Page 157 of Off the Pitch

“Of course,” I said, spotting Hélène through the crowd and giving her a wave. “Hélène, these are my parents. I believe they’re interested in purchasing something, but I’m not sure what’s still available.”

“Perfect,” Hélène said. “Why don’t you come with me, and I can show you?”

Hugo and I breathed a sigh of relief as they walked away.

“Well,” I said, shaking my head and trying not to break into delirious giggles. “That was intense.”

“Yeah,” said Hugo. “Your parents are… something else.”

“Indeed they are, but they came, which was more than I expected.”

“And they want to buy something.”

“I definitely didn’t expect that!” I leant against Hugo’s side, taking comfort in his presence beside me. “I’m not really sure how I feel about it if I’m honest.”

“You don’t have to feel anything,” Hugo said. “Come on. David’s hovering, and I think if you don’t go and say hello, he’ll explode.”

“It’s the parent in him. He can’t help but hover. I wonder if he and Christian are planning on having kids? If so, I pity their future children because David will be a nightmare. I mean he’s ninety-percent bad dad jokes and overbearing presence already.”

As soon as I stepped towards him, I found myself engulfed in a crushing hug that seemed to rearrange my internal organs.

“You do realise I can’t breathe?” I gasped.

“Don’t care,” David said, although he did release me. “I’m so fucking proud of you. I hope you’re proud of yourself. This is incredible.”

“I am!”

“Good.” David’s expression was so full of love and pride I thought he might actually cry. I reached out and squeezed his hand, trying to convey in that single gesture how grateful I was. David was the one person who’d always believed in me, who’d supported me when nobody else had, and that was something I’d never be able to repay.

“Thank you,” I said, and David smiled.

“Christian’s already bought about three,” he said, looking over at his boyfriend with a teasing smile. Christian may have been paying for them, but I highly doubted that he’d chosen them by himself.

“I think if David had his way, our entire house would be full of your paintings,” Christian said.

“You don’t have to buy them,” I said. “I mean, you could have just asked, and I would have given them to you.”

“I think that rather defeats the purpose,” Lily said as she stretched out her arms and pulled me in to a hug. “Don’t worry, I’ll have at least one of them.”

“You have your own money. Buy your own,” David said.

“But it’s more fun this way. Besides I’m a poor starving postgraduate student now.”

“Poor and starving my ass. You literally spent most of the summer DJ-ing across Europe to sell-out crowds and staying in five-star hotels, living a life of luxury with Harper.”

“You are a horrible not-quite brother,” Lily said, sticking out her tongue at David who turned very pink. Behind them, Harper giggled, and Lily smiled, brushing a stray strand of hair out of Harper’s face and kissing them gently.

“How’s the house?” Christian said, rapidly changing the subject, his own cheeks dusted with pink. I had a sneaking suspicion they’d get married at some point, it would just be a case of who asked first. My bet was totally on Christian. “David said it was all finished, but you weren’t sure what to do with it.”

“We made a decision,” I said and took Hugo’s hand in mine, giving him a smile. Every time I thought about our future together it felt like my insides were in a washing machine on the spin cycle. I was so excited and nervous and unbelievably happy that I thought I might explode. “We’re going to sell my house and Hugo’s flat and buy somewhere together.”

“A home of our own,” Hugo added, kissing my fingers.

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Lily said. “I’m so happy for you.”

“You know,” said Christian, taking a sip of his drink and giving me a meaningful smile. “There’s a house near me that’s for sale. It’s got lots of space and windows too.”

“And a swimming pool,” David said. “You know, in case you might need a swimming pool for anything.”

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