Eve Devon - It’s In His Kiss

‘Argh,’ Luke stuck his fingers in his ears as Sephy started singing a tune from the film. When she saw him cross his eyes in pain, she laughed and sang louder until he was forced to start humming the theme tune to Star Wars to drown her out.

The louder she sang, the louder he hummed, until Daisy walked in, dragged off her helmet and in solidarity with her mum performed her own ear-splittingly loud rendition of ‘Love is an Open Door’.

Luke and Sephy grinned at each other like big kids, near-argument over money and over-stepping the boundaries of friendship totally forgotten in the moment.

‘Right then, Darth Daisy,’ Sephy said once Daisy had completed every verse and chorus, ‘say goodnight to Luke while I get you a quick drink. Then its bath time, followed by bed.’

‘’Night Luke,’ Daisy said, making him proud when she started singing the theme tune to Star Wars .

‘You,’ Sephy said, pointing to him as she ushered Daisy out of the kitchen, drink in hand, ‘order take-out and don’t for one minute think that I’m not paying. If the food comes before I finish putting this one to bed, my purse is in my bag.’

Luke watched them depart the kitchen.

In their wake, the sudden silence reminded him of being in his own place and how he tried to avoid that as often as possible. Ears straining, he could just about make out Sephy and Daisy chatting away about their day. Glad of the background noise but needing more, Luke picked up his coffee and wandered back into the lounge to switch on the TV. He knew to leave at least fifteen minutes before he ordered food or it would be cold by the time Sephy got to it.

His gaze was drawn to where Daisy had set up her wedding chapel. With an amused shake of his head he tore his gaze away and made a grab for the TV remote control. Flicking through the channels to get the first station playing any kind of sport, he settled on the sofa and reached for his laptop again.

Opening up the email from his foster parents, he turned his head again towards ‘wedding central’, and damned if it didn’t get him thinking.

And then he did some thinking about Sephy’s predicament.

And then he started smiling.

He might just have come up with a genius idea.

Sephy pulled the door of her daughter’s bedroom gently shut and turned to follow the scent of double pepperoni pizza.

At the top of the stairs, she stopped to drag a hand through her hair and then, instead of descending downstairs, backtracked down the corridor to her bedroom with its en suite, to freshen up.

‘Not for Luke’s benefit,’ she whispered to herself, mentally flicking the ears of the little devil she imagined perched on her shoulder, holding its belly to try and contain its peal of laughter.

No, all she was going to do was splash some cold water on her face, because, wow, was she tired.

The amount of work she still had to do to get Seraphic under way meant that even her check list had check lists, but the tiredness wasn’t going to magically disappear after the launch, so her only option was to suck it up and keep going.

In the mirror over the en suite vanity, Sephy peered at her reflection and took stock. Okay. It wasn’t too bad.

But she was definitely going to get rid of the smudge of hours-old eyeliner, and maybe swipe on some lip-gloss. What? she asked her reflection. It was important to keep your lips hydrated. Everyone knew that.

Reaching out she plucked a face-wipe from the pack and let out the breath she’d been holding, hoping that along with it would come the release of at least some of the stress of the day.

But all she felt was a grinding pain in her stomach.

It wasn’t hunger that was producing the sensation.

It was the certain knowledge that if she didn’t get some more money coming in soon, she and Daisy were going to have nothing left to live on. By her calculations they had enough for two months. Depending on orders for Seraphic, three months absolute tops.

God, she must have been mad to think launching Seraphic would make all her money problems disappear, but it had been the only way she could think of bypassing asking her mum or Jared or Nora for help.

Sephy stretched to try and ease the tension in her belly.

If it came down to it, she would forsake pride and go to them. No way was Daisy going to go without.

But she wasn’t quite there yet. First, she was going to try to fix things by herself.

It would work, she tried to reassure herself. It had to.

She wasn’t sure she could endure the look on the faces of her family if she had to go to them for funds. Not after spending month after month turning them all down so vociferously.

Jeremy King had done what he’d done. Arguing about how archaic the terms of his will were, or how they didn’t understand how he could have hurt her this way, wasn’t going to change anything.

Sephy needed her family to be able to love him, not spend more time resenting him. Leading by example was the only way they would all heal from the giant hole his passing had left.

She knew why he’d done what he’d done.

Putting Sephy’s inheritance into a trust fund for Daisy – making it so Daisy couldn’t access it until she turned twenty-one – wasn’t really as disrespectful to Sephy as the family thought.

Looking at things longterm, she even agreed with what he had done.

It was just this massive short-term problem it had created that she had to deal with.

Sephy looked at her reflection and reached for her lip-gloss. Slicking the wand over her lips, she supposed she could take on a few more couture clients.

But creating couture lingerie couldn’t be rushed and the only uninterrupted time she had was when Daisy was at school or asleep.

She was already maxing out those hours as it was.

Finding another seamstress who took as much care as she did over putting her designs together, again, took time and money she didn’t have.

No, the completely outside-of-her-comfort-zone forecasts and charts she had made herself do all told her the same thing. She needed the Seraphic ready-to-wear line to sell in volume.

Which brought her back to Luke.

Sort of.

She was a little mad at him still.

Not for saying no to her, although, yes, that did smart! It was more that as well as the shock on his face, she had glimpsed how difficult he’d found it to say no and had seen in the darkening of his eyes the temptation to say yes.

She was mad to be wondering what had made him say no. She didn’t have time to indulge an overactive imagination. Luke had said no and that was that. She only had time to move on and keep focusing on the launch.

Casting one last look at what she saw in the mirror, she left her room and jogged down the stairs.

Having set out the pizza box, plates and kitchen roll on her coffee table, Luke was on his knees picking up the wild flowers Daisy had pulled up from the garden. Next to him was a plastic beaker that he had filled up with water.

Bugger.

How could you stay mad at a man who put wilting wild flowers into water after your daughter had finished trampling her toys all over them?

He looked up as she entered the room and she could feel his eyes on her as she snagged herself a slice of pizza and a plate to put it on.

With her hands full she realised he had moved her bag, complete with all the underwear samples she carried around with her, to her favourite chair and the only place left to sit would be on the sofa next to him.

‘I see you’ve been checking out my underwear again,’ she said as she yanked off a piece of kitchen roll to use as a napkin.

‘Of course,’ Luke grinned, ‘but only as a way of getting into your purse. I had to take it all out to find your money for the pizza guy.’