Page 60 of Kiss Me Like You Mean It

‘Yeah,’ Lee nods, chewing on her own sandwich. ‘It’s so nice. Although I can’t believe how many people stopped me to…’ Her eyes suddenly widen. ‘Oh my god!’ she exclaims.

‘What?’ I ask, bewildered.

‘I can’t believe I forgot.’ She shakes her head. ‘I got distracted, and I forgot what I came here to talk to you about.’

‘Okay,’ I say, still no clearer. ‘What did you need to talk to me about?’

‘The calendar, Nico!’ she bursts out, as if that is supposed to mean anything to me.

‘The calendar?’

She takes a deep breath, all animation leaving her face. Shutting down. ‘I know I agreed to the plan, but I’d really appreciate it if you’d talk stuff like that over with me. I get that this town has its own… personality, but it makes me feel uncomfortable to have that much on my plate. Maybe that’s pathetic, but—’

I hold up my hand to stop her nervous ramble mid-flow. Something has really upset her. ‘Lee, I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. Who’s made you feel uncomfortable?’ I try not to worry that I immediately want to rip that person’s arm off and beat them with it. That’s probably a perfectly normal response.

‘You did!’ she exclaims.

‘I…’ I trail off, horrified. I was right, she did notice that I was behaving weirdly last night and it’s freaked her out. I’m the worst. I’m a monster. I might as well go and live in the woods with Russell.

‘With the calendar,’ Lee adds miserably.

Wait, what?

‘What calendar?’

In response, Lee pulls her phone from her pocket and flicks through until she finds what she’s looking for, then she hands it to me.

On the screen is a calendar with dozens of events scheduled in it. When I look closer I see that they say things like ‘Lee and Nico: Doubles tennis tournament’; ‘Lee: Crafty Crew circle’; ‘Lee and Nico: Date night!’ ‘L&N: Attend post-game bonfire.’

‘What is this?’ I say slowly.

‘You don’t know?’ Lee sits back and looks at me. ‘You don’t know,’ she says again, and this time there’s relief in the words. ‘Kat told me you helped set it up.’

‘Kat did this?’

Lee shakes her head. ‘She said it was you and Magda.’

I close my eyes, take a deep breath as the truth settles. ‘Phoebe,’ I sigh.

‘Phoebe?’

‘Well, I didn’t have anything to do with it, and there’s absolutely zero chance Magda knows how to set up a shared calendar like this on her own. This particular scheme has my daughter written all over it.’ I run my eyes over the calendar again and can’t help but notice there’s a daily appointment to take Phoebe and Taco with us on an ‘ice cream date’.

‘I’ll take care of it,’ I say shortly.

Lee gnaws on her lip. ‘But won’t people be upset with us for cancelling things now they’ve booked us in?’

‘Fuck that.’ I give in to my instinct and throw an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into my side. ‘They can’t check you in and out like a library book. That’s not how this works. You look through that monstrosity and see if there’s anything you want to do. The rest of it goes.’

Lee relaxes into my hold, her body softening against mine. I try not to notice how well she fits there.

I’m still holding Lee’s phone (and Lee) when a text alert comes through. Adrian, I notice the name before I make myself look away and hand it back to her.

‘I’ll go over the schedule at home,’ Lee says, pulling back and slipping the phone into her pocket while I concentrate on not blurting out who is Adrian? ‘I’m sure there are a few things on there that will be okay.’

‘It’s up to you.’ I nudge her arm. ‘I’m happy to tell them all where they can shove it.’

Lee’s eyes are warm. ‘As you have to live here after I’m gone, let’s attempt some diplomacy first.’