Down London Road (On Dublin Street 2)

‘Books,’ Hannah and I answered in unison, causing Clark to chuckle.

‘I’m guessing it wasn’t about books.’ Adam threw Hannah a boyish smile and she blushed. These girls and their susceptibility to a roguish Scotsman … I was suddenly thankful Malcolm wasn’t the least bit roguish. All that angst and drama? Does he like me, doesn’t he? Is he just flirting? No, thank you!

‘How cannily deduced, Adam.’ Braden’s mouth twitched as he took a sip of coffee.

Joss smiled around her fork.

Adam shot an unimpressed look down the table at his friend. ‘I think we need to come up with a child-friendly phrase for f-u-c-k off.’

‘Duck off?’ Cole suggested.

‘Exactly.’ Adam gestured with his fork. ‘Braden, duck off, you sarcastic dastard.’

Ellie giggled. ‘Dastard?’

‘ “Bastard” with a “D”,’ Hannah supplied helpfully.

Clark’s laugh was cut short by Elodie’s huff of outrage. ‘Hannah Nichols.’ She sucked in her breath. ‘Don’t you dare say that word again.’

Hannah gave a long-suffering sigh. ‘It’s just a word, Mum. It means a person whose parents weren’t married when they were born. We only make the word offensive by implying that there is something morally wrong about that. Are you suggesting it’s morally wrong to have a child out of wedlock?’

Silence reigned around the table as we all looked at Hannah in mischievous glee.

Elodie made a little spluttering sound, breaking that silence as she turned sharply to skewer Clark to his seat with her blazing gaze. ‘Say something, Clark.’

Clark nodded at his wife and then turned to his daughter. ‘I think you should have joined the debating team after all, sweetheart.’

Braden’s deep laugh was a catalyst for the rest of us. We all chuckled and Elodie’s grimace melted as our good humour got to her. She sighed wearily. ‘My fault for raising a clever girl, I suppose.’

She was more than clever. Hannah was a superstar and I was glad she was surrounded by people who told her every day how special she was.

Chatter filled the room as we broke off into separate conversations. I was just asking Cole if he’d finished the comic he’d been working on when Joss said my name.

I looked over at her and saw her eyes dancing with mischief. I immediately went on the defensive. ‘Yeah?’

She smiled saucily. ‘Guess who was at the bar last night.’

I’d always been crap at guessing games. ‘Who?’

‘Hot guy from the shitty art show.’

‘Hot guy?’ Braden turned from his conversation with Clark.

Joss rolled her eyes. ‘Nothing more than an adjective and a noun put together, I promise.’

‘What hot guy?’ Ellie peered past Adam to look at Joss, completely cutting off whatever her mum had been saying to her.

‘There was this hot –’ She caught herself. ‘I mean a guy who may or may not have been marginally attractive. I wouldn’t know because I don’t notice the hotness of any guy but my wonderful and oh-so-handsome boyfriend, who fills me with such –’

‘Okay, no need to lay it on so thick.’ Braden bumped her with his shoulder and she fluttered her eyelashes at him in mock innocence before turning back to Ellie.

‘There was this guy at the art gallery thing that you missed and he was checking out Jo.’ Joss’s gaze swept over the table to land back on me. ‘Turns out Cam was in need of a job and Jo got him one at the bar. I was showing him the ropes last night.’

Well, that had been fast. I felt my stomach flip at the thought of having to work with Cam, at having to see him again. ‘He’s Becca’s boyfriend. She asked it as a favour.’

Joss nodded. ‘He told me. He seems like a really nice guy.’ No one could miss the enthusiasm in her voice and I knew exactly what she was up to. Was this part of Joss’s corralling? Trying to play matchmaker with some random guy just because she saw us checking each other out? I blamed Ellie. This was clearly her influence.

‘Should I be worried?’ Braden asked the table, and I laughed, some of the tension easing out of me.

Joss waved him off as if his question was idiotic. ‘I’m just saying that our new colleague was very cool and it will be nice for Jo to have someone new to work with.’

Ellie frowned. ‘Why are you speaking like that?’

‘She’s trying to set me up with Cam even though I have a boyfriend. And he has a girlfriend. Not to mention that when we talked Cam treated me like I was a piece of dirt.’ There. I’d said it.

Braden’s brows drew together, a dark glint in his eyes that I’m sure I’d see in Adam’s too if I took the time to look. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Yeah.’ Joss leaned forward on her elbows, her ‘whose ass do I need to kick?’ face on. ‘What are you talking about?’

I shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable with all the attention. I was especially uncomfortable with how tense Cole had got. I could feel his expectant gaze on me. ‘He just wasn’t very nice.’

‘And yet you got him a job?’ Elodie asked, clearly confused.

‘He needed it.’

‘Well, he seemed perfectly nice last night and he said he was grateful to you for giving Su his number.’

Now it was my turn to frown. ‘He did?’

Joss nodded, relaxing back into her chair. ‘Maybe you misunderstood.’

No, I hadn’t misunderstood Cam’s attitude, but since I now found myself surrounded by two overprotective men, one overprotective wee brother and an overprotective best friend, I’d decided it was better to go along with that. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right.’