Page 120 of The Summer Escape

“There you are,” she muttered as she strode over to it.

“What?” The croaky voice startled her so much that she walked into the coffee table, smacking her knee on the corner of it and cursing loudly.

“Sorry,” she said, registering Kit lying on the couch with a blanket over him, his eyes squinting against the light. “Ellie left her pony here.” With a watery smile, she bent to pick it up. “I thought I could sneak in and grab it without disturbing anyone.”

“It’s fine,” he said through a yawn.

“I’ll leave you to go back to sleep.” Except when she reached the doorway he was sitting up, clearly not intending to resume sleeping. “Are you okay?” Beth asked on impulse.

“Yes.”

She hovered by the door, feeling uneasy about finding him there. “Is everything okay with you and Seren?” It was none of her business, but she had a soft spot for Kit and hated to think he and Seren were having problems.

“Yeah.” He blinked a few times. “Oh! You mean because I’m sleeping on my mum’s couch? Everything’s fine. We decided to stay here … partly because we couldn’t be bothered to walk home and partly to avoid an argument about whose place we stay at.” He rubbed his hands over his face, then glanced up at her. “We’ve been talking about moving in together, but she wants me to move into her place, which makes absolutely no sense since I own my place and she rents. But her place is bigger… it’s kind of an ongoing discussion. But we’re fine.”

Beth hadn’t been expecting so much information, and she was still slightly confused. “You’re fine, but you’re on the couch and Seren is …?”

“Oh!” Amusement flashed in his eyes. “She’s upstairs, in the spare room. We both were, but she snores so I moved down here for some peace. Usually it’s not so bad, but when she’s had a few drinks it’s not as cute any more. You did me a favour waking me up. Now I can slip back in to bed and she won’t even notice I was gone.” His smile was full of warmth. “She doesn’t believe she snores. Or at least thinks I exaggerate about how loud it is. I’ve thought about recording her, but I’m fairly sure that wouldn’t go down well.”

“I can’t imagine it would,” Beth agreed. She was about to leave but dithered in the doorway. “Could I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” He yawned. “Make it an easy one though. I’m not fully awake yet.”

“Do you think Trystan’s happy?”

Kit smiled. “That one’s a bittooeasy. He’s definitely happy.”

“Do you think he’s happy about moving to Plymouth?”

“Yeah,” he said, his tone even. “I think so.”

Beth nodded slowly. “What does everyone else think about it?”

“How do you mean?”

She moved to sit on the couch when Kit shifted his legs out of the way. “I know he’d rather live here,” she said, pursing her lips. Her conversation with Trystan the previous evening had made her think even more about how their future would look if moving close to his family was an option. “I keep feeling guilty that we have to stay in Plymouth because of my dad. Trystan insists he’s fine with it and I guess I have to accept that since I don’t think there’s another option, but the more time I spend here, the more I realise it’s not just him who it affects but his family too. Does everyone resent me for being the reason he doesn’t live here?”

“No.” Kit tilted his head. “It’s not as though you took him away. It’s been a long time since Trystan’s lived here.”

“I know but I get the impression you all expected him to move back someday.”

“Maybe. But he’s happy. And it’s not as though you live that far away. I promise you, no one is upset with you about this.”

“Not even your mum?”

“Mum’s not upset about it. Although, that’s probably because she thinks …” His eyes widened and he trailed off.

“She thinks what?” Beth asked.

“Nothing. Never mind. Ignore me.”

“What were you going to say?”

“I’m not sure. My brain hasn’t really woken up yet.”

“Kit! Tell me what you were going to say.”

He covered his face with his hands. “I don’t want to. It’ll cause drama and I’ll be in trouble with everyone.”