After Felix (Close Proximity Book 3) by Lily Morton

Author:Lily Morton [Morton, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

When the doorbell rings, I sigh. No way. I know it’s Zeb and I have zero desire to talk to him. I’ve just settled back on the sofa in my study and pulled the woollen throw around me when there’s a steady rat-a-tat-tat on the door and the sound of Mrs Finch's footsteps.

“Good afternoon, Mrs Finch. How are you?” comes my stepbrother’s voice.

“Ah, as well as can be expected,” comes my housekeeper’s brave words. “Given the fact that Mr Travers is living here now.”

There’s a long pause. “Isn’t this his house?” comes Zeb’s cautious words, and I mentally wish him well. He shouldn’t tangle with Mrs Finch. That way lies retribution.

However, his charm seems to work its usual miracle because when she speaks next, her voice is warm and friendly. “You’re right, Mr Evans. Well, I must forebear, I suppose.”

“That’s the spirit,” my stepbrother says heartily. “I think I’ll go along and have a little chat with His Nibs. Is he out of bed?”

“In a very louche manner,” she says. “He’s lying on the sofa in his study where he seems to spend most of the day staring into space.” She sniffs. “Looks like a picture of Barbara Cartland without the Pekes.”

I narrow my eyes.

“Well, let’s see if I can do anything about that,” Zeb says.

I’m sure I do not imagine the slight air of menace in his voice.

The door swings open and my stepbrother appears. He’s wearing one of his expensive suits and a rather forbidding expression on his craggy face, but his eyes are warm and concerned, and I suddenly feel like the young boy I’d been when my mum married the charming wastrel who was Zeb’s dad. My mother gained a whole roster of bad debt from that marriage and a credit score that only a dead person would be proud of, but I was the winner because I got Zeb.

He was a steady and kind presence in my life all through my adolescence, turning up at my school for sports days and to take me out on the weekends, and I clung to him even when I became an adult. He’s the best man I know, and it kills me that I’ve disappointed him.

We stare at each other. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since the wedding three weeks ago, and the aftermath from that debacle hangs between us like an ugly curtain I want to tear down.

He’d woken me that night by throwing a pint of water over me. He then proceeded to inform me that Felix had gone, driven away by me because I was determined to be alone. But that was just the warm-up act. He then tore so many strips off me I was lucky to have any left. And every word he spoke came with that heavy air of disappointment.

I deserved every syllable of those words because of what I did to Felix. In truth, I deserved more. Pain twists in my chest at the thought of him and I rub it absentmindedly.

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