‘What about...’ Matteo had been about to ask about her sister but he kept having to remind himself of what Abby had told him and what her father had. ‘What about you?’ he asked instead. ‘Any brothers or sisters?’
‘An older sister,’ Abby said. ‘Annabel. We’ve never really got on.’
‘Because?’
‘Because I make things complicated apparently. She’s married to my father.’ Abby rolled her eyes. ‘Well, not my father exactly but...’
‘I get the picture.’
‘She’s pregnant,’ Abby said. ‘With her first. At the end of October I’ll be an aunt and I haven’t seen my sister in years.’
‘At all?’
Abby shook her head. ‘We talk on the phone at Christmas and things but I haven’t been home for a long time.’
‘Years?’
She nodded but didn’t elaborate.
Abby didn’t want to spoil this night with people who weren’t them.
It was just so nice to eat and then to lie there side by side and to talk.
And because it was so nice and they were both so relaxed Matteo tried to tell her some of what was on his mind.
The Origins of Them, as he called it.
‘Hey, you know your necklace...’
‘It’s not actually mine,’ Abby said. ‘It’s my father’s.’
‘Yes, but...’ He hesitated for a beat too long and Abby continued speaking.
‘My mother left it to him. He’s got a big do in July and has told me that he wants me there, looking presentable and wearing the necklace.’
Matteo swallowed.
‘I’m not going to go though.’
He breathed out a sigh of relief. ‘How come?’
‘We don’t really talk. Well, not since...’ She didn’t want to discuss it again and so she changed the subject a little. ‘There’s a huge party in LA on the same night. Anyone who placed in the Henley Cup will be there and so now I’ve got a legitimate reason not to go to my father’s function.’ She looked at him. ‘You should come.’
‘Why?’
‘You’re our sponsor...’
‘And?’
The relief that she wasn’t going to her father’s function, just the little rush of being let off the hook, had Matteo stop worrying about the problems that beset them, and he moved a little closer and started playing with the tie to her robe.
Yes, Matteo decided, he’d tell her about her father and the necklace but at a better time.
After the race, maybe?
‘Have you thought about what I said about us two?’
‘I have.’ Abby answered him as casually as she could—as if she hadn’t spent way too many hours poring over his words. Now was the time to say no, that it was perhaps the most stupid of ideas, yet, side-on facing each other, his fingers found the swell of her nipple, even through the thick robe, and he stroked it, just not enough for Abby.