“I was thinking abouthim,” Gemma hisses, tapping her fingernails against the table aggressively. “Markus, the disappearing asshole. What sort of man – well, boy – what sort of apersongets a teenage girl pregnant and then does that to her? Doesn’t he care that he has a son?”
I stand up and walk around the desk, placing my hand on her shoulder and squeezing softly. “I wish I could find him, sis,” I glower. “He’s a piece of shit. He doesn’t even deserve to see Sebastian after what he tried to do to you.”
“I know,” she sighs. “It just gets hard sometimes, you know?”
“I know,” I say, nodding. “But you’re a great mom. You’re doing a great job. Just how brilliantly Seb is doing is proof enough of that. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
She looks up at me, smiling in that teasing way I recognize from childhood. “Thanks, bro,” she says. “That means a lot.”
***
“Uh … why don’t I have Nick give you the tour?” I ask, about half an hour later when I spot Grace emerging from the gym.
She’s walking back toward the dorm, her tight-fitting workout gear hugging delectably close to her sweaty body. Even with the panic coursing through me, I can’t help but admire her.
Gemma tilts her head at me from her place on the sofa, her eyes narrowed behind the shield of her glasses. “Um, sure … Why the urgency, though?”
“Urgency?” I say as nonchalantly as I can, aware that any second Gemma and Grace could come into argumentative contact. “No urgency, none at all.Nick!”
“Mate?” Nick says, pushing the door open. “Fuck me, I thought there was a fire in here for a second.”
“Begraceful, would you, and show my little sister around?”
“Be graceful …” Recognition sparks in his eyes. “Oh, yeah, I got you, Harry. Sounds good. Gemma, I’ll show you around the place. It’s best we start at the far end, if you wanna come now?”
Gemma looks between us, lips pursed. “I’ll go, but for some reason I get the sense that something else is going on here.”
“Something else?” I laugh, imagining I can hear Grace’s footsteps walking into the office building. “Like what? I’m just trying to be a courteous host, sis.”
I rush to the window as Nick leads her outside, smiling and pointing in the opposite direction to the gym, showing her the track. He spots Grace on the other side of the field, and then deftly redirects her the other way.
My heart is pounding like a motherfucker but I can’t help but smile, either.
Goddamn, this is some sitcom-type shit right here.
I return to my desk when I see that Grace is, in fact, walking toward the office building … missing Nick and Gemma by seconds.
I lean back in the office chair, idly rolling the tennis ball around, trying to look like the most casual bastard in the universe.
Nothing to see here, Nancy Drew.
