She forced herself back to reality. She’d promised herself not to hark back to the past, and it was time to be firm and drive Jake out. She returned to the living room, ready to deliver the speech that would send him away. But it died on her lips.
Jake was where she’d left him on the sofa. The jetlag had caught up with him again and he looked as if he’d passed out the moment she left him. That was how he’d always been, she reflected. He spun his web of words, he slept, he passed on. And she should have remembered that.
It was good that he’d slipped away from her yet again. It got things in perspective.
CHAPTER THREE
SHE fetched a blanket from the cupboard and gently draped it over him. Then she turned out the lights and made her way to her bedroom, but no sooner had she closed the door when a loud thump made her open it again. In the half-light from her bedroom she could see Jake on the floor.
‘Hell!’ he said, shaking his head. ‘What was that?’
‘You turned over too far and fell off the sofa,’ she said.
‘Uh-huh!’ He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
She rearranged the cushions and when he’d hoisted himself back up she began to take off his shoes. ‘Let’s get you comfortable,’ she said, swinging his legs back into position and drawing the blanket up.
‘Are you going to tuck me up?’ he asked with a grin.
In the near darkness she could discern little about his face except the mischievous gleam in his eyes. The likeness to a cheeky kid was so clear that she assumed a motherly, teasing tone. ‘Yes, I am, so you be good.’
‘I’m always good.’
‘Yeah. Sure. ’Night.’
She wasn’t sure how he did it, but one moment his arms were safely tucked under the blanket and the next they were around her waist.
‘Don’t I get a goodnight kiss?’