Page 59 of Love, Accidentally

‘I’m sure he’ll love the two of you for that. Did you find out any more about Will’s alleged vulnerability?’

‘No. To be honest, it completely slipped my mind, and it’s not the kind of conversation I think we could have had in front of Isaac anyway.’

‘You’re probably right. You do need to find out before you take things any further, though.’

‘Who says we’re taking things any further?’

‘You do, by the way you were looking at him when you arrived. You can spin yourself the “just friends” story all you want, but I know you, Tilly. He’s got under your skin, and the sooner you wake up and acknowledge that, the better.’

‘You’re just saying that because you want it to be true, so you’ve got on-demand childcare for Isaac,’ I retort with a laugh. ‘Anyway, it’s still too soon.’

‘You made one mistake.’

‘It was a pretty big one.’

‘But you have to move on. Let the idea sit for a while, and I think you’ll find I’m right. Shall we go and join the others?’

‘Weren’t we supposed to be making tea?’

‘I don’t think anyone’s that fussed, are they?’

The scene in the living room is unchanged from when we left. Will and Greg are chatting quietly, and Isaac appears to have fallen fast asleep in Will’s lap.

‘He can’t sleep now,’ Tash exclaims when she sees him. ‘He’ll never sleep tonight if he does. Isaac, darling? Wake up.’

It takes her a few goes before Isaac groggily opens his eyes, evidently disorientated for a moment before he realises where he is and smiles beatifically at Will.

‘Hop up,’ Tash instructs him. ‘I expect poor Will’s legs have gone to sleep. Why don’t I take you upstairs for a bath, hmm?’

‘Can Will come?’ He turns to face Will. ‘I’ve got lots ofThomasbooks upstairs. You can read to me before I go to bed.’

To my surprise, Will looks absolutely horrified by that suggestion. ‘Umm,’ he blusters. ‘I think bedtime reading is something only mums and dads do.’

‘But I wantyouto read!’ Isaac wails, clearly on the verge of tears. Will says nothing, but all the relaxed ease of the day is gone; he looks tense and anxious.

‘Will and I probably ought to go home,’ I tell Isaac, trying to defuse the situation.

‘I think Will’s done enough with you for one day,’ Tash adds, evidently picking up on the suddenly strange atmosphere. ‘Maybe he’ll come again another time. Would you like that?’

This seems to do the trick, as Isaac nods his assent.

‘That’s settled then. We’ll ask Auntie Tilly to bring him round again very soon.’

Thankfully, we manage to escape without Isaac crying, although I did notice a bit of a lip quiver as he said goodbye to his new hero.

‘You’ve got a friend for life there,’ I joke, trying to lighten the mood as I turn the car towards Paddock Wood.

‘It was a fun day,’ Will replies softly. ‘Thank you for inviting me.’

Silence falls, but it’s not comfortable and, after a while, I feel compelled to speak.

‘Tell me to mind my own business,’ I start. ‘But you seemed a little out of sorts at the end.’

‘I was just tired, that’s all. Isaac is lovely, but they’re intense at that age, aren’t they?’

I glance at him, but his face is impossible to read in the darkness. What he’s said makes sense; I’m definitely tired, and I didn’t even do the lion’s share of entertaining Isaac, but something about Will’s answer isn’t ringing true and, for the first time, I don’t feel completely at ease with him. I realise that, although Will and I have spent hours in each other’s company, chatting freely, it’s all been superficial. I don’t know that much about him at all, especially this vulnerability that Jonathan warned me about. There’s definitely something there and, after my experiences with Luke, there’s no way I’m getting any closer to Will if he’s keeping things back from me. A horrible thought swims into my mind. Maybe Will does have a child but he doesn’t have access for some reason, which is why he got upset when Isaac asked him to do something that a parent would normally do.

Thankfully, I’m able to dismiss that idea fairly swiftly. There’s no way Will would have been able to do all the things he did with Isaac today if he was dealing with something like that, unless he was a sociopath. I’m certain that’s not the case, but something is definitely up. Maybe I should do a bit of gentle probing after all.

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