Page 231 of Under Her Skin

Amelia looked at Jess and Jess saw she had the same wicked gleam in her eyes as her son. ‘Always thinking with his stomach. What about you, Jess? Shall I scare you first or are you hungry?’ Her smile was the same as Theo’s too and Jess relaxed, grinning back ather.

‘It’s a tough choicebut…’

Amelia laughed. ‘Come on in then, both of you. Theo, leave the bags until we’ve had adrink.’

Theo dutifully followed the women into the house. ‘Where are the demonspawn?’

‘Down at the beach. I told them a pod of orcas was spotted in thebay.’

Jess grinned excitedly but Theo squinted at his mother suspiciously. ‘Werethere?’

Amelia grinned wickedly. ‘Nope, the suckers. But it’s a good way to get rid of them for anhour.’

Jess and Theo laughed. Amelia, smirking, went to the refrigerator and pulled out a jug, waving it atthem.

‘Icedtea?’

Theo leaned over to Jess, with a stage whisper of ‘Don’t trust it.’ He straightened up and fixed his mother with a stare. ‘Iced tea…? Regular or LongIsland.’

His mom made a face at him. ‘It might have a couple of shots in it. Let’s take it out to the deck, shallwe?’

An hour and a half later,Jess knew two things. One: she was very, very drunk and two: she had fallen madly in love with Theo’smom.

‘I’m thinking of leaving you for your mom,’ she told a grinning Theo, who was clearly enjoying her drunkenstate.

‘Quite right too,’ Amelia toasted her with an empty glass. ‘I was thinking of experimenting with my sexuality and you, Jessie, are a very beautiful girl. What say we cuckold Theohere?’

Jess clanked her glass clumsily against Amelia’s. ‘Ho’s beforebro’s.’

Theo chuckled, shaking his head. ‘The state of you both…’ Amelia smiled and raised her glass tohim.

‘Yep, but at least, Jess isn’t scaredanymore.’

Jess looked between the two of them. ‘Oh, so this was ascheme?’

Amelia nodded while Theo tried to look innocent. Jess mumbled to herself andgiggled.

‘Dude!’ Two lanky and impossibly handsome boys appeared from nowhere and threw themselves onto Theo, who wrestled them to the ground easily enough but soon lost out to the puppy-dog strength of his brothers. Jess watched them, grinning while Amelia rolled hereyes.

WWF-session over, Theo extracted himself from the melee and the boys, who Jess could not tell apart, stood and smiled at her. Theo beamed as he introduced them and they stuck out their hands to shakehers.

‘I’m Seb,’ said one of them, ‘you can tell us apart by this mole just under my eye, see?’ He stuck his face close to hers and when she leaned in to look, planted a kiss full on her mouth. She burst out laughing as did Amelia, Theo pretended to be enraged and Seb and Tom high-fived eachother.

Tom nodded at the now empty jug of alcohol. ‘You getting drunk again,mother?’

Amelia peered at him over her spectacles. ‘I gave you life, child, I can just as easily beat yousenseless.’

The twins started to tease their mother and Jess sat back. This, this was a family, the teasing, the joking around, the lack of judgment, the absence of malice…suddenly she felt tears swept over her vision and realized she felt more at home with these three strangers than she ever had at home once her mother had married Eric. She could feel Theo watching and when his hand covered hers and squeezed it gently, she knew he understood. He bent his head towards hers, his lips at herear.

‘Are youokay?’

Jess nodded, leaning her forehead against his. ‘You know what? I really think I am now.Truly.’

And in that moment, she felt like everything would beokay.

Amelia had cookeda wonderful roast chicken and over dinner she and Theo talked about the house, getting Jess even more excited about seeing it. Later that evening, she and Theo undressed slowly in his old room and made love slowly, quietly and tenderly. Laying wrapped in his arms, Jess was nearly asleep when she heard him whisper. ‘Mom really loves you,y’know.’

Jess turned her face up to his. ‘And I love her too. I love your brothers, your home, everything about this family. I love you most of all. Thank you for showing me what happinessis.’