Page 86 of Tears of Glass

I cast him a side-eye and shake my head. He’s my knight in shining armour. Okay, his noble steed tends to gallop through and destroy things, but he’s the one who finally pulled me free.

“When I told him about Aiden, I thought he would tear down the town. He left me with Al and didn’t come home for hours. I thought he was going to get himself killed.”

“But you’ve always just been friends?”

“Yes, the three of us.”

We are nearing the flat and Eli stops, his gaze settled heavy on my face. “Maybe you should invite him up, he could stay with us while he sorts himself out.”

“Uh, that’s nice, but I don’t reckon he wants to leave Brighton right now; it’s keeping him close to Al.”

My words focus on what Eli just said. “What do you mean us? You know I still live here, right?”

He laughs, and it sounds delicious. His dimple on his right cheek deepens.

“Faith, you stay at mine every night.”

“Only because you don’t let me leave,” I grumble under my breath and turn for the door of my home.

He pulls me back, his lips on mine with that hot and hard kiss of his. “You keep telling yourself that.” He smiles against my mouth.

“Come on, chef, you’d better cook a mean roast.”

We are halfway up the old creaking stairs when I have a thought. “How can I officially live with you, when I don’t even know what your roast is like?”

“And if it’s good you’ll pack a suitcase today?”

Well, shit.

“I have very high standards.” I’m grinning wide, I can’t help it.

“So do I.”

I shake my head as we carry on up the stairs. There’s no way I can live with him permanently after just a couple of weeks. That would be crazy.

So why is there a little voice in my head questioning whether I can live anywhere else but with him?

“Yo, sick note.” We let ourselves in and I shout for Tabitha. “Are you still looking green and desperate?”

Our feet falter as we take the one step into the lounge and find Tabitha, her face blotchy and pale like strawberries squashed into cream.

“What on earth is wrong?” Eli is across the room in one step, dragging her into his arms and wrapping them in their firm hold. “Is it Lewis, where is he? Is he in trouble? Why didn’t you ring me?”

Eli is normally coolness personified, but there’s a tremble in his voice that’s impossible to ignore. It makes my stomach tighten until it twists painfully and the hairs on my arms stand like I’ve been electrocuted.

It’s so easy, in my own heartbreak and grief to forget that Eli is carrying the weight of the boy who lost his mum on his shoulders, too.

And he wants to live with me? I really can’t see why.

“I’m here.” Lewis steps out of the bathroom, rubbing his neck with a towel, dressed in faded jeans and a pale blue T-shirt. The blue accentuates pale shadows under his eyes. His face is also puffy.

“What the hell is going on?” I speak before Eli, stepping up to Lewis and staring him right in the eye, inspecting his face, the red rims around his eyes.

“Tabs lost the baby in the night. We’ve just got back from the hospital.”

The air just puffs out of my lungs. “What?”

Lewis scowls. “Want me to say it again?”