Page 233 of Falling for You
I wave them both off. ‘He was a fantasy, the whole thing was a fantasy. And it’s fine.’ I force myself to smile brightly at them both. ‘Really, everything is great.’ I keep my smile for as long as I can, until it starts to burn at my cheeks. ‘Oh, fuck it,’ I say, letting my smile drop. ‘Tanya. Get the biscuits. I need it.’
Tanya immediately springs forward and darts out of the room into the kitchen. Penny reaches out and grabs my hand.
‘You’re the best person I know, Annie. You do know that, right?’
I smile, my throat starting to ache. ‘You won’t say that when I live in yours and Mike’s spare room for the rest of my life.’
‘We don’t have a spare room,’ she says earnestly. ‘But you can live under the stairs for as long as you like.’
And as I look back at Penny with her serious green eyes, I know she means it.
CHAPTER FORTY
Nate
I drum my fingers on the side of the plastic chair, eyeing Stevie as he saunters over to me, holding two Costa coffee cups, expertly dodging the swarms of people rushing for their flights.
‘Here you are,’ he says. ‘I got us a scone to share, too. Have you even had one of these since you’ve been here?’
I wrinkle my nose as he pulls open the brown paper bag and I see a squat, white circular baked good.
‘Nope,’ I say. ‘Never heard of it.’
He starts sawing it in two with his plastic knife. ‘God. You’re going back to New York and you’ve barely done anything British. Did you have fish and chips?’
‘Nope.’
‘Pie and mash?’
I shake my head.
‘A roast dinner?’
I snap my fingers. ‘That I have had.’
‘Where?’
‘At the pub with Remy.’
Stevie seems to accept this. He pulls out his phone and my eyes flit back up to the announcement board.
Our flight is in four hours. Stevie insisted on us getting here early so he could ‘comfortably’ make his way through the airport. He said he wanted a coffee and a giraffe in peace, which I later found out was a fast-food restaurant.
‘Ah,’ Stevie says, leaning back into his seat and flicking his sunglasses onto his face, ‘I’m looking forward to a holiday.’
‘You do remember what New York is like this time of year, don’t you?’ I raise an eyebrow at him.
Stevie ignores me. ‘Do you think Mom will recreate a thanksgiving dinner for us?’
I shrug. ‘Probably.’
‘And I’d like to go to Target. Oh, and Pottery Barn!’
I give him a look. ‘Target?’
‘You miss these things when you’re away for a long time,’ he says. I turn my phone in my hands.
‘How are you feeling?’ I ask.
