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“Stop it. I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. Lydia, I don’t give a shit what ‘normal’ couples do. I want you. Not just your body. I want your time.”

“But what about sex?”

“We’ve literally just had it, Lyds,” Halle laughed. “I’m perfectly happy with you taking the lead. There will be times I’m not in the mood, or just worn out. This isn’t just on you, honey. That’s what it means, to me anyway, to be in a partnership.”

“Will you promise to tell me if it becomes a problem?”

“I promise.”

Lydia searched Halle’s face. She only saw honesty. “Okay. Can we get back to what we were doing now?”

“Aunty Lydia?” Lydia shot up from the bed, sprinting to the door, which was ajar. Just in time to stop Jenny from catching an eyeful of something she was far too young to witness.

“Wait downstairs, Jenny, I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Okay. Mum says that Aunty Halle can buy us a pizza. Is she in there?”

“Um…”

“Yeah, I’m in here, Jen. We’ll be down in a second.”

They waited until Jenny’s tiny footsteps disappeared. Lydia whirled round, panicked. “Why the bloody hell is Fe here? It’s nearly seven.”

“Why does Fe do anything? Let’s go and find out, shall we?” Halle placed a kiss on Lydia’s neck before throwing on her clothes. Thank God, they’d waited until the bedroom before stripping each other.

Downstairs, Fe was just about to shove a fork into the cooling moussaka. “Hey, that’s our dinner.” Lydia shot.

“It looked like you weren’t planning on eating it anytime soon,” Fe said with a grin.

“What are you doing here?” Halle asked, scruffing the triplets’ hair as she went past.

“We had another bloody school meeting. Thought we’d swing by.”

“The kids okay?” Lydia thought the triplets were settling down now Clark and Fe had spoken to them.

“Yeah, fine. We decided to have regular check-ins with the teachers.”

“What time was the appointment?” Halle asked, eyebrow raised.

“Hm?” Fe pretending she hadn’t heard a question was a typical avoidance behaviour, usually when she’d done something wrong.

“You heard me, Fe Archer.”

“Oh, right, it was at half five.”

Lydia stood with hands on hips. “It doesn’t take nearly an hour and a half to get from the kids’ school to here. So why are you really visiting?”

“Fine,” Fe huffed. “Cathy called me and said you were in a weird mood. She was worried. I came to check up on you, but as soon as we came in, I noticed Halle’s car keys. It didn’t take much to put two and two together.”

“So, you sent Jenny upstairs?” Lydia screeched.

“I was fucking with you,” Fe laughed. “She didn’t see anything, did she?”

“Oh, now you’re worried!” Lydia scoffed. “I don’t want my niblings traumatised, Fe!”

“No, she didn’t see anything. But maybe next time think it through, yeah?” Halle was always the calm one.

“Yeah. Sorry. So, does that mean?” Fe waved a finger between Halle and Lydia.