Chapter 13
As soon as he’d said the words, Harry wished them back when he caught sight of Kat’s guilty expression.
He also hadn’t missed her embarrassment earlier when Issy and Liam had been smooching at the table.
He’d done what she’d said and pretended nothing had happened but he wondered if he should talk to her about it.
It would have to keep though. ‘I must’ve left the back gate open,’ Kat admitted.
Before Harry could assure her that a simple bolt wasn’t enough to keep his hungover twin at bay, Ed banged on the door again. ‘Harry, pleeeeeease, bro, I’m dying here. You don’t want my rotting corpse on your steps now, do you? Imagine what the health inspector would say!’
Damn, but it was impossible to remain annoyed with his twin for very long.
Shaking his head, Harry hurried into the hall and opened the door.
Ed was clinging to the doorframe with one hand, his other one clutching a cafetiere and a large bag of coffee to his chest. His skin was the sort of shade you never wanted to see on another person – a dirty greyish-beige that you only found in a high-traffic institutional area like a school or hospital corridor.
‘You look like shit.’ Harry didn’t even try and keep the note of smugness out of his voice.
Matt peered around Ed’s shoulder, his expression one of abject apology. ‘Sorry about this, Harry. Someone decided they needed cornflakes when we got home last night, or should I say this morning, and dropped a whole carton of milk on the floor.’
‘It was an accident!’ Ed cried and Harry had a feeling this argument had been going back and forth for a while. Ed turned puppy-dog eyes on Harry. ‘One cup of coffee and I swear I’ll get out of your hair.’
Harry stepped back and ushered the pair in. ‘Come on, I’ll sort you out.’ As they kicked off their shoes and set them next to all the others on the mat, Harry added. ‘Best behaviour, okay? This is Kat’s home too now, remember.’
‘I’ll be good as gold,’ Ed promised as he threw an arm around Harry’s neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek. ‘You are the best brother in the world.’
‘I must be to put up with you. Come on, there’s fresh croissants on the table and I’m just about to make eggs royale.’
‘Food!’ Ed almost knocked Harry over in his rush to get into the kitchen.
Harry looked at Matt, who shrugged another apology before holding up the packet of bacon he’d brought with him. ‘I knew you’d insist on feeding us so consider this a small contribution.’
Harry laughed as he clapped his cousin on the back. ‘I can always rely on you, Matt.’
By the time they entered the kitchen, Ed was already at the table wolfing down croissants like his life depended on it.
Kat was over near the kettle with Ed’s cafetiere and Liam was at the sink washing up the plates they’d already used, Issy standing hip to hip with him, drying each plate as he handed it to her.
‘You’d better get in there before he eats them all,’ Harry said to Matt, relieving him of the bacon.
‘I don’t expect you to wait on me,’ Matt protested.
‘There are already too many people trying to help,’ Harry assured him with a laugh. ‘Please, sit; eat!’ He turned to survey the others. ‘Okay, I need everyone out of my workspace, please.’
Issy draped the tea towel over her shoulder and frowned at him. ‘You can’t do everything, Harry.’
‘Okay, you can stay.’ At least Issy knew what she was doing. He pointed at Liam. ‘You, sit.’ His brother laughed and edged his way past Issy to reclaim one of the chairs at the table.
He turned towards Kat, took one look at the stubborn expression on her face and grinned. ‘You can do what you like, seeing as you live here.’
Her scowl lifted into a bright grin. ‘I’ll sort out drinks and do my best to keep out of the way.’
‘Perfect.’
A quick prep chat later and Harry and Issy had divided the cooking tasks between them.
A lot of people might find making a hollandaise sauce intimidating but Harry had made so many, he could practically do it in his sleep.
There was a lot of bumping of elbows and laughing apologies but he found it easier than he’d expected to relax and just accept a bit of help rather than trying to do it all.
Fifteen minutes later and everyone had either eggs royale or a bacon sandwich on their plate – or both in Ed’s and Matt’s case.
There wasn’t room for everyone at the table, but Matt had insisted on surrendering his seat to Kat and was happy to lean over the kitchen counter as he ploughed his way through his food like a man possessed.
