“I think I was babysitting you that weekend,” she blurted out.
A line appeared between Kit’s eyebrows. “What?”
“The time I took the books back. Your parents had gone away for the weekend and they didn’t trust Noah and Trystan to look after you, so they asked me to stay at the house with you.”
“I’m fairly sure I was old enough to look after myself. You were just always at the house.”
She shook her head adamantly. “Your parents paid me.” They’d paid her to look after him because they trusted her completely with their son. Which was why Mirren had asked her to go to London. To keep an eye on Kit and make sure Trystan was okay.
As Kit leaned back in his seat, the atmosphere between them turned slightly frosty. Seren told herself that was fine. A slightly uncomfortable atmosphere was preferable to them beingtoocomfortable with each other.
Although Seren was probably worrying about nothing when it came to blurring the lines of their friendship. In the same way that she’d previously always seen him as a kid, he probably viewed her as old and boring.
* * *
By the time they picked up the rental car at Exeter Airport, Kit had given up on talking to Seren about anything more than traffic and the weather. It seemed as though everything else he said annoyed her, so there didn’t seem to be any point in bothering. Inviting her had been a stupid idea, and he cursed himself repeatedly for letting Keira get in his head. The last thing he needed was a spark of hope that something might happen between him and Seren. What he should be doing is putting the whole thing behind him and moving on with his life.
Arriving at Trystan’s place was a relief. His brother’s presence eased the tension and made conversation easier.
“I thought we could go out for dinner,” Trystan said, as they all stood around in the modern open-plan kitchen. “There’s a decent Asian place just down the road.”
“Sounds good to me,” Kit said.
“Me too.” Seren took the beer Trystan handed her and drank a long swig.
After pouring himself a glass of water from a filtration jug, Trystan wandered over to the living room where a sofa bed was made up. “I presume you two are fine sharing this thing?” he asked. “I’m a bit short on space.”
Kit tried to catch his brother’s eye. When he’d previously been over to visit with Noah there’d been an air mattress. Surely it would be better for him to sleep on that? Except he had an inkling that Trystan purposely hadn’t suggested that arrangement.
“It’ll be fine,” Seren said, then looked at Kit. “As long as you don’t snore.”
“I’ll try not to.” The thought of sharing a bed with her wasn’t quite as thrilling as it should have been. Given that his feelings were entirely one-sided, it would likely feel more like torture than anything. “Did the tickets arrive for tomorrow?” he asked Trystan in a bid to move the conversation on.
“Yes, they’re somewhere here.” Trystan flipped through a pile of post on the kitchen island. “Though I’m not sure why you didn’t just get electronic tickets.”
“Because it’s not the same as having paper tickets. And they were offering limited edition keepsake tickets – they looked awesome.”
“I have a bit of a problem tomorrow,” Trystan said, a slight twitch to his left eyebrow. “I have to work, so you two will have to go alone.”
“I thought you were taking the weekend off?” Kit said.
“That was the plan. Unfortunately, my demanding clients are insisting on meeting tomorrow.”
“Is that just a ploy to get out of going to Warner Brothers Studios?” Seren asked, casting Kit a look of pure boredom.
His plan to surprise her with the day trip hadn’t gone the way he’d expected. He’d genuinely thought she’d be over the moon, but clearly he should have mentioned it to her before he’d paid for the tickets. It didn’t seem as though she was bothered about going at all.
“I’d actually like to go,” Trystan said, finding the envelope with the Warner Brothers crest and sliding it across the counter to Kit. “It would definitely be more fun than sucking up to clients for the day. Plus, it’s a cool place.”
Seren looked unimpressed. “Isn’t it the sort of place where you should have a child with you?”
“Not really,” Trystan said. “Harry Potter fans are all ages. I enjoyed it last time I went, and I was never even that into Harry Potter.”
“Did you have a child with you?” Seren asked.
“Actually, we did. We took Jenny’s niece for a birthday treat.” He leaned on the counter and his eyes glazed over as they descended into an uncomfortable silence.
“How are things with Jenny?” Seren asked. “Are you still on speaking terms? It must be hard after you’d been together for so long …”