Felix squinted, focusing on the fuzzy shot. He was front and centre, professional smile in place, shaking the hand of one of his guests. Thea stood behind him, her eyes wide and her lips in a tight line, hanging onto his arm for dear life. His gut rolled. That night, he hadn’t realised how terrified she was.
The thump of Lucas’ door down the hallway reached his ears. Since the weekend, the house had been silent. Crypt-like. Lucas had kept to his room after school, and Felix had back-to-back meetings most days. He’d closed the Crichton deal with the timelines he’d wanted, but he felt little satisfaction. All he could focus on was Thea and the mess he’d made of their fledgling relationship.
“Dad?”
Felix spun around in his chair to see Lucas standing in thedoorway, pulling at a loose thread on the cuff of his school shirt. He shuffled from foot to foot on the spot.
“Hello, Son. Are you okay?”
Lucas sucked on his lips, his eyes darting around Felix’s office. “I was just wondering, when can I play at Ammy’s again? She told me they had some new baby guinea pigs, and she said I could name one. They need a lot of handling if they’re going to go to new homes. I think it’s important that we help.”
His son had picked up his negotiation skills, then. Some called it manipulation, but Felix liked to view it as bringing others around to his point of view. If only that approach would work on Thea.
“Nobody’s invited us. We can’t just turn up unannounced.”
“But we never go over anymore. And you’re always working.” Lucas’ lips met in a pout, and his fair brows drew together.
Felix slapped his hands on the desk, beating out a quick rhythm like he was playing a drum kit. “We can play here. What would you like to do? We can bake some cookies. Use all the food colouring you want,”
“But why can’t I help Ammy? She’s baking.”
“What’s she making? I’m sure we could do something similar.”
“We don’t have a vegetable patch.”
Felix did a double take. “Why would we need a vegetable patch for baking? Are you suggesting we grow wheat?”
Lucas rolled his eyes theatrically and kicked at the door frame with his toe. “No! She’s baking mud pies. To cheer her mum up.”
Felix’s chin tipped, and a prickling stretched over the back of his neck. “What do you mean?”
“Ammy says mud pies work to cheer adults up when they’re sad.”
At his son’s words, Felix’s heartbeat nudged up a notch. “Ammy’s mum is sad?”
“She must be. Ammy asked me to bring my biggest bucket.”
Lucas turned and trudged back down the hallway to his room. Nausea ripped through Felix’s chest at the desolate look on his son’s face. He hated to see him so miserable, so lonely. He had all the wealth and all the privilege he could ever need at his fingertips, but he couldn’t buy the one thing he wanted for Lucas. For himself. The chance to have a proper family.
Even with Adrienne, things had always been on her terms. He’d never stood up to her. And now he was paying for his weakness, for his laziness. She’d hung like a weight around his neck since they’d divorced, and now, because of his cowardice, he’d gone and stuffed things up with Thea.
He’d never experienced the excitement that played in his chest when he thought of her. He’d never fallen so hard or fast for anyone. She challenged him and drove him to distraction, but she never let him get away with anything. And he would move heaven and Earth to make her happy.
Felix smiled, wondering what she was doing now. He could imagine her in the kitchen, surrounded by piles of washing up, blonde curls scraped into a bun, and a chewed pen tucked behind her ear. Or striding around her yard with a string of waif-and-stray animals trailing behind her. Or in bed, with him, her pink cheeks aglow with desire, biting her bottom lip as she came hard around him. Felix’s dick nudged at his fly, and he groaned. Damn, he had to see her.
Thea was all he wanted. A life with her was all he wanted. But like a family for Lucas, she wasn’t something he could buy. She’d been through so much with the death of her husband. Things had to be right for her to trust him. To know how serious he was.
And he didn’t care how long it took. He’d do everything he could to make the two of them work.
Felix picked up his phone, his fingers wrapping around its shiny case. It was time to draw a line in the sand. Take responsibilityfor his and Lucas’ happiness. He’d wrestled with the conversation he was about to have for the last couple of days. Walked through what he’d say. How he could frame things to keep the repercussions as light as possible. Every time, though, the dress rehearsal in his head turned into a vicious argument. But he had to take a chance. Remove every obstacle that would keep him and Thea apart and change all their lives for the better.
With trembling fingers, Felix tapped out a text to Adrienne.
Felix: We need to talk. I want Lucas and me to stay here. We won’t be moving back to London.
By the timeFelix reached the outskirts of Tottenbridge, he’d run out of steam. After the most exhausting phone call he’d ever had with Adrienne, he’d changed into a fresh shirt and cufflinks and left Clavenham hell-bent on sweeping Thea off her feet and into his arms.
He’d left home full of hope that she’d agree to give their relationship a go, but as he’d driven down the now familiar road between their houses, the reality of his situation had sunk in.
