Page 18 of Try Hard
“To check my feeds?”
“No. You don’t need to worry. To give you my number. It’s going to be hard to stay in touch without it.”
“I thought you wanted me to remember it.”
“Actually, I think you’ll recall me telling you I was giving you the friends and family number.”
“Oh, that’s not the one you gave Margot?” I asked lightly, even though I didn’t feel light at all.
She shook her head with narrowed, bright eyes. “Trouble. Now, shall I put my number in or do you want a business card?”
“You have your private number on your business cards?”
“I do not. So, then, you’d have to go through my office and explain to them that you were trying to deliver a Tizer to me, and they’d havesomany questions.”
I shot her a look. “So much confidence in this Tizer despite the fact that you’ve failed to win it thus far.”
She leaned in and the full force of her dark blue eyes was overwhelming. “I don’t give up after one attempt. Iwillwin that Tizer.”
I nodded slowly, fully believing her like she was hypnotising me.
She grinned. “So, do you want my number?”
Yes.I wanted her number a ridiculous amount for someone I’d only just reconnected with. I wanted to know how she was planning to win that drink, and I wanted to know if she would.
I bit my lower lip, pulling it into my mouth, and handed her my phone.
Chapter Six
Eve
Soph’s bike was already parked at Mum’s when I arrived after spending the afternoon with Dad—and without the whole crew of the morning. The absence of some of them was more disappointing than others.
I parked the car in the only available spot out front and climbed out of it—that blue Hyundai that had momentarily puzzled Fia—and grabbed my phone. She still hadn’t messaged. She’d promised that she would and I believed Ophelia Pendrick to be a woman of her word, but I was a little… impatient, I suppose.
I hadn’t wanted to ask for hers in the moment, just in case she didn’t want further contact. Give her my number, put the ball in her court, and let her choose how she wanted the relationship to progress. I stood by that decision. But I was alsoitchingfor her to message me.
I headed for the door, registering the white car sandwiched between Soph’s bike and my mum’s Clio. Terrence must be here too. Full house.
I let myself in and was immediately accosted by seventy pounds of Old English Sheepdog.
“Get down, Hercules!” my mum called from the kitchen down the hall. “The poor girl only just walked through the door.”
I laughed, dropping down onto the floor to pet him and, well, roll around with him. I heard my mum coming down the hall towards us, but I was too busy lavishing Hercules with all of the attention he was pretending he never got from the other three people in the house. That fuzzy boy was a sucker for attention. And he deserved it too. We had no idea what the first three years of his life had been like, but, since my mum had fallen in love with him, he’d spent every day of his life being showered with attention like the king he clearly was.
“You’re just as bad as he is,” Mum laughed, standing over us both.
I hugged him tightly, sitting up. “We missed each other.”
“Oh, and you didn’t miss the rest of us?” Soph called, appearing at the top of the stairs.
Mum had moved into this little cottage after the divorce, but there was something about the narrow, steep staircase, with Sophie standing at the top, that just felt like home, like our life had always been. It felt like the home we’d grown up in. It was nice.
I shot her a look. “Youdidn’t race to the door to see me. Sorry, my love is reserved for those who provide me with the same energy.”
She waved her hands wildly. “I’m here right now!”
“Herc beat you to it.”
