Page 56 of Only Ever You

This family was always concerned with how she was, Faye was learning. Though she hadn’t talked much solely with Saira away from other ears before now.

“Yes, grand,” she said. “Just slipped off of the … thing.” Vaguely, she gestured behind them while Saira grinned.

“And straight into arms that were all too willing to catch you.”

And what mind-silencing arms they were. So homely without demanding anything in return whenever they were wrapped around her.

Against the raging heat inside of her body, Faye tried to play it cool. “I think Michèle might have rationed Bash’s supply of croissants if anything had’ve happened to me.”

“Bash would have berated himself, too.” Saira hitched Maya further up onto her hip. “That boy cares about you.” Her tone wasn’t infused with a tease, as though she’d just stated a fact.

Faye swallowed. “He’s a really great friend.”

“Easy on the eyes as well.”

She made a noncommittal sound as she watched her step more fervently. The brothers, their parents, and Imara were far enough ahead and engrossed in their own conversations to not be listening to the stragglers at the rear.

“I love my husband,” Saira went on, “but even I can agree the second P-D son is very dishy.”

He’s a snack alright, Faye agreed. Something calorific and oozing molten chocolate. Something hearty for the soul with as yet inconclusive effects on the body.

Those wandering thoughts were the exact kind that got Faye into trouble with her hormones.

Her lips twitched before she could stop them. “He’s my friend. It’s a little weird to think like that.”

There we go –a safe answer.

And half a lie.

Still, it pacified Saira for a moment and Faye took the chance to look around her. Michèle and Arthur’s home wasn’t even a spec in the distance behind them between hedges and trees beyond the narrow countryside lane that led them to these white-tipped, hibernating fields. The next green waymarker sign peeked out of a bend in the hedgerow up ahead, right where the family neared, and the warmth of the sun still rising was just enough to blunt the edge of the crisp, clean air.

She loved this mid-morning hour, though Faye didn’t usually get to see it from outside when she worked every day, and especially not with such a glorious view. And there was that blessed silence that engulfed her the moment she’d stepped out of Bash’s car yesterday – the kind of tranquillity you wouldn’t get on any central London street.

“I find it hard to believe that Bash has never asked you out on a date.” Beside her, Saira sounded so certain, but how could she know that? Had Bash said something to Matt who’d then been the gossiping brother and passed it along?

No, no.Faye told herself Saira had just taken a wild stab in the dark. Bash and her had done so much together already, what would their version of ‘dating’ even look like?

The excited look on Saira’s face said she was already planning a wedding without using words. “Unless … he has?” She presumed like the cat that’d gotten the cream.

Regretting how long she’d been silent, Faye gave a firm shake of her head. “He hasn’t.”

“But you’d like him to?”

“I … haven’t thought about it.” She really needed to stop talking. If her answer was any thinner, she’d have been able to watch it float away like a wisp of candy floss.

Saira offered her a smile. “Your secret is safe with me. I was friends with Matt for a while before he gathered the courage to ask me out to dinner. If Bash hasn’t yet, then he certainly wants to. He’s so happy when he’s with you. And he has the same eyes as Matt, trust me, I can read them.”

Faye’s heart shouldn’t have done a little happy dance to hear Bash wanted to ask her out on a date, even if it was only Saira’s speculation. She liked to think he was happy spending time with her too.I always have all of my spoons when I’m with you, Peanut.Or else why would he have stuck around as her friend for so long?

If she said nothing, then Faye was adamant Saira might get the message that she was as uncomfortable talking about this as the stone stuck in the tread of her boot made her.

The lull in the conversation was saved anyway by how the others had stopped.

Matt narrowed an eye. “Everything alright back here? You two look like you’re conspiring against us.”

Faye got a flashing image of what their group looked like from the outside: three couples out for a morning stroll. Two wives lagging behind to gossip about their husbands. Like the end-card in a movie beneath the words “Happily Ever After”.

“Don’t rush me,” Saira rebuffed, “I’m carrying your child.”

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