“You’re finding this more difficult than you’re letting on.”
I jump out of my skin and turn to find Jake in the hallway staring at me.
“Ana, you can’t keep things bottled up. If you want to talk, tell me. That’s what I’m here for. You find that your room has been violated, so of course you’re going to find it strange and unnerving."
He comes over and gives me a bear hug, which I accept willingly. He kisses the top of my head and we go into my room together.
"Maybe we should move a few things over to my room. Things you need, essentials.”
I walk over to my closet and pull out another summer dress, something light and easy to wear in this heat.
“Jake, I’m fine, honestly. Don’t fuss. I’m okay.”
He waits for me as I go into my bathroom and brush my teeth and comb my hair. I grab a bra and knickers and proceed with getting dressed.
“Are you enjoying the view, Mr Bennett?” I smirk.
“Always enjoying the view whenever you’re concerned, Miss Sinclair—and oh what a view it is.”
I giggle and run to the bathroom to put on a bit of makeup on and dry my hair.
By the time I’m done it is well after one o’clock, so we make our way downstairs to the kitchen. Jake starts washing all the dishes from breakfast. I grab two apples, two oranges and two bananas, and start making a bit of a fruit salad for both of us. I’m still hungry from earlier and keen to get some of my five a day down me.
We sit in silence holding hands for a while—enjoying the tender moment between us—when we hear the sound of the door being opened, and a voice cry out.
“Hey, Dad, Ana. Anyone home?”
Jake shouts that we’re in the kitchen and I free my hand from him. Matthew comes marching in looking pleased. He places his bags on the floor and plonks himself on the chair.
“What’s with the squad car out front? Have you been very naughty, Ana?” He laughs, but then Jake turns to Matthew. He sees the seriousness in his face and quickly stops.
“What’s wrong is someone hurt, what happened?”
I can see the panic in his face and place my hand on his. “Everything is fine. We’re all ok. We just had an incident on Saturday morning, but we’re dealing with it.”
Jake proceeded to tell him little bits he needed to know about what went down. Matthew’s face was shocked looking at me then to his dad. We both tried our hardest to let him know all was okay, but he still looked at me with sad eyes.
“Matthew, I’m fine, honest. I have the best of the best looking after me.”
Jake walked over in my direction and put an arm around me. “Well, isn’t that the truth,” he said, smiling.
Matthew raised his eyebrow. “Dad is there something else you want to tell me?”
He looked at Jake’s arm around my shoulder and Jake stiffened. He whipped his arm away a little bit too quickly and Matthew raised that eyebrow at me, smirking questioningly. I looked back at him and smiled, also giving myself away.
He beamed and shouted out, “I knew it!”
He gets up out his chair and starts waving his finger at us.
“I knew there was something going on between you two. You could feel it in the air. I think I knew it was happening well before any of you did.” He placed his hands on his hips like he just gave us a telling off.
“You’re not angry, are you, son?” Jake asks.
Matthew waved his hands as if to say, “I don’t give a damn.”
“I think it’s great. You know I love you, Ana.”
Tears welled in my eyes as I bounced up and gave him a big hug. “I love you, too, you big lummox.”
He squeezed me back and we let go. “Does this mean I can call you Mom now?”
I hit him in the arm. “Hey, one step at a time, buddy. I want to know how your trip went.”
Jake was smiling at us both. Spotting this, Matthew came over and gave Jake a hug, too.
“I’m happy about this. I really am.”
Jake was mesmerised at his son’s acceptance of us. It made me beam inside. I couldn’t be happier than I am now. It finally feels as though I am part of a family.
“My trip was great,” Matthew said, pulling me from my daydream. “We went hiking during the day and camping round at night. We ate marshmallows by the fire, and told scary stories to keep us all up at night. It was fun.”
The telephone rang at that point and Jake went to answer it. Matthew comes over to me again and sits down.
“I knew something was definitely up before I left. Dad seemed mad at us for the little prank we played on Clive. He was virtually seething by the time we all left. I felt really bad for you. Did he go ape at you?”