Page 12 of The Scrum-Half (Lincoln Knights #3)

Harper

“Have you seen Jack’s ghost socks?” Matty asked on Friday evening as he stuck his head around the playroom door where Jack and I were building a rather epic dinosaur zoo.

I hadn’t quite managed to convince Jack that the zebras and the T-Rex wouldn’t be able to share an enclosure, so we were fully going down the “animals and dinosaurs were best friends” route.

Except for the polar bear, who had been exiled to the toy box for reasons I didn’t understand.

“They’re in the basket in the utility room. I was going to take them upstairs later,” I said, looking up from my combined penguin-spinosaurus enclosure project. It was coming on rather nicely, if I did say so myself.

“Cool, I’ll grab them. I’m just putting together Jack’s weekend bag.” He was smiling, but it was the pretend sort of cheerful people used when they were trying to convince themselves they were all right. “Jack, Mum will be here in a bit.”

“No! The zoo is not ready,” Jack said as he waved his hand at the construction site in front of him, his other hand wrapped firmly around the DUPLO elephant. “Tell Mummy tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry, mate, but Mummy will be coming in about twenty minutes,” Matty said. “But I know she’ll love your zoo just the way it is.”

I saw Jack’s bottom lip start to wobble, an unhappy frown appearing between his eyebrows as his emotions welled up inside him.

“Hey,” I said, gently reaching over to take his hand, encouraging him to look at me.

“It’s okay to feel sad and a bit cross that the zoo isn’t the way you want it, but we still have time to do more before she arrives.

And you can leave it like this, and you can finish it next week.

Then we can take lots of pictures to show Mummy so she can see what it looks like. ”

“But… but I want… it’s…” He screwed up his face as he tried to find his words while dealing with the massive emotional fluctuation he was experiencing.

For someone who wasn’t quite three, he was handling it well.

But I was also aware things could change quickly, and luckily I was prepared for either outcome.

“I know, and it’s okay to want more time. Why don’t you finish the elephants, and then we can make sure all the animals and dinosaurs have all their food ready? What sort of food do you think we should give them? I think maybe the T-Rex and the zebras might like bananas.”

Jack looked at me witheringly, and I had to bite my lip so I didn’t start giggling. “Don’t be silly, Harper. T-Rexes do not like bananas.”

He sounded so serious that I had to cough into my elbow to mask my laughter.

But at least it had gently swayed his focus away from what he couldn’t control.

“Oh? I thought they liked bananas. Did you know T-Rexes didn’t like bananas, Daddy?

” I asked, glancing over at Matty, who was stood in the door of the playroom grinning.

“I did, because obviously their favourite food is marshmallows.”

“Not marshmallows, Daddy!” Jack laughed and looked between the two of us with a shake of his head, almost like he was muttering, What did I do to be stuck with these two ?

“What do they like then?” I asked, letting go of his hand so I could sit cross-legged in front of him and make large thinking gestures, like stroking my chin. “Is it peanut butter? Strawberries? Ooh, is it roast potatoes?”

“No Harper, that’s my favourite.”

“Ohhh, definitely not for a T-Rex then. Unless you’re a T-Rex in disguise?”

Jack roared and waved his arms, hurling himself into my lap as he pretended to eat me. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing, even if my legs were getting trampled on and his solid toddler feet were very close to my groin.

“That’s enough, tiny T-Rex of terror,” Matty said, scooping Jack up with ease and blowing raspberries on his tummy, making Jack shriek and wriggle.

“But Daddy, I’m a dinosaur!”

“I know, but we don’t eat our friends. Especially not Harper! Otherwise, who is going to watch Sooty and Old Bear with you?” He was still holding Jack in one arm like he weighed nothing, and I suddenly had a newfound appreciation for rugby arms.

“Okay… I’ll eat you!”

“Oh no!” Matty cried, gently putting Jack onto the floor and turning to run away. “You’ll have to catch me first.” He set off, probably going at about a third of his usual pace, and two seconds later Jack followed him, his giggles mixed with dinosaur roars as he attempted to catch his dad.

