Broken Silence (Silence, #2)(31)

“Thing is, I’m not that easy,” she said, pushing my chest away from her with both of her hands, making me stumble back. I’d been so focused on her I was surprised I didn’t fall over.

“That wasn’t nice. You need to make it up to me. And not with ice cream,” I added quickly.

“Bet I can guess what you want,” she replied sarcastically.

I pulled her back into my arms: “Me. You. Bed. Whipped cream.”

“Apart from the whipped cream, that’s pretty much what I thought.”

She pushed her entire body against mine. Usually I would prevent certain areas from pressing against her and but this time it was her fault. Oakley ran her index finger along the collar of my shirt, and I shuddered.

“Jasper’s here,” she said, grinning at me just as I was about to kiss her.

“Hands,” Jasper growled at me.

Oakley laughed. “Will I see you later?”

“If you want to. Good. You can come over and play dress up with me and Leona.”

I had promised Leona that I would play the stupid game, and I couldn’t let her down so I would just have to include Oakley.

“Dress up?” she asked, looking up at me and failing miserably to try to keep a straight face.

“Not my idea.”

“Of course not.”

“And you’re done,” Jasper said. “Enough flirting, we need to go.”

She smiled sheepishly and stepped away from me. I hate Jasper right now.

“See you later then. For dress up.”

She wouldn’t find it funny when she was covered in pink glitter make-up, wearing fairy wings and a feather boa.

“I’ll see you later.”

I watched them drive off before getting into my car. Thankfully, I had a few minutes’ drive to calm myself down before I got back to work. Being around her was getting harder. She had to see we belonged together. I wasn’t going to rush her though. She already had too much to deal with.



The rest of the working day went by smoothly and thankfully, fast. The second I stepped in the front door Leona was there, holding up the damn fairy wings. Smiling, which probably looked more like a grimace, I picked her up.

“Shall we get your dress-up box then?”

“Yeah!” Leona shouted and squealed in excitement. Great!

Oakley arrived soon after Leona had forced me into some wings. As soon as she laid eyes on me she giggled, slapping her hand over her mouth to try and stop. Yeah, I looked like an idiot but dressing up like a purple fairy was what uncles were meant to do.

“Wow, you look… pretty,” she teased.

“Just embracing my inner child. You should lighten up and do the same!”

Her smile grew into a full toothy grin: “Your inner child is a girl?”

I threw Leona’s red wings at her.

“Shut up and put those on.”

“No,” Leona screamed. “Oaley’s wearing the lellow ones.”

I held my hands up in surrender. Christ.

“Sorry!”

“It’s like your hair,” Leona pointed out, passing the wings to Oakley.

“Thank you. So do you want to do my make-up?” she asked her, bending down to Leona’s level and putting the wings on.

“Yeah,” Leona chirped, jumping up and down.

“Great, make-up time,” I mumbled under my breath. This is the part where my balls shot back up inside me.

“Shall we do Cole’s first?” Oakley suggested, smirking at me.

“Yeah, untle Ole!”

Perfect.

I sat still, scowling as they both plastered bright pink crap all over my face. I should get an Uncle-of-the-Year award for letting them do that to me. It was worth it to see Leona giggling and having so much fun though. Oakley too, although I would be getting revenge on her.

“Done,” Leona announced, admiring my messed up face.

Oakley gripped her heart, in mock joy.

“You look so beautiful!” she exclaimed.

I smiled sarcastically.

“Don’t you think Uncle Cole looks great as a girl?” she asked Leona.

Leona nodded and bounced on the spot.

“He’s pretty.”

I stood up, pointing to the chair for Oakley to sit on. I’d had enough of them laughing at me. Time for payback. The next half an hour was spent painting hearts and flowers on Leona’s face, and play fighting with Oakley to add even more glitter on hers. I refused to look in the mirror. Oakley had pink stuff on her eyelids, bright purple lips, pink glitter on her cheeks, and four orange hears on her left cheek.

Eventually Mum shouted, “Dinner!” from the kitchen. Leona jumped up and sprinted off. She wasn’t usually that enthusiastic for dinner, but Mum had promised to make her favourite of mashed potato with broccoli sticking out of it, so it looked like a forest on a mountain, sausages and alphabet spaghetti.

Oakley was staying for dinner too, so it was like old times: she would often come over after school when we were kids. I made sure I sat next to her at the table. I wanted to enjoy having such a relaxed time with her, before she had to deal with what tomorrow would bring.

At half past ten, I took Oakley back to Ali’s house. I had to remind myself that her being back was probably temporary. She had a whole life in Australia, and I wasn’t sure if England, or I, could compete with that.