nieces are adorable. But thanks to his uncle showing up uninvited, I’m now sharing a room … with Bash.

Replies were instantaneous.

Sienna

Two beds, right?

Faye

Nope. Just the one.

Maisie

O.M.G. I hope you remembered your pjs!

Sienna

I hope she forgot.

Faye

I’ve covered everything! The girls are tucked away.

Maisie

I wonder if you’ll wake up to the same surprise as last time … ??

Sienna

Surprise? LAST TIME?

Her text thread with Ellie popped up.

Ellie

Don’t act like you’re upset ?? This is literally every one of your dreams come true.

The temptation within Faye to bang her head against a wall was strong. This wasnotevery one of her dreams. There were no dreams about Bash. None whatsoever at all.

Did she find him attractive, comforting, and loveable? Yes.

But did that mean she thought something could actually happen between them?

She could laugh.

Notifications flew from her girls’ chat while she responded to Ellie. Hopefully wit would deter her step-sister off of any scent of ‘feelings’ or ‘attraction’ from her end.

Faye

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