Frisky Business (53 page)

She heard Ethan’s quick step on the stairs.

‘Your bath’s ready, babe,’ he called as he came into the room, and Romy spun towards him, raising her eyebrows in warning. ‘Oh, hi!’ He stopped in the doorway, looking around at everyone, then walked over to Luke’s cot and lifted him out. ‘Come on, babe,’ he said. ‘Bathtime.’

Phew, good save, Romy thought.

‘Why don’t I give him his bath?’ Danny said, holding out his arms to take Luke. ‘I haven’t seen him in ages.’

‘Oh, I’m not sure that’s … I mean, I think it would be better if I—’

‘What?’ Danny gave an incredulous laugh. ‘Who do you think you are – his dad or something?’

‘No, but—’

‘Just give him to me.’

‘Um … okay,’ Ethan said, handing Luke over with obvious reluctance.

Danny stalked off with Luke, but reappeared moments later. ‘Christ, are you trying to drown him or something? You should
see the bath he was planning to put Luke in,’ he said to Romy. ‘It’s full to the top – and it’s got bubble bath!’

‘Oh … um, I guess I got a bit carried away in the excitement of having hot water again – forgot who it was for,’ Ethan mumbled.

‘It’s scalding hot too,’ Danny frowned at him.

‘Sorry. Seems a shame to waste all that water, though. Why don’t you use it, Romy?’ Ethan said.

‘Oh, good idea. Thanks.’ She threw him a sympathetic smile.

‘I guess I’ll just go and get started on packing up the car,’ he said, and walked out, his shoulders hunched miserably.

Danny rolled his eyes. ‘He’s a bigger eejit than his brother, if that’s possible,’ he muttered, apparently not caring that Kit was within earshot.

‘I’ll go and help Ethan,’ Kit said, shooting Danny a sulky look and stomping out of the kitchen.

Luke started crying, and Danny wandered off to the living room with him. ‘What’s got into them?’ Romy whispered to Lesley once they were alone.

‘God knows,’ Lesley said, rolling her eyes, ‘but they’ve been like that all day.’

It wasn’t like Danny to be so bad-tempered and belligerent. What on earth could have happened between him and Kit? Then she almost gasped aloud as a thought struck her. Surely not … But she dismissed the idea almost immediately. It couldn’t be that. As far as Danny was concerned, Kit was her boyfriend – and Kit wouldn’t do anything to make him believe otherwise.

‘Thank God you’ll be coming back with us,’ Lesley was saying. ‘I couldn’t stand being stuck in a car with glum and glummer for another three hours.’

‘Three hours!’

‘The roads
still aren’t great around here.’

‘What possessed you all to come down anyway?’

‘It was my idea. I suppose I was feeling a bit stir crazy after being cooped up for so long because of the snow. I just felt like a jaunt. I thought it would be fun – three crazy dudes hitting the open road. Seemed like a good idea at the time,’ she said sourly.

Romy smiled sympathetically.

‘You seem very cosy with Ethan,’ Lesley said after a pause. ‘Are you sure you don’t mind us being here?’

‘No, don’t be daft!’

‘Well, you’d better go and have that bath before it gets cold. Breakfast will be ready in about half an hour.’

‘Okay, thanks.’

On the stairs, Romy met Ethan coming down, carrying a box in his arms. He made desperate eyes at her, and she silently signalled to him to follow her back up. There was no one upstairs, but just in case, she waited until they were in the bathroom with the door closed before she spoke.

‘Sorry,’ she whispered, ‘I had no idea they were coming.’

He just looked at her, his expression full of sadness and longing. ‘Shit!’

‘I know.’

He bent and kissed her, his fingers pulling her jumper up slightly, lightly playing with the bare skin of her back and stomach, barely touching her, but already driving her crazy. Damn, why had they wasted so much time? Why hadn’t they spent every waking moment they had doing this? Every time Ethan pulled back, it was only milliseconds before he leaned in and kissed her again. Finally, he wrenched himself away with a groan.

‘You’d better have your bath before it gets cold,’ he said. ‘I wish …’ he looked longingly at the bubble-filled water.

‘I know, me
too.’

Still he didn’t budge, instead grabbing her jumper by the hem and pulling it over her head, followed by the long-sleeved T-shirt underneath. Then he started to unhook her bra.

‘Ethan!’ Kit called from the stairs.

‘Shit, better go.’ With one last lingering kiss, he hurried out of the room and Romy locked the door behind him.

How are we going to keep our hands off each other for the next few days?
She sank into the warm water. She was looking forward to going home in a way, but she wasn’t prepared for her time with Ethan to be cut short so abruptly. She had thought they would have today at least. She realised how, even in the short time they’d had, she’d become addicted to having sex with him, and even though he said he still wanted them to be together in Dublin, she was scared that it wouldn’t happen. They would have to sneak around, and maybe he would decide that it was too complicated and not worth the bother – especially when he had so many other opportunities. There were plenty of girls who wanted to be with him – girls he wouldn’t have to see in secret. Would he forget about her once they were out of their little bubble? She scooped up the largest bubble from the top of the bath and blew it into the air, watching as it floated above the water until it burst and disappeared.

