Page 10 of Not So Happily Ever After (British Bad Boys)
I lick my lips. It’s stupid, but it feels odd asking how his mum is, as I hardly know her, and we’ve only met a couple of times.
“Is your mum okay?”
His cup freezes halfway between table and mouth, and he shoots me a look I can’t figure out.
“Yes, she’s fine.”
Is it my imagination or does he sound as though he doesn’t want to talk about her?
“Oh, good.” Common sense tells me to move on, but I can’t help it. “Is she still enjoying her charity work?”
His mum was always very much a lady who lunches, except she was always the one who organized the events, as well as being joint partner with his dad in the private investment bank they owned. When his dad died, and Will took over the company, he told me his mum threw herself into her charity work. A form of therapy, I guess.
“Not so much.” His tone is definitely guarded now, as though I’ve crossed a line or something. “She resigned from several of the boards a while back.”
“I didn’t know that.” There’s no reason why I should, and even if Lucas knew it probably wouldn’t cross his mind to tell me. On second thought, I doubt my brother has a clue. Whereas Brooklyn and I spill our guts on a regular basis, guys are so weird about telling each other stuff.
He shrugs. “It was over a year ago. She needed time to…” he hesitates, which is so not like him that I have the scary urge to take his hand and squeeze his fingers.You can’t do that.I pick up my cup instead. “You know. Get her life together again.”
“Sure.” I nod to show I completely understand, even though a part of me wants to dig deeper because something just doesn’t feel right. And although once I would have, those days have long gone, despite our brand-new friendship pledge.
I take a sip of tea and try not to mind.
“What about you?”
I glance up, lips still attached to my cup, and his drop-dead gorgeous smile is aimed my way.Stop thinking about him like that.
“Still with Jon?”
My tea goes down the wrong way, and I choke. How does he even know about Jon? Even Dad didn’t meet him during the Easter break, before I ended things with him the first week back at Uni.
Which means he found out from Lucas. Italsomeans my brother talks about me with Will. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
“Uh, no.” I press my napkin against my mouth and hope this conversation is dead. The last thing I want to talk to him about is my ex.
“New guy on the scene?”
Even my brothers don’t ask me this. But Will always did. He was forever teasing me about the numerous boys I dated while still at school, and then the handful of guys I went out with during my gap year, after I returned home from Africa.
“I’m taking a break from guys.” Isn’tthatthe truth. The same goes for my social life, too. Not that I’m telling my family that. They’d worry. That’s why I pretended to agree with Will earlier when he joked about my party lifestyle.
“Why’s that?” He grins like I’m joking.
If anyone else asked me that—my brothers, for example—I’d give a flippant response.Because they’re too much trouble. I almost tell him that, except for some reason I can’t.
“It turns out I can’t handle a relationshipandkeep up with my studies.” Talk about an understatement. At school, I was usually at the top of the class. For some insane reason, I thought Oxford wouldn’t be that different.
How wrong can you get? I might not be at the bottom of the class, but I’m not far off.
“Bit of a culture shock?” For once, he’s not messing around, and I have a scary moment when I want to confide in him completely.
There’s no way you can tell anyone, least of all Will, how badly you suck at Uni.
Brooklyn’s the only one who knows how rubbish things really are. Nerves spike through my stomach as I recall my tutor’s veiled warning at the end of last term.
Is there anything you need to talk about, Mac? We’re concerned about your grades…
“More like a rude awakening.”Thought you weren’t going to talk about it?
