Page 160 of The Other Side of Green

I prowled up and then climbed onto his lap, facing him, his fingers still playing behind my back.

“How was school, Mr. Cross?”

“Spectacularly tuneless. How was yours, Miss Lennox?”

“Interesting.” I swept my mouth across his. I would never bore of his kisses, even when we’d taken up crosswords instead of sex—although I couldn’t see that happening. At nearly thirty Jack was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“Let me guess, Evan has some awful plan up his sleeve to get you to sing?”

“Well, that would make it a normal day.” I stole in for another kiss before pulling away. “I have a dad.”

“What?” Jack pushed back slightly, hands on my hips.

“I know.” The space between us blew like a cool breeze and I snuggled myself back down, leaning against his chest.

“Want to talk about it?” His hands smoothed my curls, making them spring back up. “I think that’s something we should talk about.”

I considered this. Did I want to talk about it? Nope, not really, not yet. And I had other of things of importance to discuss.

“Did you check with your mom and dad whether they are coming tonight?

“They are, and why are you avoiding the subject?” He shot me a cheeky smile. “What time do we have to be back?”

“I said, six. You know Luca. I can’t trust him with anything.”

Jack laughed, pulling on a curl. “You can, you just don’t want to.”

Just then my phone rang in my back pocket. I scrunched my face and then pulled it out, holding a finger up to Jack who nodded and started planting kisses along my throat. “Eva? All set?”

“It’s Alex.”

“Alex! All set?” I chuckled, while wondering if there was any of my dad’s laugh in mine. Dad… I bolted it away. Another day could deal with that.

“I think so.”

“It’s fine, running a bar is easy. Just try and keep Eva off the tables. It will cut your profits if you have to keep replacing them because you’ve got heel marks in them all the time.”

“I heard that!” shouted the other half of the New York contingent.

“Right. I’ll see you later. Assuming the video links work and this isn’t a total disaster.”

Jack’s dirty gaze pulled my attention.

“Lyra,” Alex called me back, silence stretching between us. “Thanks.”

“We’re a team, right?”

“Yeah, we are.”

Family. We were family. All of us.

“Catch you later!” I cut the call, Jack’s lips straight on mine.

“If I give you an apple, will I get top marks, Mr. Cross?”

He growled, catching my hair in his hands. “You always get top marks. Right, two hours, be prepared.”

I laughed as he stood us up from the stool, but when I was in his arms, I caught his face, making him look at me. “Can we sit on the porch for a little while?”