‘Damn, I definitely invited the wrong brother to move in with me,’ he said with a laugh as he mopped up the last bit of egg and hollandaise sauce with a corner of toast.
‘Hey, I heard that!’ Ed called out around a mouthful of food. His colour was looking a lot better than it had when they’d arrived, Harry was pleased to note.
‘You were supposed to,’ Matt replied, not batting an eyelid. He turned his attention back to Harry. ‘Hey, Ed said something on the way home last night about the shop next door? He wasn’t making a lot of sense though.’
Harry polished off the last bite of his sandwich then placed his plate in the sink.
He hadn’t expected Matt to put him on the spot like this and he wasn’t sure how to respond.
The reason he’d been awake so early was because he’d tossed and turned most of the night.
In between replaying that kiss with Kat a hundred times, he’d gone over a list of pros and cons in his head about the school.
Though his brothers had made a lot of encouraging noises when he’d spoken to them about it, there was a reason he’d waited until their dad was gone before he’d mentioned it.
Having grown up without it most of the time, Harry wanted to believe himself free of needing his father’s approval.
But the way he’d lit up at just a handful of nice words about his cooking last night, it had been a painful truth to learn that somewhere inside, the boy he’d once been still yearned for it.
Maybe he was biting off more than he could chew with the cookery school and he should simply be content with his lot.
Trying to run his own business would bring all the stuff he’d spent the last ten years desperately avoiding straight back into his life.
In the cold light of this January morning, he was already having doubts about his ability to pull it off.
‘It was just an idea I had. It might not come to anything.’
Matt studied him for a long moment. Unlike his sister Chloe, who was all instant reaction and worry about the consequences later, Matt liked to take his time and think things over before he voiced an opinion.
‘Well, if you do want it to come to anything I’m happy to view the shop with you and talk over what you need to do in terms of building work. ’
‘I honestly don’t know where to start with it,’ Harry admitted. ‘It was just something that came to me last night.’
‘It’s a big step. I thought I knew what I was doing with the cottage but I swear every problem I fix throws up something else.’
Matt had moved into a beautiful though very rundown cottage near the beach after the owner, Mrs Jenkins, had found it too much to cope with and moved into Blue Horizons, the village’s retirement complex.
Having lived there all her life, Mrs Jenkins had found it a struggle to part with the cottage, so he had stepped in and offered to look after it for her while she made up her mind.
They’d worked out a deal whereby he lived there for free and spent the money he would’ve used on rent to refurbish the place.
Ed had moved in with him and they split the utility bills and he gave Matt all the free labour he needed.
Harry knew Matt harboured hopes of buying the place once Mrs Jenkins finally agreed to let it go, so, although it was a bit of risk, Matt was hopefully investing in his own future with the work he was putting into it.
He crossed his arms over his chest and grinned at Harry.
‘It’s a lot more than I expected but, honestly, I’m loving the challenge of it. ’
Satisfaction all but glowed out of Matt’s pores and it made Harry hungry all over again for a challenge of his own.
He loved working at the restaurant, but he also knew he was starting to tread water.
Perhaps the cookery school idea would prove a non-starter but there was only one way to find out.
‘If I request the keys for next door, would you help me take some measurements and stuff like that?’
‘Absolutely.’ There was no hesitation in Matt’s response. ‘You walk me through your ideas and I’ll be able to sketch up some plans for you and then we can work out some prices. I could ask Dad to join us; he’d be more than happy to give you some advice.’
If his Uncle Ryan got involved then his dad would know about his plans straight away and Harry wasn’t ready to have that conversation.
Not until he’d actually figured out if there was a conversation to be had.
A knot twisted in Harry’s gut and he tried to ignore the heat on his face as he leaned closer and lowered his voice.
‘I, uh, look, maybe we can just keep it between us first time round, yeah?’
Matt patted him on the shoulder, his eyes full of sympathetic understanding. ‘Yeah, ’course, mate. Whatever you need. Sort out a viewing and I’ll make sure I’m there.’
‘What are you two plotting?’ Ed asked as he carried over a stack of dirty plates and placed them in the sink. He turned on the tap and added a generous squirt of washing-up liquid to the water, plunging the first plate in and beginning to scrub it almost immediately.
