The Longest Holiday by Paige Toon

Author:Paige Toon [Toon, Paige]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-04-25T15:33:55+00:00

I open my eyes with a start, and for a brief moment I’m not sure where I am. Then I see Leo sitting on the edge of my bed, his hand on my arm.

‘Hey,’ he says, smiling a small smile.

‘Hi.’

I stare back at him and feel once more oddly detached, almost like I don’t know him at all. His hand moves up to my face, brushing my hair back and resting on my neck, and it’s this intimate gesture that softens my heart. He leans down to kiss me, and then my confused mind is overruled as heat flows through my body and I kiss him back.

‘I missed you,’ he says, to my surprise.

‘Did you?’

He kisses me again in response. I try to push the covers back so he can join me, but he stops me.

‘No,’ he says, his dark eyes flashing as he glances around the room. ‘Not here.’ He shakes his head abruptly and stands up, offering his hand down to me. I understand. He doesn’t want to have sex with me in his mother’s bedroom. I climb out of bed and my old friends the butterflies help carry me upstairs.

‘So, you felt like doing a bit of gardening?’ he asks me wryly as we lie on his mattress afterwards.

‘Sorry about the grass,’ I reply with a grin. ‘Some rain will sort it out.’

‘There’s a storm coming. Should hit tonight.’

‘Is it a bad one?’ I know that America is prone to some nasty hurricanes.

‘No. But we’d better bring the couch up onto the porch.’

We go downstairs for dinner. I cooked a meal last week – roast chicken with all the trimmings. We’ve been sort of taking turns. Leo is cooking tonight, and I’m in the kitchen helping him when Javier walks in.

‘How was your day?’ I ask him. I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to talk to him, but it’s hard to converse in front of his mother.

‘Boring,’ he replies.

‘Oh.’ Something to say . . . ‘Did you help Eric out?’

‘Yeah . . .’

He sounds pretty sorry for himself. Leo stops rubbing spices into the chicken and turns around to look at him.

‘What’s up, nephew? You don’t like it on the boats?’

‘No, it’s crap.’

‘What would you like to do?’ Leo asks, going to wash his hands.

‘I dunno.’

‘Well, that’s not going to help you, much,’ Leo tells him with a look.

‘Anything would be better than scrubbing the decks,’ Javier says.

‘What do your friends do for work around here?’ I chip in.

‘My friends have all fucked off to Miami.’

‘Hey.’ Leo frowns.

‘What? You cuss,’ Javier replies grumpily, and for the first time I notice a similarity between them. Something in their expression. I try not to smile.

‘He looks like you when he’s annoyed,’ I say to Leo when Javier mopes off.

‘When he’s annoyed?’ Leo asks pertinently.

‘Yeah.’ I shrug and grin.

‘Am I annoyed much?’ He comes over to me and puts his hands on my hips, and there’s no trace of annoyance to be found anywhere in the vicinity.

‘You were pretty scary when I first met you,’ I tell him.

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