Page 66 of Save You
I grin back at her.Then I nod toward the landing.
“Are you coming down to breakfast?I don’t want to face Mum and Dad’s curiosity on my own.They’re going to be full of questions.”
Ember sighs but slides out of bed and into her slippers.She doesn’t bother to get dressed, just heads downstairs in her pajamas, with their cute print of squirrels and nuts.She’s holding tight to her phone, and I see the screen light up again and again.I wonder if it’s Kieran texting her.The two of them seemed to be getting on last night.
“Good morning,” says Dad as he sees us come through the kitchen door and slides his reading glasses up his nose.He’s reading something on the Kindle that we all share, which thereforehas a really wide range of books on it.Everything from contemporary romances to thrillers, fantasy, and the classics.
“Morning,” Ember and I reply, sitting down at the kitchen table with him.
“Hey,” Mum calls, coming into the kitchen too.“You’re up early.”Her eyes narrow as she looks at me.“Did you get any sleep at all, Ruby?”
Dad and Ember turn their eyes on me curiously.
I look away and help myself to toast.“Yeah, sure.”
“Well, I’m not surprised if you’re knackered,” Ember says suddenly.“I had no idea how much work goes into those parties, or all the stuff you have to think about.It’s crazy!”
I smile thankfully at her.“You’re welcome to keep on with the compliments.”
Mum pushes the butter over to me, followed by Dad’s apple jam.“Tell me about your evening, you two.”
“It all went to plan,” I say, starting to butter my toast.“Which is a relief.”
Mum’s used to my concise answers to anything to do with Maxton Hall, so she turns her attention to Ember.But my sister is busy texting someone, her phone under the table, so she doesn’t even notice Mum speaking to her.
“What are you grinning at, Ember?”Dad asks, about a second before I got to ask her the same thing.
Caught, she glances up.“I’m not grinning at anything.”
Dad raises an eyebrow and Mum repeats her request, more firmly this time.“Come on, tell me about yesterday evening.”
I shrug and take a bite of my toast, looking just as expectantly as Mum and Dad at Ember.
“It was lovely,” she says in the end, sounding genuinelyenthusiastic.“The school is so pretty—it doesn’t come across properly online.And the dresses the women were wearing!They were all so beautiful.”
She sighs and pours herself a cup of tea.
“Is that it?All I’m getting?”asks Mum.
I can’t help wondering why she’s being so persistent.Is it because she’s finally got a chance to get the details of a Maxton Hall party from someone?Or is she worried about Ember?It took us a bit of work last week to get Mum to agree that she could come with me.Or maybe there’s a completely different reason.
Ember doesn’t let it faze her.She leisurely butters her slice of toast, then looks up.“I met a boy.Is that what you want to hear, Mum?”
My head whirls around and I stare at her.“Was it Kieran?Please tell me that it was Kieran.”
“Who on earth is Kieran?”Dad asks, putting the Kindle down.He looks from Ember to me and back again.
“A nice boy on the events committee.”
Mum breathes a sigh of relief.“Thank God for that.There was me thinking I was about to have you curled up on the couch like a lovesick beetle too.”
“Hey!I wasn’t a lovesick beetle.”
Mum and Dad glance at each other, a long look that says more than a thousand words.
“If you say so, love,” Mum says after a while, but not with her usual smile.“Anyway, Ember, tell us about this boy.”
“Oi!”Ember exclaims, glaring furiously at Mum and then at me.“One, it’s none of your business.Two, I don’t owe anyone here an explanation of anything.And three, ‘met a boy’ doesn’t mean I’ve got a boyfriend now.I turned him down, as it happens,and now I’m waiting to see how he reacts.So don’t go making it into some massive deal.”