I stood up, preparing to get totally mixed up in the game, when the musical ringing of the doorbell echoed through the house. “I’ll get it,” I said as I walked towards the front door, although I doubted Matty could hear me over the tiny dinosaur currently chasing him.

Pausing just before the door, I smiled and took a deep breath. I’d spoken to Hannah briefly over a couple of video calls, but this was the first time we’d met in person and while I wasn’t nervous, I did want to make a good impression. And maybe find a way to thank her for defending me.

“Hey,” I said as I pulled open the door. “I’m Harper.”

“Hi, Harper, it’s so good to finally meet you in person!” Hannah held out her hand to shake mine, her grip firm but warm. Despite having seen pictures and heard stories, none of them quite did the woman in front of me justice.

She was tall and slim with long blonde hair pushed back by an enormous pair of designer sunglasses and light brown eyes that instantly reminded me of Jack’s.

Her make-up was flawless, and she was wearing a pink summer dress and sandals with gold jewellery that glinted in the sun, a raspberry pink Mulberry handbag over one arm and a large gift bag in the other.

It was almost like Margot Robbie’s Barbie had appeared in front of me, oozing a mix of glamour, sophistication, and charm but with the distinct impression there was a steel core under the softness that you invoked at your peril.

I stepped back to let her in. “Likewise. Oh, I should warn you, we have a small dinosaur on the loose. He was last seen trying to eat his dad but—”

“Mummy!” A thundering drumroll of feet announced Jack’s presence, and two seconds later he launched himself at Hannah, who swiftly dropped her handbag onto the nearby sideboard and scooped him up.

“Hello, darling.” She kissed his cheek noisily, a fond smile on her face. “I hear you’re being a dinosaur.”

“Yeah, gonna eat Daddy.”

“Are you now? Poor Daddy.”

“Is okay. He’ll grow back.” He ran his fingers across the gold necklace she was wearing and kissed her as an out-of-breath Matty arrived.

“Oh look, Jack, you were right. He did grow back,” Hannah said, shifting him slightly in her arms and half-extending the hand with the gift bag towards me. “This is for you.”

I took it slowly, unable to hide the shock on my face. I’d been given a few gifts by families I’d worked for in the past, but that was usually for my birthday, Christmas, or when I left. Not for surviving the first few weeks. “For me?”

“Yes, it’s just a little something to say thank you for looking after Jack despite all the challenges.”

“Wassa challenge?” Jack asked.

“When you have to do something that requires lots of skill and can be quite hard,” Hannah said, shooting Matty a knowing smile as she spoke.

Jack nodded. “Can I show you my zoo?”

“I would love to see your zoo.”

Jack wiggled out of her arms and patted her leg. “Wait here. I have to put the elephant in her house.”

“I was thinking about maybe taking him to the zoo at some point,” Hannah said as Jack shot off towards the playroom. “Maybe I’ll take him tomorrow. Then the game is at three on Sunday, yes?”

“He’d like that, and yeah. Are you still okay to bring him?”

“Of course.” Hannah turned to me and smiled. “Are you coming too?”

I looked between the two of them, my gift bag still clutched in my hand.

I’d known Matty had a game on Sunday, but it had only been a vague awareness because he’d told me I wouldn’t need to work this one.

But the idea of going to watch hadn’t even crossed my mind.

“Er… probably not this one. I don’t have a ticket. ”

Hannah looked at Matty with a raised eyebrow.

“Honestly, Matthew. Don’t worry, Harper, you can come with me and Jack if you’d like.

Since Jack is so little and won’t sit still for eighty minutes, we go to the family lounge to watch from there.

There’s usually other wives, girlfriends, parents, kids, so it’s quite loud.

But I completely understand if you’d rather spend your day off doing something that doesn’t involve being around screaming children. ”

My eyes flicked to Matty, trying to gauge his response.

I didn’t want to overstep, because I didn’t know how he’d feel about me hanging out with his ex, even if they did get on well.

His expression was impossible to read, though, so I could only go with my gut.

