Page 23 of Date Knight (Roll for Romance #2)
“I was gonna give it to Dad for five,” Jack said, and my mouth fell open.
“Five thousand?!”
Jack shrugged. “He sold it to me for not much more, and I’ve driven it like hell since then. I already paid cash for the new one.”
If I hadn’t driven it so much myself over the last ten months, I’d have thought it was falling apart or something at that price. But I knew it was in good condition. The opportunity was too good to pass up.
“I’ll buy it,” I said before I could convince myself not to. “That way I don’t have to keep borrowing yours.”
“Whaddya say, Dad?” Jack asked, smiling. “You’ve got first right of refusal.”
Dad was grinning ear-to-ear, which was a rare sight. “You mean I don’t have to wait for princess to finish her hair to leave for site visits? Hell yes. Sell it to her.”
I rolled my eyes. “That was one time, Dad, and it was because my hair was literally stuck inside Mum’s ancient hair dryer. I couldn’t have gone to work like that if I’d wanted to.”
He held up his hands as if to say, “That’s your business”, then turned and started up the hill again towards the house.
“All yours, sis,” Jack said, tossing me the keys. “Treat ’er right.”
“I’ll try,” I said, already thinking about all the ways I could make the beat-up old car incrementally more comfortable. Some cute seat covers, maybe? Something weird hanging from the rear-view mirror? But that didn’t matter now, because I was free, and that meant I had somewhere to be.
I was going to see my boyfriend.
* * *
When I got to Phil’s, I was barely out of the car and on the front path before he came through the front door.
“Look!” I said, pointing over my shoulder at the car.
He nodded, looking confused. He’d seen the car countless times. “Jack let you take the car for a bit?”
I shook my head. “Nope, it’s mine now.”
He reeled back. “Wait, really? He sold you the Defender?”
“Yup,” I said, popping the P for emphasis. “I figured it was about time I got a car.”
“That’s amazing,” he said, smiling at me, but he didn’t look as excited as I’d hoped, and I felt instantly embarrassed.
Of course he wasn’t excited; he hadn’t been expecting to see me until later.
I’d jumped a million steps ahead in my mind, thinking I could spend more time around his without having to wait for Mum or Jack to be free to drive me, whereas he clearly thought we were spending plenty of time together already.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, bracing myself. Phil sighed and smoothed his beard with his hand, and as he stretched his face I could see how deep his eye bags were. He looked exhausted.
“Honestly, I’m just a bit burnt out,” he said, his voice low and gravelly. “I’m buried in these costumes, Ethel has to start doing a second round of physio each week, and I’m trying to take on more work to cover the Manchester trip.”
My heart sank. I’d been spending my time doing tarot readings and putting in extra, unpaid hours for Dad when Phil was drowning over here.
“Why does she need more physio?”
“She’s just not very stable, and they’re worried about falls. She doesn’t help herself by acting like she’s as spry as ever. So they want me to bring her in twice a week now, and we’ve been referred to a water aerobics class.”
“Ooooh, water aerobics. I volunteer to take her to that,” I said, mostly joking, and I felt a surge of satisfaction when Phil cracked a smile.
“In all seriousness,” I said, pushing past him towards the front door, “put me to work. What can I do?”
He followed behind me, and I could see from his reflection in the glass of the front door that he was shaking his head, but I went inside anyway.
“There’s nothing,” he insisted as he pushed the door shut behind us, but I could see through the door to the lounge that there was a huge pile of half-made garments on the sofa, the sewing machine and accompanying detritus taking up most of the coffee table. It was my turn to shake my head.
“I know how to hem,” I said. “Let me help with the costumes.”
“I’m not that far along,” he said with a wince. “Nothing’s ready to be hemmed.”
“Well, start making a pile, and I’ll help on Saturday. And every day until the festival if I need to. I’ve got wheels now.” I smiled and held up the keys again. I was relieved when he started nodding.
“Okay, sure. Yeah, that would be really helpful.”
“Done,” I said, walking into the kitchen, where the sink was piled high with dishes. “And I’ll sort this.”
The tips of Phil’s ears went pink. “I was gonna do that now.”
“And now you can do something else instead,” I said, turning on the tap to get the hot water running. “Go be with Ethel.”
“She’s having a rest.”
“Then go get started on that pile.”
He was quiet for a moment as I started filling the washing-up bowl with water, but I could feel his eyes on me, and I had to force myself to keep a straight face. I nearly dropped a plate when he was suddenly right next to me, his hand on my waist.
“Thank you,” he whispered, the ends of his beard tickling against my ear. And then he pressed a kiss to my temple, long and firm, pulling me tight to him.
“Don’t mention it,” I said quietly when he pulled away. But as he walked out of the room, leaving me elbow deep in soapy water, I might as well have been giggling and kicking my feet with how huge my smile was.