Page 48 of The Summer Swap

Lily

“Todd.” Lily forced herself to step forward. What choice did she have? The other option was escaping through a window and once was enough for one week. And, anyway, she didn’t need Todd wondering why she would go to those lengths to avoid him.

She needed to play the part of little sister’s best friend. Which was what she was.

“Hey, Lily.” For a second his gaze locked on hers and then he covered the distance between them in two long strides and pulled her in for a hug.

She shouldn’t have been surprised. This was Todd. Demonstrative, affectionate and all-around good guy. Yes, he had faults, but it was her misfortune that she loved his faults as much as the rest of him. He could be annoyingly stubborn, often took ages to reply to messages because he rarely checked his phone when he was working, and he tended to give people the benefit of the doubt (which was presumably how he’d ended up engaged to Amelie).

And even if she had managed to hate those things about him, it was hard not to love a guy who went to such lengths to check his grandmother was okay.

For a moment she was pressed up against him, and she felt the hard wall of his chest and the strength of his arms as he tugged her close.

She breathed in the scent of him and sank into the power of him and felt everything she’d locked down explode. The feelings she’d tried so hard to bury escaped in a joyous bound. Her knees weakened. Her heart flew. She was scarily close to hugging him so tightly he’d never be able to escape back to Amelie.

Amelie.

Pulling away from him, keeping it casual, was brutal.

“Hi there.” Did she sound normal? She felt anything but normal. “It’s been a while.”

She’d spent Thanksgiving with Hannah and the family. Before she’d dropped out. Before she’d fallen out with Hannah.

“What are you doing here?” He frowned. “Hannah mentioned that you’d left medical school. What happened?”

“Enough of the inquisition, Todd.” Cecilia gestured to the kitchen. “The one rule in this household is that no one is obliged to talk about anything they don’t want to talk about. Make yourself useful and bring the coffee outside.”

Lily felt a rush of gratitude and then realized that Todd was still looking at her closely.

“I’ll fetch the coffee,” she said quickly. “You must be tired after your drive. I’m sure you two want to catch up.”

And she needed to steady herself.

She headed to the kitchen and took as much time as she felt would pass as reasonable. She poured coffee into mugs, tipped a few of the lemon cookies Cecilia had baked fresh that morning onto a plate and added a jug of milk. She knew exactly how Todd took his coffee—black and strong, even this late in the evening. Everything about him was studded into her brain.

Todd.

She couldn’t believe he was here. She’d been so absorbed by what Cecilia was saying about her paintings she hadn’t even heard the car.

And now her head was spinning. Todd dominated her thoughts, but underneath was a feeling of dizzying delight that Cecilia liked her work. What had she said? You have real talent. Did she mean that? She’d spent a long time studying each one and muttering things Lily didn’t catch. And she’d made the paintings look so much better by framing them.

For a moment Lily imagined her work hanging on a wall and then she brought herself back down to earth. She’d think about that later. For now, she needed to focus on Todd.

She wished she was wearing something dressier than her tie-dye T-shirt and her oldest pair of shorts. Amelie always wore dresses. Flowing, feminine dresses that cost more than Lily was ever likely to earn in a year.

Holding firmly to the edges of the tray, she walked back outside to find Todd standing next to Cecilia admiring the view. His arm was looped around her shoulders.

“This place is incredible. How did you find it?”

Cecilia glanced up at him. “More importantly, how did you find me? You said you tracked my phone. How? Who else should I be expecting?”

“No one. I used my laptop. I showed you, remember?” His tone was patient. “I set it up so that if you ever lost your phone, we could find it again.”

“Oh. Yes, I think I do remember now. I often lose my phone, so it sounded a useful thing to do,” Cecilia said. “But I didn’t know you were going to use it to find me.”

“It’s a good thing you and your phone were in the same place.” He kissed his grandmother on the cheek. “I wanted to check you hadn’t been kidnapped and held for ransom.”

Lily put the tray down on the table and unloaded the mugs. Because Todd wasn’t looking at her, she allowed herself to look at him. Just for a few seconds. It was like eating one square of chocolate when really you wanted to devour the whole bar.

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