Page 58 of Milo
“What?” I look up, startled, in time to see Niall pace over to the doors.
“Shit!” he shouts loudly and books it out of the room, banging into the doorframe as he goes.
“Niall said a bad word,” Molly says happily.
Silence descends for a split second and then I dart over to the window in time to see Jacinta clad in very fetching lilac underwear, dancing around the garden and laughing uproariously while my brother claps and cheers.
For a long second, I’m held immobile as Molly and I watch while she dances around to an invisible tune. She’s obviously either spectacularly drunk or stoned or both, but she still manages to avoid the clutches of Niall as my brother laughs loudly at both of them.
Finally, I realise that I’m probably scarring Molly’s delicate mind for life and usher her away from the window. “Come on,” I say heartily. “Help me make breakfast for everyone.”
“I think porridge is the right choice, especially for the lady. She’s going to be very cold when she comes in,” Molly says sagely, letting me tie an apron around her and accepting a spoon to stir the oats into the cold milk.
I look up in time to see Niall corner her and whip his shirt off to cover her. I roll my eyes and try to ignore both Niall’s bare chest and the fact that my brother is also ogling it.
“She needs a proper bra,” Molly intones in a slightly scandalized voice. “Her boobies are flopping about all over the place.”
“She needs a sense of decency,” I say with a sniff and then halt. “What do you know about bras?”
She shrugs. “Granny has a proper bra. It’s big and white and I can stick my head in one of the pouches.”
I blink and try to rid my mind of the image of Mrs. Granger in her underwear. The back door opens and Niall comes in, followed by my brother who is leading a sulky Jacinta.
Niall ushers her to a seat and reaches for the coffeepot while my brother slings himself into a chair, looking disgruntled.
“Party pooper,” Jacinta sneers at Niall. “You’ve really changed. Time was you’d have liked to see me dance in my underwear.”
“I don’t think asking you not to do it in front of a five-year-old really deserves the title of party pooper,” Niall says wryly.
“What five-year-old?” she sneers, accepting the coffee he pours her with a huff and getting out a cigarette from a packet on the table. “I’m sure Milo looked a lot older than that.”
“He is,” Niall says patiently, removing the cigarette from her pouty mouth and throwing the packet neatly into the bin. “I’m talking about the little girl making porridge over there.”
Jacinta squints for a few seconds. Her pupils are huge. She then obviously gives up. “I left my cigarettes around here,” she says querulously. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know,” Niall says quickly and my brother snorts.
He’s wearing old jeans and a black jumper and looks handsome. Although he’s not saying much, he has a way of filling a room. He’s always been like that. There’s just something about him that draws the eye. He looks over at me where I stand with Molly and something dark flashes across his face. Then it clears so quickly I wonder whether it was even there. Still, I’m a little unnerved and for some reason, my eyes instantly look for Niall.
He’s pulling on a crumpled t-shirt from the ironing basket and watching me carefully. When I catch his eyes, he immediately smiles reassuringly, so I relax. When I turn back, Gideon is examining my face carefully. Then he sits back.
“God, I’m bored. How do you stand it around here?”
“It’s lovely here,” I say, feeling incredibly stung. How dare he criticise the nicest place I know and my sanctuary. “Just because it’s not wall-to-wall orgies and nightclubs doesn’t mean it’s automatically boring.”
“Tsk tsk, Milo. How very unexpectedly snappy of you.” He smiles. “Sometimes I forget how very young you are.”
“Stop sniping,” Niall orders, and I’m not sure which of us he’s talking to. Maybe both of us.
I subside and start to heat the porridge, passing Molly the bowls to put on the table. She passes Niall the jug of orange juice carefully, her little tongue sticking out in concentration, and Jacinta unexpectedly revives.
“Is that vodka and orange?”
Niall blinks. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s nine in the morning, darling.”