‘I was talking to Mom,’ Ethan said later as they all sat around the kitchen table eating Lesley’s enormous fry-up. ‘She wants you guys to come for drinks at our house on Christmas morning,’ he said to Romy.

‘You mean all of us?’

‘Yeah. You and Luke, your mom, Danny.’

‘Oh, great! That’s really
nice of her.’

‘Brilliant!’ Danny said, rolling his eyes.

‘Bloody great!’ Kit said, sounding far from happy.

Romy, Ethan and Lesley exchanged puzzled looks. What the hell was going on with those two? Romy wondered. Whatever it was, it was going to be a very long drive back to Dublin.

‘I get the impression she’s got a few presents for Luke,’ Ethan said, smiling at Romy. ‘And she figured you’d want to spend some time with him on Christmas Day,’ he said to Kit.

‘Of course I want to spend time with Luke – and Romy,’ Kit said pointedly.

‘Well, I think it’s great. I’m looking forward to it already,’ Ethan said. Kit merely scowled at him in response.

Romy tried to engineer it so that Ethan went in the van with her, and the other three drove back together, but Lesley was having none of it.

‘No way!’ she said. ‘I’m not going to be stuck in a car with those two for another bloody three-hour journey. At least now we can separate them, so no one has to put up with the pair of them.’

Romy conceded that it wouldn’t be fair to inflict that on Lesley again, so Danny and Kit were separated like a pair of squabbling children. Lesley drove Kit and Ethan, while Romy took Danny.

‘Try and find out what’s going on with them,’ Lesley whispered to her before they got into their cars. ‘I’ll do the same. That way we’ll get both sides of the story.’

But Danny wasn’t very forthcoming when Romy tried to press him for details. All she could get out of him was that Kit had called round a bit pissed and outstayed his welcome, drinking
wine on the sofa while Danny was trying to get ready to go out. She didn’t feel she was getting the full story by a long shot.

‘Well, I just hope you can both behave yourselves on Christmas Day,’ she said.

‘Yeah, and I think that’s a crap idea, by the way. I don’t want to spend any of Christmas Day with that wanker!’

Romy gave up and dropped the subject. She could only hope that the two of them had got over their strop by Christmas.

When they stopped at a petrol station for coffee, she took Lesley aside to see if she had discovered anything more from Kit.

‘No, I couldn’t get anything out of him – Ethan tried too. He just kept saying Danny was a sanctimonious jumped-up prick.’

Romy sighed. She loved Christmas, but she had a feeling that this year it would not be without its difficulties.

The
Mastersons were assembled in the hall to greet Romy and her family on Christmas morning. Romy was hyper-aware of Ethan from the second she walked through the door. He looked so beautiful in a thick cream cable-knit sweater and black jeans and her heart was pounding as she made her way to him, greeting first his mother and father, then Hannah and Tank, until finally she came to him.

‘Happy Christmas,’ he said, kissing her on the cheek. She wished she could have more than a brotherly peck, but there was no way that was going to happen today. Kit, on the other hand, pulled her into his arms and made a show of giving her a lingering kiss on the lips. She felt her cheeks redden, conscious
that everyone else was watching. She would have to break up with him after Christmas. She just wasn’t cut out for this beard business.

Marian had got away with a handshake from Tank, probably in deference to the fact that he hadn’t met her before. But Danny, being male, apparently warranted no such concession and was treated to a brief sparring match before being wrestled into a headlock. Kit and Danny were civil, but just about, nodding coolly at each other.

They were ushered into the living room where there was a roaring fire and Laura served champagne with smoked salmon canapés, while Luke was passed around and fussed over by everyone. No matter who Romy was talking to, she always knew where Ethan was in the room, her senses on high alert whenever he came close to her. At least, she had a good excuse for watching him when he took Luke, and she didn’t have to hide her enchantment as he played with her son. But the urge to dart across the room and throw herself into his arms was almost overwhelming. They hadn’t seen each other since coming back from Wicklow, and it was driving her crazy not being able to touch him the way she wanted to. Being so close to him only increased the agony.

She was pleased to see that her mother seemed to be really enjoying getting to know her old neighbours again, and she and Laura were chatting away like old friends while Colm bounced Luke on his knee and showed him the big fluffy polar bear they’d bought him. Danny and Kit were clearly avoiding each other, always on opposite sides of the room, neither of them looking happy.

‘Come up to my room for a minute,’ Kit murmured in her ear as he sidled up to her.

‘Why?’

‘I just thought we should disappear for a while – you know, so
everyone will think we can’t keep our hands off each other.’

‘Oh. Okay,’ she said, putting down her glass. He took her hand and she followed him from the room, feeling Ethan’s eyes on them as they left.

‘We’ll just stay up here for a few minutes,’ Kit said as they sat on his bed. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

‘No, it’s fine.’ It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she wanted them to stage a break-up, but he seemed a bit down, and she didn’t want to upset him at Christmas. It could wait until the holidays were over.

‘So, we’re having our New Year’s Eve party this year – Ethan, Hannah and I. I presume you’ll come?’ Kit asked her.