Page 113 of Red Flag
“Boyfriend?” I shrieked.
“Very new boyfriend, as well.”
“Mum has aboyfriend?”
Nix stepped back, no longer between my brother and me. It was only just a year since Dad had died.
“Dad is barely—”
“Dad is dead,” Ben said stiffly. “And Mum deserves to be happy. Not with this guy, but, at least she’s getting back out there…”
Fucking mummy’s boy.
“He’s only staying for dinner,” Ben continued. “I doubt we’ll ever see him again.”
“That’s even worse,” I snapped.
Nix watched us, head spinning between our interaction.
“She’s here all alone,” my brother argued. “It’s not exactly bustling with life out here, is it? Five miles from the nearest town. She needs some company.”
“You offered for her to move in with you!”
“Livie,” Ben said, glancing at Nix. He was right, this wasn’t a conversation to have here and now. “She’s lived in this house for thirty-three years. She is sixty-two. She doesn’t want to move tocentral London.”
Damn, I hated that he was right.
“Anyway,” he said with a forced smile, “Mum’s made cheesecake, so that’s a plus. You’ve got about an hour of privacy until she said dinner will be ready. She’ll be back for then.”
He winked and, closing the door, pointed with a wicked smile at the poster I’d planned on hiding.
“Wow, that… is different,” Nix said, frowning at it.
Their huge hair, side fringes and striped black and white socks really did juxtapose the rest of the room.
“They still have some great songs.”
He laughed once, sat on the bed and spread his arms out. Ifell into his lap and he pulled me into his chest. “It’s got to be shit your mum being with someone else.”
“She… I can’t describe my mum. She always loved Ben far more than me. And Dad… I got on with him so well. We called each other every day. I really miss him and…” I took a deep breath. “He died here. In their bedroom on the ground floor.”
He squeezed me. “I’m so sorry.”
I thought of my father every day. I didn’t talk of him though, knowing it would make me a blubbering mess.
I let him hold me, feeling like an absolute child for how I’d acted. Mum did deserve to be happy. Even if it meant some random man joining us for her birthday dinner.
To be fair, I’d brought my own random man.
“Let’s just enjoy ourselves the best we can,” he said.
We both knew that would be difficult.
His phone beeped, notifications no longer silenced.
“I need to call my mum,” he said quietly. “Is there somewhere I can go?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, got off him and straightened my skirt. “Go anywhere. There’s a bathroom down the hall on the left. Or the living room we went past.”
