He would even test her on the most boring stuff imaginable when she was done with a subject, claiming he enjoyed revision and exams (given the number of letters after his name this might even be true). Libby knew her life was dull. She might be content, ecstatic even, to be spending every evening with him, but she couldn’t imagine why a gorgeous single man would want to spend his spare time ferrying around a mother and a four-year-old and be stuck in their dingy flat with them every evening.
Maybe –maybe– she’d understand if they were doing anything other than what could only be described as non-sexual hugging. At least, for him it seemed to be non-sexual. Libby’s mind was so far in the gutter whilst in close quarters with Jamie that one evening, after half an hour of supposedly taking notes on renal failure, all she’d managed to do was a badly drawn Storm Trooper mask, an ewok, andStar Treklogo. Her frustration was gradually ramping up but Jamie seemed completely oblivious, and seeing as her experience with men was limited to a couple of teenage fumbles she did not feel qualified to push the subject.
He’d even cooked for them twice; unfortunately, one of those times he put some chilli in the pasta sauce. Rosie had taken one bite, her eyes had gone wide and she spat it out before jumping down from the table and running to her stool so she could reach the kitchen tap and wash her tongue for a good ten minutes. It took no less than three rocket lollies before she would calm down, and the next time Jamie presented her with food he’d prepared (a guaranteed favourite of sausages) she’d sniffed them, poked them for an inordinate amount of time and then fully dissected them before risking a bite.
Other than the ‘Volcano Mouth’ incident, as Rosie had dubbed it, there was no question that if the elder Penny female wasn’t in love with him now, the younger one was a goner. Rosie let him read to her at bedtime; in fact shedemandedit if he was there, declaring that he did ‘a better Gruffulo voice than you, Mummy’.
They went out on his boat again on the weekend that Libby wasn’t working, this time with Pavlos and Kira instead of his family. Within ten minutes Kira had pushed Pav into the Solent fully clothed after he’d asked her how she’d managed to get into medical school when she was clearly a psychopath: ‘Don’t they have some sort of psychological testing to keep the nutters out nowadays?’
It was safe to say that Jamie and Libby’s best friends were fairly volatile in each other’s company – but for Libby, whose only real friend was Kira, the banter, the chaos and the attention they all gave her daughter was heaven.
Okay, so, yes, she was falling for Jamie in more ways than one …
‘Hello my little cutie-pies!’ Kira’s sing-song voice made Libby jump in Jamie’s arms. Before she could even turn to look at the door an over-excited Kira had shot over to them and wiggled her way under Jamie’s arm.
‘Auntie Ki-Ki!’ Rosie shouted, abandoning her woodlice and squeezing her own way into the group hug.
‘Isn’t this cosy,’ said Kira, kissing the tip of Rosie’s nose and snaking her arms around both Jamie and Libby to give them a firm squeeze. She then rested her head on Jamie’s shoulder and blinked up at him. ‘You smell yummy, Big Syringe,’ she said in a dreamy voice. Libby rolled her eyes, pulled her arms free and pushed everyone apart, keeping hold of Rosie and setting her on her hip.
‘Kira, what are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘Well, that’s not much of a welcome. Not when I’ve come for a sleepover with my favourite Little Louse.’
‘Hurrah!’ Rosie’s arms shot up into the air and she started bouncing up and down on the spot. ‘Sleepover with Auntie Ki-Ki! Did you bring the popcorn?’
‘Keep quiet about that, kid,’ Kira said out of the side of her mouth, tucking her handbag into her side with a suspicious rustle of packaging.
‘But … but I didn’t ask you to – ’ Libby started, but Kira cut her off.
‘Listen, I think you and the big man need a bit of … alone time. Comprende?’ Kira’s voice dipped low for ‘alone time’ and she gave Libby a big exaggerated wink. Blood rushed to Libby’s face and her mouth dropped open. Sheknewshe should not have confided in Kira about her frustration where Jamie was concerned. He was going to think Libby was a raging nympho. The man in question’s eyes were dancing as he pressed his lips together until he lost his battle and smiled.
‘Now, off you go, kids.’ Kira shuffled them both out towards the door and thrust a small overnight bag into Libby’s hands. ‘You’re going to have your own sleepover, right?’
‘Can Beauty stay here with us?’ asked Rosie, clearly more concerned about being separated from the dog than her own mother. Kira sighed.
‘The beast can stay,’ she said in a long-suffering tone. ‘Butnodrool.’ She turned and pointed at Beauty. The dog’s big head tipped to the side and a huge globule of clear spittle fell from the side of her mouth onto the purple rug. Kira’s face scrunched in disgust. ‘Get out before I change my mind,’ she said, hassling Libby and Jamie towards the door. ‘I’ll see you both tomorrow.’ She whispered something in Jamie’s ear, which Libby couldn’t quite catch, and his eyebrows shot up into his hairline before he stepped out into the hallway, pulling Libby with him.
‘I … Ki-Ki – ’
Whatever Libby was about to say was cut off as the door slammed in her face. Burning with humiliation, she turned towards Jamie, whose shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughter. Libby narrowed her eyes at him.
‘What did she say to you?’
Jamie reached across and grabbed her overnight bag, slinging it over one shoulder. Libby dreaded to think what kind of nightwear Kira had thought to pack for her. She wasn’t even sure Kira owned pajamas. The last time she’d stayed over she’d slept completely naked, saying she felt constricted by clothes in her sleep and that her vagina and breasts needed complete freedom at night. Libby wasn’t so sure that Kira’s vagina and breasts needed to be totally free whilst lying onhersofabed, but as Kira had been doing her a favour she hadn’t wanted to argue.
‘Nothing,’ Jamie said, a little too quickly and with a disconcerting smirk on his face as he reached for Libby’s hand, engulfing it in his own.
*****
‘Okay … right.’ Jamie stood facing Libby across his kitchen island. The last three weeks with Libby had been wonderful and excruciatingly painful at the same time. But he was being careful: making sure Libby knew how serious he was; not pushing her too fast.
Women have needs, Big Syringe. Kira’s whispered words floated through his brain again. The thought that Libby might have been feeling even a fraction of the frustration he was suffering twenty-four seven had galvanised him into action. As he’d ushered Libby to his car and then into his house, his only aim had been to get her alone and start working on fulfilling her ‘needs’.
The drive over had been torture. But now that she was here, doubt started creeping in. What if Libby hadn’t confided in Kira? What if she was happy with how things were going, intimacy-wise?
‘So …’ he trailed off, then yanked open a kitchen drawer, grabbing a few takeaway menus. ‘Let’s get a curry shall we, seeing as we don’t have to worry about Rosie and Volcano Mouth?’ Libby’s cheeks were still pink and she still looked a little bewildered, but she dropped her bag on the floor and moved around the island to him.
‘Uh … I guess I quite like this one,’ she said, her voice slightly hoarse as she leaned over the menu and pointed out the Lamb Rogan Josh. Her arm was touching his and he could smell her shampoo along with the faint floral scent of her skin. Instead of looking down to where she was pointing, he turned his head and looked at her instead. She blinked up at him with a sharp intake of breath before her eyes dropped to his mouth. A few wavy strands of her hair fell forward and his hand came up of its own accord to brush them behind her ear. Her eyes came back to his, pupils fully dilated now, and her lips parted.