‘Matt’s going to have a look at the shop with me sometime. Help me get an idea of what I can do with the place,’ Harry told him as he picked up the tea towel Issy had discarded earlier.
‘No, you don’t,’ Liam said, as he took the cloth from his hands. ‘You’ve done enough already.’ He began drying the plates. ‘Did I hear you talking about a visit to the shop? If so, count me in.’
‘I don’t even know what I’m doing with it yet,’ Harry protested with a laugh.
‘Then I can help you figure it out. Rick will want to come along too, see what you need in terms of planning permissions.’ The steady look he fixed on Harry said he’d better not even think about arguing with them about it.
‘Count me in,’ Ed chipped in. When they all turned to look at him, he raised his shoulders in an embarrassed shrug. ‘Look, I know I know the square root of eff all about anything useful, but I want to be there. If this is going to be Harry’s thing then it’s my thing too.’
And that was why Harry would forgive Ed for all the stupid things he did, because at the end of the day they always had each other’s backs. ‘I wouldn’t dream of doing it without you, bro.’ He looked between Liam and Ed. ‘Let’s keep all this between us for now, until we can figure it out.’
‘Of course,’ Liam assured him. His expression brightened from serious to soppy and Harry didn’t need to turn around to know Issy was behind him.
‘What are you all plotting amongst yourselves?’ she asked with a smile as she edged around Harry to stand next to Liam. It was like a magnetic force connected them and they couldn’t bear to be separated for more than a few minutes at a time.
‘We were just working out the logistics of bringing Kat’s stuff over,’ Liam told her, and while he appreciated his brother’s quick thinking, Harry didn’t like the idea of his brother lying to cover for him.
‘We were also talking about an idea I have for the shop next door,’ Harry told her.
‘The shop next door?’ Kat was on her feet, her face pale, her eyes wide. ‘What about it?’
‘I’m thinking about setting up a cookery school and thought it would be the perfect location,’ he told her.
‘Oh! Oh, okay.’
Harry closed the small distance between them. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Nothing.’ She smiled as she shook her head and repeated it. ‘Nothing, I think it’s a great idea. Ignore me, I’m just tired and not thinking straight. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.’
Harry swallowed hard, wondering if she’d been tossing and turning for the same reason as him. ‘I didn’t either.’
Time seemed to stretch as they stared at each other and then Kat broke the spell by whispering, ‘I thought we were going to forget about it…’
Disappointment hit him hard but Harry covered it with a smile.
‘Forget about what?’ he murmured. The relief in her smile was another blow so he turned away and addressed the others.
‘If everyone has had enough to eat then I really need to get downstairs. I promised I’d sort the kitchen out this morning so the juniors could knock off a bit early last night. ’
‘Why don’t we divide and conquer, then?’ Liam suggested. ‘Issy can help Kat pack up her things and these two can do the heavy lifting and I’ll come downstairs with you and help with the clean-up. That way we’ll all be finished sooner and we’ll have the afternoon to chill out.’
Issy went up on tiptoes and pressed a kiss to Liam’s cheek. ‘That’s a great idea. Once we’re finished up, why don’t we go for a walk on the beach afterwards?’
As Liam pulled Issy close and hugged her, Harry didn’t miss the glint of moisture shining in his brother’s eyes and he found himself having to swallow around a lump in his own throat.
It was only since they’d got together that Issy had finally summoned the courage to confess how scared she was of the ocean.
It wasn’t surprising given how her parents had died, but she’d always seemed so together about everything that none of them had suspected the deep-seated trauma she’d carried with her for years.
With Liam’s help she was slowly desensitising herself, and for her to be the one to volunteer to walk on the beach was a sign of how much progress she was making.
He glanced over at where Kat was watching the pair, wondering if mention of the beach had bothered her.
She had a wistful smile on her face, an expression so full of longing that it stirred an answering emotion deep inside him.
Maybe she didn’t want to forget about that kiss any more than he did.
Sure, the timing might not be ideal with the two of them moving in together, but they could work around that, take things as slow as she needed to.
If it was something deeper than that standing between them, he was determined to find out what it was.