Page 49 of Fake Rocks
“Hey, don’t bring me into this conversation.” I leaned back in my chair. “It’s way too early to be talking about kids.”
“It seems your aunt thinks we should have been talking about it already. We didn’t discuss how many kids we should have, three, four? A football team?” Saff pushed her chair back. “Sorry, I need to visit the bathroom.”
I wanted to go after her, but Jonas placed a hand on my arm.
“Leave her,” he whispered. “She’ll calm down. It’s not the first time she’s had to deal with an angry relative.”
The last thing I wanted was for Saff to think she wasn’t good enough for me. I couldn’t believe Aunt Annie’s attitude; it wasn’t like her at all. I wondered what had got into her.
The four of us made small talk until Saff returned.
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” She smiled brightly at me, her bad mood seemingly gone. “Jonas, we should get going shortly, I’ve got an early start in the morning. Another band rehearsal, remember we need to be ready for the big gig,” she added pointedly.
It was half past four and it wouldn’t take us long to get back to London. Her reason for leaving was probably to get away from Aunt Annie’s sniping.
“Tris, are you staying here tonight?” asked Uncle Col. “We don’t mind either way.”
Aunt Annie perked up at the question too, while Saff’s shoulders slumped. One way or another I’d be disappointing someone.
“I’ll head back with Saff and Jonas. Maybe I can get on with painting the bathroom.” I tried to make a joke but was met with stony silence. “I’ll go and grab a few things from my room.” Without looking back, I went upstairs.
I was sorting out a few clothes and some more underwear when I became aware of being watched from the doorway.
“She doesn’t like me, does she?” Saff twisted a strand of her pink hair around her finger.
“I guess I haven’t ever brought anyone like you back to meet her before. You’re different to my previous girlfriends.”
“So did she like them?”
I hadn’t brought anyone to meet them. But up until two weeks ago, I hadn’t actually lived with Uncle Col and Aunt Annie full-time.
There had been a whole different life somewhere else I hadn’t told Saff about.
And if I did, I was afraid what we had would be shattered.
27
Saff
The next couple of weeks flew by. After the frankly awful lunch with Tris’ aunt I’d thrown myself into the band and focused all my anger into writing a bevy of kick-ass new songs. Her apparent dislike of me shouldn’t have bothered me one single bit. I wasn’t sure why I was so irked by it. Normally, I didn’t care what the parents or relatives thought of me.
Deep down, I knew Tris was different.Thiswas different. What had started out as something to save my career and keep Jonas off my back, had somewhere along the line, developed into something that felt a lot like love.
I had to keep pinching myself.
We’d known each other for a little while and had gone from casual flirting to practically living together in the blink of an eye. In the evenings, we stayed in or went out with the guys in the band—Darren and Tris had formed a pretty strong bromance—or even out with Rosie and her friends.
We were definitely a couple and I relished every moment of it. Particularly the ones we spent in bed...
I propped myself up on one elbow, watching Tris as he slept, one leg poking out from under the duvet. His long lashes brushed his cheeks and it took all my willpower not to lean over and wake him up with a string of kisses down his heavenly naked torso.
Suddenly, he turned and threw an arm over me, pulling my body closer to his. He wriggled about until he was comfortable spooning me, his erection pressing against my buttocks. I loved waking up like this.
“Morning, gorgeous,” he murmured, his breath tickling my ear. “Big day today.”
All of a sudden, the nerves kicked in.