And I quite liked the idea of going to watch the rugby.

Especially if it involved seeing Matty in shorts.

“That sounds fun! As long as you don’t mind me gatecrashing? ”

“Of course not,” Hannah said. She turned to Matty. “I’ll leave you to sort him out a pass. And now I have a zoo to look at.”

She walked off towards the playroom, leaving Matty and me standing in the hallway together in awkward silence. “Do you… you don’t—” I said, stumbling over my words.

“No, no, it’s fine. I should have offered,” Matty said.

“As long as you don’t mind.”

“No, of course not.”

“Cool… great… that’s…” I trailed off, my fingers still clutching the gift bag like I expected it to run away.

The silence stretched out between us again, and I wondered if I’d done something wrong, but I didn’t know what it was or what it could be.

Unless it was the rugby, but Matty had said he was fine with it.

And I’d have to go with Jack sometimes anyway, so what made this different? Was it Hannah?

No, if he had a problem with it, he had to say so. He was a grown man and perfectly capable of expressing his emotions in a clear, rational manner. It wasn’t on me to try and read his mind, even if it would make things easier.

“What’s in your gift bag?” Matty asked with a vague wave at it.

“I don’t know. Should I—”

“Yeah, you can open it.” He shuffled slightly closer, like he was trying to see inside without making it too obvious that he was looking. It was so adorable and I couldn’t help smiling to myself as I opened the bag, carefully removing the layer of pink tissue paper on top.

Inside was a little handwritten card thanking me for taking such good care of Jack and putting up with Matty’s interference. It made me chuckle and Matty huffed, muttering something under his breath about nobody being on his side.

There was also a very lovely box of chocolates, some loose-leaf tea and a silver strainer in case I didn’t have a teapot, a box with three beautiful bath bombs, some bath salts, a bag of chocolate chip shortbread that looked like it came from a fancy bakery, and several very expensive face masks from skincare brands who sold a small tub of moisturiser for about half my monthly salary.

“Oh… wow… this is too much,” I said, looking at one of the face masks before sliding it back into the bag. “I can’t accept this.”

“Yeah, you can. You deserve it,” Matty said.

He was smiling softly and it made my stomach flutter.

He was stood so close to me I could practically smell him, and I had to resist the temptation to take a deep breath.

I really needed to get my act together. Since when had I acted like such a bloody weirdo around my employers?

Spoiler, I hadn’t. But it was getting harder and harder to think of Matty as just my employer. Not when he was becoming a friend.

And not when I dreamt about him becoming something more.

“But it’s all… I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but it’s all so expensive.

I’m not worth this.” I said the last part in a very hushed voice because I didn’t want Hannah to overhear and think she’d done something wrong.

She hadn’t. I just wasn’t expecting a gift bag worth at least two hundred quid for simply doing my job. And that was a conservative estimate.

“You are,” Matty said, firmer this time. “And if you don’t want it, you have to tell Hannah. Because I am not arguing with her for you. I like you but not that much.”

His mouth curled slyly and it made the fluttering in my stomach a thousand times worse. Did he even realise he was flirting with me? Or was I reading too much into the situation?

“Fine, I’ll accept it. But only because I don’t want to upset her, especially since she went to so much effort.” I grinned at him teasingly. “And you were definitely a pain in the butt, so I think I deserve the chocolates at least.”

“Hey! I wasn’t that bad.”

“Of course not. Which is why I have this.”

“Gloating doesn’t look good on you,” Matty said as I waved the gift bag.

“I think it does,” I said. “And if you’re nice to me, I’ll share the shortbread with you while we watch Drag Stars later. I want to introduce you to the latest season of Legends , because it is everything. And I want to know if you have the same opinion as me on some of the eliminations.”

“Done. And I’m going to hold you to sharing. But you should know, it’s the only situation I’d consider it.” He smirked as he turned to walk towards the playroom, leaving me stunned.

I wasn’t quite sure what had just happened, but the one thing I did know was I would get to spend more time with Matty.

And that was what I wanted above anything else.