“I don’t understand why you won’t have a conversation with him about his plans.”
“Because me being clingy and demanding isn’t going to help the situation. The more we focus on enjoying spending time together, the more chance there is that he won’t want to leave.”
“I’m worried that you’re burying your head in the sand and are going to get your heart broken. If you want him to stay in Bristol I think now would be a good time to have that conversation with him rather than hoping he makes the decision alone.”
Keira’s shoulders sank as she accepted Mel’s point. “What if I suggest it and he says no? Everything will be awkward.”
“At least you’ll know where you stand.”
“Things are so great between us. I don’t want to ruin it. Besides, I think he’ll stay. It’s not as though there’s any pressing reason for him to go back to Scilly.”
When the doorbell rang, Keira breathed a sigh of relief at putting an end to the conversation. Grabbing her phone, she shoved it into her handbag and called goodbye to Mel as she made a dash for the door.
With a thumb on the intercom, she said she’d be right down, then tried to put the conversations with Mel out of her head as she hurried into the lift.
Stepping out of the building, she did a double take. Before she could speak, her mum had flung her arms around her in an exuberant greeting.
* * *
If he hadn’t seen that it was Seren calling, Noah would have ignored the phone. He was about to leave for dinner with Keira and wasn’t keen to be waylaid. Since he hadn’t spoken to Seren much over the past couple of weeks, he felt bad ignoring her.
“Hi,” he said, picking up his car keys and checking himself in the hall mirror as he answered. “Everything all right?”
“Am I interrupting you?”
“No,” he said through a grimace. “Why?”
“You sound as though you answered begrudgingly.”
Chuckling, he moved into the living room and perched on the arm of the couch. “If it had been anyone else calling I wouldn’t have answered.”
“Are you about to meet Keira, by any chance?”
“Yeah. We’re going out for dinner. I’ve got five minutes to spare.” Switching to speaker phone, he messaged Keira to say he’d be five minutes late.
“I take it things are still going well between the two of you?”
“Yes.” A smile pulled at his lips. “We’ve been spending every spare moment together. The more time we spend together the more I like her.”
“That’s good.”
He nodded enthusiastically. “I keep thinking I’ll find she has some really annoying traits but it’s not happening. The other night we were watching a film and they talked the whole way through it. That should have been annoying, right?”
“Who’s they?”
“Keira and Mel.”
“The lesbian best friend?”
“Yeah. They chatted through the film, but it was kind of cute. When I told them to stop, they did it more and teased me like crazy …”
“Let me guess … it should have been annoying but you found it cute …”
“Pathetic, aren’t I?”
“Totally. What are you going to do?”
“How do you mean?”