Chapter Thirty-Three
Stephen
Elle’s sister Lucy finally returned, holding a baby bottle, but her shoulders slumped when she saw Brigid was asleep. ‘Dammit.’
‘Sorry.’ I winced. ‘Did you not want her to sleep?’
‘Hey, it’s not your fault. If Quinn hadn’t been distracted in the kitchen, I would’ve been able to get the bottle into her first. Instead, he’s the one who’s had too many bottles.
’ She put it on the table and opened her arms for me to pass the baby over.
‘You did well to get her off without a feed. He’s good with the little ones, eh?
’ She winked at Elle, who only gave a half-smile.
‘Oooh, how’s this for an idea? Why don’t you two babysit together, tonight?
You’re over this way anyhow and you’ll have some company.
What d’you say, Elle? Pur-lease?’ Lucy batted her eyelashes at her sister.
‘Fine. I’ll babysit, but that has to be it for the rest of the month.
I have a deadline.’ I saw the tension creep in around her forehead and lips when she spoke about her book.
She’d said a lot about her helping her family and them helping her back, but all I’d seen today was her running around doing jobs and catching up with people.
I knew that spending one afternoon with them didn’t make me an expert but between that and what she said about the men in her life who didn’t respect her career, I suspected this was more of an issue than she was prepared to admit to me.
That the moment she let people in, she struggled not to give them too much of herself.
‘Of course.’ Lucy grinned. ‘Great. Thank you! What about you, Stephen?’
‘You don’t have to—’ Elle started.
‘It’d be my pleasure.’
Elle pressed her lips together for a second and then nodded her head. ‘OK, if you say so. C’mon, let’s go find Dad.’
She seemed pissed off at me for offering to help with the babysitting, but I was just doing what she’d told me to – being charming, and if I was there, she could do some writing if she needed to.
Maybe. It wasn’t like I knew anything about babies, but I could be the one on alert so she could concentrate at the very least.
I half expected her dad to be polishing a gun like some cliché from the movies.
He was much quieter than most of her family, taking everyone in with the same shrewd focus Elle had.
But we found him in a small room, half asleep with a fishing magazine over his face as he leaned back on his office chair.
‘Sorry to wake you, Dad.’ Elle spoke softly and shut the door over to the office behind us.
‘Why are you waking me, then?’ he grumbled but sat up and threw the magazine on the desk next to him.
‘I have a favour to ask. A favour for me, for Stephen.’
‘Is that so? I figured you weren’t just here to sample an authentic US barbecue.’
‘No, but it was much appreciated,’ I thanked him. ‘As it will be if you could do this favour for me, sir.’
‘All right, all right, quit the sweet talk.’
‘He’s just built that way, Dad.’ Elle waved her hand dismissively.
‘If you say so. Go on, sweetheart, why don’t you leave me to talk to him?’
‘Without me?’
‘I’m not gonna get out the thumb screws, if that’s what you’re worried about.’
‘That isn’t what I’m worried about,’ she said under her breath but backed towards the door. ‘You’ll be OK?’
‘He’ll be fine,’ her dad answered and gestured for me to take a seat opposite him as she left. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she stayed out there with her ear to the door though. ‘Tell me what you need then and why.’
I explained about my mum’s passing and my father absconding and all we’d found out from the search calmly and succinctly, because I was certain this was a man who appreciated brevity.
‘I’m sorry to hear about your mother.’
‘Thank you.’
‘And you genuinely just want to pass on details to him? There’s no…ill will you feel towards him that will end up in trouble? I can’t be responsible for someone winding up in the hospital.’
I shook my head and wondered if there was something wrong with me. Should I have been planning to punch Trevor in the mouth when I finally found him? Maybe that was something I’d locked up in the box, too?
‘I’ll run a check for you then, but I could do with a little more information. Don’t get your hopes up. I can’t say when I’ll get the chance either, so you might want to follow up with your legal team anyway.’
‘I understand.’
‘And you can’t mention to anyone you found out this way.’
‘Goes without saying.’
I wrote out the addresses we had, the places he’d worked, what his roles there had been, and passed it over.
Ken nodded. ‘And when you’ve found him, am I likely to see you again?’
Spending the day with her family had been a welcome break from the pressure at the office, the stillness of my apartment and the creeping anxiety of the search. I wouldn’t say no if Elle invited me to another one of their gatherings. But…I didn’t think that was precisely what her dad was asking.
Did he suspect I’d been using her? That there was something more happening between us? Everyone had been making teasing comments along those lines but I had the feeling Ken was more likely to make his own judgement.
My mouth opened and closed and his eyes narrowed like he was taking in my every micro-expression.
Parting ways had been the deal. But that was before we’d started calling ourselves friends. Before I found myself looking forward to seeing her, even though half the time I was walking into a situation that would make me deeply uncomfortable.
And Elle had said she’d been having fun too, which I believed, because that woman loved solving puzzles — but I had no idea if it went any further than that.
Particularly with the added complication of the attraction she had to me, that she definitely didn’t want to acknowledge or act upon.
It was far easier to deal with temptation if you removed it from your life altogether.
Christ, I hoped her dad couldn’t read all of that confusion from my face. He would be the world’s best body language expert if so.
‘It’s up to Elle,’ I said, eventually.
Because that was the only thing I knew for certain.