Page 27 of Kiss Me Like You Mean It

I would lay down my life for him.

‘Get down,’ I say, trying and failing to sound stern.

Taco ignores this request, homing in on Lee who stands, taking a step back behind her chair. They never had pets in her house growing up, and Lee eyes Taco like he’s an alien species, which – to be fair – I have occasionally suspected.

‘Oh no,’ she says, taking another step back. ‘These trousers are dry-clean only.’

The dog is unmoved by this argument and throws himself up against her legs until she surrenders and rubs his head.

‘Sit?’ she suggests, and I’m surprised when Taco’s bum hits the ground, his stumpy tail wagging furiously.

‘Huh.’ I try not to be put out by the fact that Taco-the-untrainable actually listened to Lee and is now looking at her with giant heart eyes. That traitor. I was the one mopping up his vomit at 4 a.m. after he broke into his treat tin again.

‘Look,’ Magda interjects, ‘Lee’s here now and there’s plenty of time for us to talk about the details later, but I’m sure she must be exhausted from all her travel so why don’t you take her home?’

I feel my heart seize.

‘Home,’ I say slowly.

‘Well, of course,’ Magda laughs. ‘Lee will be staying with you, won’t she?’

‘I told you that you were staying with me and my dad,’ Phoebe turns to Lee.

‘I know you did,’ Lee murmurs, and she sounds distant. ‘But at the time I thought you might be a very small serial killer.’

‘Oh.’ Phoebe looks pleased, pushing her glasses up her nose. ‘Cool.’

‘Of course I didn’t realise that was so statistically unlikely.’

‘Still possible, though,’ Phoebe points out.

Then nobody says anything.

‘Maybe I should check in to a hotel,’ Lee says finally. ‘I don’t want to impose.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Magda chuckles. ‘First of all there isn’t another hotel in town, and you can hardly stay in this building site with no electricity or running water. Plus you and Nico are friends, aren’t you? I don’t know how they do things in England but here in Roseport we don’t let our friends stay with strangers.’ She looks at me expectantly.

‘Right,’ I say, shaking my head to clear it. ‘Yes, sorry, obviously you’ll stay with us.’

Lee still looks uncertain. ‘If you’re sure…’

‘Of course I’m sure,’ I say with way more certainty than I feel. After all, it’s my fault she’s in this mess in the first place. ‘It will be fun.’

I treat Magda to a dark look. ‘We can discuss this more tomorrow.’ I hope that I sound suitably ominous, but Magda doesn’t seem at all put out.

‘Perfect,’ she agrees. ‘We need to discuss the finer details of the plan, anyway.’

I definitely don’t want to know what that means.

‘And you and I will also be having a conversation,’ I say to Phoebe. ‘About how grounded you are.’

‘How grounded am I?’ Phoebe asks, interested.

Fuck. I am so bad at this stuff.

‘Six…’ I start confidently, and then I end up flailing a bit. ‘Weeks?’ I finish, and I know it’s not great that it sounds like a question.

Phoebe considers this. ‘Okay. As long as I can still see Maya and Jamie, and go to Rose’s birthday party.’