Page 12 of Play On

We had staffers rotating in and out to help, and miracle upon miracles, the family side of the house is sparkling clean. The den is even painted. Unless you were here, you would never know it was ambushed by two peacocks this morning.

“Me too,” Amelia says, picking up another piece of sausage-and-mushroom pizza. “But I’m starving.”

With all the hard work I’ve put in today, I’m starving, too. I select a slice of pepperoni pizza and put it on my plate.

“What do you think Mum and Dad are going to say about the peacocks?” I ask.

Nicholas grins. “They’ll be furious. But I’m okay with that. I think Amelia is right about Carl and Roy, as annoying as they are.”

Oh, he’s definitely in love,I think, smiling as I take a bite of my pizza.

“And we have them in time for the big plant sale this weekend,” Amelia says. “You know people will want to take their pictures.”

We are hosting a huge plant sale this Saturday here on the estate. It benefits a local charity, and Nicholas came up with the idea for it. However, in order to get it approved, he had to go to our head gardener, Steven, and ask him to present it to Dad as his own idea and not Nicholas’s.

A heavy feeling comes over me. I hate that Nicholas has to do things like this, even over something as minor as a plant sale.

How I wish Dad would give him some autonomy to do things here at Wintersmith Hall. Nicholas is full of amazing ideas and has the passion and drive to get them done. I don’t understand why Dad continually shuts him down, but he does. I think he fears Nicholas will be too successful if given the chance—so that’s why Nicholas constantly gets his ideas rejected by him.

“So enough talk about peacocks and plants,” Nicholas says, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “What’s up with you and Darby? I saw you sneak off with him on Saturday night.”

Ugh, I’d rather talk about bloody peacocks than have to talk about Noah.

Amelia’s eyes meet mine across the table. “He seemed very interested in you.”

Now I’m going to have act like I don’t care about Noah. And my heart is going to ache inside my chest the entire time I do it.

I force myself to grin at both of them. “Oh, you know, that was just the weekend,” I say breezily. “It’s Monday and he’s in the past.C’est la vie.”

A questioning look enters Nicholas’s eyes. I quickly avert my gaze down to my pizza so he can’t see the truth. That I didn’t shove Noah away out of disinterest.

But out of fear instead.

“Really?” Amelia asks, sounding stunned. “But you seemed to hit it off so well!”

“You know me, I’m like a butterfly,” I say, forcing the words out. “I change my mind all the time.”

I pick up my slice of pizza and take a bite, but instead of tasting like fresh tomato sauce punched up with oregano, spicy pepperoni, and delicious melted cheese, it tastes like cardboard in my mouth.

Because the more I think of how I rejected Noah, the more I feel as if I’m about to be sick.

Nicholas, damn him, is still staring at me with that appraising way he has when he doesn’t believe me. I blot my lips with my napkin and then set it beside my plate. “I’m out of beer, that’s sacrilege,” I say cheerfully, springing up from the table. “Anyone want another one?”

“Yeah, thanks,” he says.

I go to fridge and retrieve two bottles of cold beer, as well as the bottle opener, and set everything on the worktop.

“For what it’s worth, I really liked Noah,” Amelia says.

I turn around. She is swivelled around in her chair, looking at me with a thoughtful expression on her beautiful face.

“Oh, he’s lovely, it’s just … well, you know, he’s a footballer. How often could he swing through Dorset anyway?”

There. That’s a truthful statement.

I busy myself with taking the bottle tops off the beers, but I’m acutely aware that Nicholas and Amelia have not switched subjects, which was the whole reason for my sudden interest in getting another beer.

“You could go to Surrey,” Nicholas finally says, staring at me.

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