Page 28 of A Very Happy Easter

“Not my finest hour. Owen was bruised all over, Liam got hit in the face, and we were losing, badly. The instructor on the other team was a cocky fucker, some Marine, and he’s like, ‘If you hit one of us trainers, you get a hundred points.’ So we’re ninety points down, and Heath turns around and says, ‘Guess I’d better go and tag that arsehole then.’”

“And did he?”

“He ambles off into the woods, and ten minutes later, we hear this pop-pop-pop-pop-pop, and when the Marine shows up, he’s fuckin’ covered in pink splodges. It’s in his mouth, in his hair, up his nose… And the prick didn’t even know who did it. Heath just materialised behind us like he’d never been gone.”

“He was in the Army.”

“Liam let slip that Heath used to live in Herefordshire. And what’s in Herefordshire?”

Ooh, ooh, I knew this one. “Several castles, a rather nice spa resort, a petting zoo, my friend Zoë’s pottery workshop, and surprisingly, an award-winning vineyard.”

“Stirling Lines.”

“Is that a fashion label?”

“The SAS. The SAS is based in Herefordshire.”

Oh. “Wait, you think Heath was in the SAS?”

“I think it’s possible. He managed to kick a Marine’s backside without breaking a sweat.”

I thought back to the mugging behind Jazzi’s home, the way Heath had flattened a man without even breathing hard. Special forces? Huh.

“Actually, it would make a lot of sense.”

“Why do you say that?” Eisen asked.

Oops. It was probably best that my brother didn’t find out about the knife-wielding maniac.

“Well, he can be cagey sometimes, can’t he?”

Like when my dad asked him which unit he’d been in, and he said he’d started out in the Parachute Regiment. He hadn’t said where he’d finished, had he? No, he’d dodged that question like a pro.

“Just be careful, Edie. He might not always tell you the truth about his past.”

“Then it’s a good thing we’re not genuinely dating, isn’t it?”

“You’re not?”

“I hired him to play my boyfriend once a month to keep Mama and her merry band of suitors off my back.”

“Are you serious?”

“She’s on a mission.”

“But Heath?”

“He’s polite, he looks good in a suit, and he needs rent money.”

Finally, Eis started laughing. “Good going, little sister.”

“You can tell Janie, but you cannot say a word to our parents. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Did it matter that Heath hadn’t been open about his past? I was a little hurt that he hadn’t told me, but perhaps there were rules around that? And no, it didn’t matter, not really. He was accompanying me to an event once a month in exchange for a fee, nothing more. We had a business relationship, not a personal one.

So why did my heart feel as fragile as an eggshell right now?