Page 103 of The Secret

This time there was at least thirty seconds of thought before she answered, and I used that time to fill in the boxes. “I don’t know.”

“Ah, not so easy, that one.”

She sat up slightly, peering at me underneath her dark sunglasses. “Do you know it?”

“I do.”

She raised her eyebrow in disbelief.

“I do, it’s Protagoras. It was one of Rafe’s favorite quotes during college. That and ‘When Men are Pure, Laws are Useless’. Rafe always used to quote them when he was being particularly obnoxious. I guarantee they’ve made it into more than one closing argument.” I grinned at her and she lay back down.

We’d found the quietest spot in the park we could, harder than it sounded given that everyone in New York seemed to have the same idea we had on a sunny Saturday. Partially shaded by the umbrella I’d brought for Bell, we were all laid out on the large picnic blankets we’d spread on the ground. The deli had packed us an array of minieverything, along with a chilled bottle of champagne which we were half-way through. Barclay lay on the edge, under Bell’s shade, hot from his lengthy exertions of chasing the ball.

“Next question.”

“The most versatile word in the English language,”

Her eyes shot open, making me laugh loudly, then even louder when she snatched the paper from my hands. “It does not say that.”

Her eyes narrowed at me, then opened wide in shock as a soccer ball came out of nowhere, narrowly missing Bell, lying in between us, and hitting me. I spun round in the direction it came from, ready to launch hell on whoever had such shitty aim. My temper subsided slightly when I saw a frazzled mom running over, towing a smallish child by his hand.

“I’m so sorry, are you okay?” she cried, and then noticed Bell in Kit’s arms. “Oh no, did we hit her? Brandon,” she turned to her child, “apologize please. You need to be more careful.”

“I’m sorry,” his lip quivered, on the verge of tears.

“Don’t worry about it, bud. It’s fine. No harm done, though maybe soccer school wouldn’t be such a bad place for you.”

He stared at me unblinking.

“I’m so sorry, again.” His mom picked up the ball, then peered at Bell and Kit. “You have a beautiful family, your daughter is gorgeous. She looks just like you.”

“Thank you. I do.” I could already feel the heat of Kit’s glare. “Anyway, see you around. Watch where you’re kicking that thing next time, kiddo.”

I took a breath before I turned to her. It wasn’t like I was doing it on purpose. I barely even thought about the answer I gave, and I certainly wasn’t about to explain my private life to a nosy passerby who couldn’t keep comments to themselves. Either that or they were genuinely being polite.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Murray!”

I sighed. I pulled the pair of them onto my lap. “If it makes you feel better, I do it when I’m out with the boys too. People have no idea whether the three of us are in a relationship, so I always say thank you when someone compliments us. Penn won’t carry Bell any more from the amount of times people have assumed we are.”

She rolled her eyes at my teasing, and then moved off me, sitting so she could see me face on. Once she’d placed Bell on her tummy, she looked up.

“It doesn’t actually. Murray, you’ve not been to work all week. We’ve been naked more than we’ve been clothed.” She ran her hands through her hair, and I could see she was frustrated. Now, now was the time to have the awkward conversation I didn’t want to have. “I just, we…”

As always when she was flustered, she struggled with getting her sentences together.

“Okay, we need to talk. I’m sorry, I know we should have spoken before now, but I didn’t want to ruin anything.”

Her eyes immediately filled with horror and unshed tears. “Oh.”

“Hey, hey.” I pulled her back to my lap. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

“I’m not,” she sniffed, rubbing her nose. “Are you about to end this, or break up with me? Or something?”

“What?” The idea of ending anything with her was utterly absurd. “No, of course I’m not!”

She sniffed again. “Okay. Why do I get the impression there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

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