Page 178 of Save You
The moment in which he clears his throat quietly and steps through the doorway into our house seems immensely significant to me.I wonder if he knows that he’s the first boy I’ve brought home.The first to mean so much to me, and who I—even now—trust enough to introduce to my parents.
The sight of James in our little hallway is weird, but at the same time, I’m asking myself how I was ever so scared of this moment.Everything about it feels right.
James is wearing a gray coat with subtle checks over blacktrousers in some soft fabric and a simple black wool jumper.His leather shoes are black too.His red-blond hair is disheveled as ever and curling slightly, like he’s just had a shower.I long to touch it.
“Can I take your coat?”I ask instead.
James nods, lost in thought, as he looks around.Of course he catches sight of the cringeworthy photos of Ember and me when we were kids.There’s one where we’re dancing in the garden, another where we’re picking apples, and another where we’re in a paddling pool at my aunt’s house, beaming with gap-toothed smiles.James takes them all in while slipping his coat from his shoulders in one fluid movement and then handing it to me.
I have to really force myself not to stare at him—after all the time I’ve spent lately forbidding myself from doing so, the temptation is even greater.
I focus on hanging his coat neatly on the hook, then I walk to the living room.James follows, but before I open the door, I whirl around and look up at him.
“Are you a vegetarian?”
James blinks several times.One corner of his mouth twitches as he slowly shakes his head.“No, I’m not.”
I exhale.“Good.”
As I press the handle down and walk into the room, James on my heels, my stomach is fluttering nervously.
“Mum, Dad, this is James,” I say, gesturing toward him.
James takes an audible breath, then walks over to my mum, holding out his hand.“Pleased to meet you, Mrs.Bell.”
“Hello, James,” Mum says, smiling warmly at him.“Do call me Helen.”
There’s no sign of her earlier skepticism, and I wonder if she’s really this good an actor, or if she’s cutting him a little slackbecause she knows how devastated he was after his mum died and she feels sorry for him.
“No problem, Helen,” says James.
Dad isn’t as good at hiding his suspicion.His eyes are cool and appraising, and it looks like he’s crushing James’s hand as he shakes it.James doesn’t flinch.
Fortunately, Mum breaks the awkward moment.“We’d like to invite you to dinner, James,” she says, “so that we can all get to know each other a bit.”
I shut my eyes and fight down the urge to press my fingers to the bridge of my nose.I hope James isn’t already overwhelmed by my family.
“That would be lovely,” he replies, without a moment’s hesitation.“I don’t have anything on for the rest of the day.”
“Great,” Dad says, with no emotion of any kind in his voice.
There’s a moment of awkward silence and I grab James by the sleeve to pull him upstairs and set him free.We’re on the stairs before I realize what I just did—I touched James, just like that, like it was no big deal.Like it’s something we always do, because we’re friends.
I hastily let go of him.
“I haven’t tidied up or anything,” I say as we stop outside my room.
James shakes his head.“That’s OK.I turned up out of the blue, didn’t I?”
I nod and open the door.I let James step in ahead of me.It’s so weird to be in this room with him, this space that’s so familiar and safe.I automatically feel good, but there’s also this tingling uncertainty inside me—what is this conversation, this day, going to bring?
A quiet sound cuts into my thoughts.
Or rather, a hoarse laugh.
I turn to James.His laugh sounds kind of rusty, like he hasn’t found anything funny for ages.As he sees my confused expression, he waves around the room, taking everything in.“What does your room look like tidy, if this is in a mess, Ruby Bell?”
A warm feeling spreads through my belly and then my whole body, making me smile.
