‘It was one of the first things we connected over,’ she said. ‘He spent eleven months recording butterfly populations in Limon.’
‘Yes. I see he’s doing his PhD on how they’re a marker of the health of an ecosystem.’
‘Precisely,’ Tara smiled. Her father was nothing if not thorough. ‘Did you know the species found there make up about ninety per cent of all Central American butterflies and eighteen per cent of all the world’s species?’
‘Well, I do now,’ he smiled, regarding her intently.
She shifted under his gaze. He had always been able to read her so well and she didn’t want him to guess her secrets yet, to ask the one pertinent question and steal Alex’s thunder. If it had been hard keeping quiet with her mother, it would be harder still with him—
As if on cue, they heard the heavy knock of the bronze lion’s head on the door. Her father waggled his eyebrows at her the way he had always done when she was little, to make her laugh (usually at inopportune moments, like a parent–teacher meeting). ‘Aha. The great moment is finally upon us.’
It was a joke but Tara swallowed, feeling her nerves skyrocket. So this was really it? She looked back at her father with a sudden sense of an ending. He didn’t know it yet, but their family was about to change shape; he was going to be asked a question he had probably assumed was another decade off. They would no longer be a family of four, but of five. It wasn’t just her life that would change with tonight’s news, but theirs as well, to an extent. Should she have given him – them – some more warning?
Or any warning? For the first time, a thought occurred to her: what if her father actually said no? He’d never met Alex before. He had no way of knowing that Alex really wasn’t after her money. He might well say it was all far too early and tell them to wait. Oh God, had she fully conveyed to him what Alex meant to her? Her father’s refusal wouldn’t stop them, of course – this was a gesture of respect, not an actual request for permission – but it would throw a shadow over their happiness if things didn’t go the way she hoped.
‘Piglet?’ Her father clicked his fingers to get her attention, motioning for her to move towards the door. ‘We should go and put a face to the brain?’
‘. . . Yes . . . Okay.’
Her father held the door open for her, regarding her shell-shocked expression with bemusement. She stopped in the middle of the doorway. ‘You know, Daddy, he’s a really special person. One of a kind, really, I’ve never met anyone like him. I think you’re going to find him fascinating.’
‘Well, unlike the other friends you’ve introduced us to I imagine this one will giggle less.’
‘He’s definitely not a giggler.’
He shrugged. ‘Then I like him already.’
Chapter Five
His footsteps were hurried on the stairs behind her, as her key slid into the lock and she flung open the door.
‘Oh, you’re still up!’
Tara was surprised to find Holly and Dev sprawled on the sofa, legs intertwined, an almost-empty bottle of red on the table in front of them. They were watching an American murder documentary on Netflix and Dev had pressed pause at a particularly unfortunate moment. Even as a trainee doctor, Tara grimaced.
Her eyes slid over to Holly. They hadn’t seen each other since their tiff a few days earlier. Tara had been lying low at Alex’s flat ever since and she was pretty certain Holly had been avoiding her at uni, too; she hadn’t glimpsed her in the cafeteria, and Holly could always, always be found by a vending machine.
Alex caught up with her at last and she felt him come and stand behind her as Holly met her gaze with a look of recrimination and, worse, disappointment – before looking away again. ‘Wasn’t expecting you back tonight,’ she said shortly, reaching for the wine bottle and emptying the dregs into her glass.
‘We . . . we just came back from dinner with my parents.’
‘Oh.’ Holly nodded, getting it immediately, understanding what that meant. Operation Domesticity was underway. Little did she realize that they were mid-argument; that Tara had only come back here because she didn’t want to stay at Alex’s, and he was only here because he’d followed after her in another cab. If she hadn’t been so surprised by the vision of her flatmate clearly reconciled with the guy she had been so adamant on rejecting, she would have closed the door on Alex and thrown over the chain, leaving him abject in the corridor. Instead, she felt his hand press lightly on the small of her back. She tried to arch away but it was impossible to escape his touch without leaping from the spot, and she didn’t want Holly to see –
‘Go well, did it?’ Holly looked over at Alex.
Tara could feel his smile behind her head, feel his body heat like a glowing coal at her shoulder. ‘Fantastic. Twig’s parents were so welcoming.’ He glanced at Tara as if for corroboration, but she kept her gaze dead ahead.
‘Yeah, they’re sweet, aren’t they?’ Holly agreed with a tone that Tara – and only Tara – knew was mocking. ‘If you didn’t know, you’d never know.’
‘Know what?’ Dev asked, but Holly just kicked him with her leg as a shushing gesture.
The poor guy frowned. ‘What’d I say?’ He had such a hapless expression, Tara felt a rush of sympathy for him. He deserved better than the rollercoaster ride Holly was putting him through, saying one thing, wanting quite another. She was all bravado and independence at breakfast, but three glasses in at the pub and she was speed-dialling him from the toilets. Tall
