Trust (London Love #5)

“Please don’t leave me here,” I whispered. I couldn’t deal. Not today.

He cut the engine and turned to me.

“Gray.”

He sat there. Like he was waiting for me to do something.

“Gray, we’re home. Key?”

“In my rucksack. The code for the alarm is on the key fob.”

He grabbed the bag, rummaged around.

“Found it. I’ll go open up.”

I sat there like a fool, watching him run up the stairs, unlock the door, switch off the alarm. He disappeared inside. A light came on in the hallway.

Somehow, I managed to get the car door open and got myself out. Made my feet move up the stairs.

“Do I need to carry you over the threshold or something?” he asked, reappearing right in front of me.

It was like something suddenly sank in, the calm washing over me.

I laughed.

“I’m going to write a load of really shitty lyrics about you for that.”

He was laughing too.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

“I do,” I said.

Then he picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and carried me inside.

The life we will live

REUBEN

I went back out and carried the rest of our stuff inside, laughing to myself as he pottered around in the house. Stuff. His rucksack, our picnic and an armful of clothes, which were mostly mine since I hadn’t really planned this. I’d been driving for the entire day, and I was dog tired. A different tired from being at work.

I hadn’t known where I’d be staying the night, so I’d grabbed a change of clothes and Mr Snuggles, whom I thrust at Gray, who was standing in the kitchen, and dumped our now-lukewarm picnic on the countertop.

“We need a kitchen table.” Yeah, good observation, Reubs.

Gray nodded, hugging Mr Snuggles tightly. “I think they put the one I have downstairs. I didn’t really give any specific instructions.”

“Okay.” I opened the fridge door. It was a big fridge. Another thing I hadn’t taken in when I’d been here before.

“Wow. Something stinks in there.”

“Yeah. Agnes, the estate agent? She said she’d get some essentials in, ready for us. Then we didn’t move in.”

“Okay.” I needed to sort this vocabulary. It was one thing driving with him next to me. A completely different thing standing here trying to pick up sour milk and a packet of something that had blown up like a balloon. “Do we have bins outside?”

“No idea.” He looked scared. Then he kind of relaxed, his face breaking into a smile. “I suck at adulting, in case you hadn’t noticed. Shall we just put it out on the veranda thingy for now? We can go look for bins in the morning. I have no idea, honestly, Reubs.”

He was still holding onto Mr Snuggles. Standing there like a big baby.