he’s like Jordan he loves to do things he’s too young for.’ She jumped to her feet, switching with dizzying speed from deep conversation to decisive action. ‘Let’s reunite you with your car. We both have things to do.’ She dropped some euros on the table without giving him a chance to contribute and strode off towards Rue des Roses.
When they returned to the dusty collection of buildings that made up Garage Zimmermann the doors had been pushed back and Ronan could see the aging BMW inside. ‘Looks like I’m good to go. Thanks for the lift.’
Her hand on his arm stayed him as he went to open her car door. ‘Thanks, Ronan. I put you in a difficult position about the boyfriend and I hope you understand why I was angry. I won’t really attack my sister.’ Her smile wobbled. ‘The kids have had enough to put up with.’
He nodded. ‘It’s always the kids.’ Then he kissed her cheek, because why the hell not? He might as well get something good out of an afternoon that had left him with his shoulder thumping like a bitch. He didn’t want to make Leah feel bad by going over to the pharmacy to buy painkillers, though. He had some in the car and he’d ask for water at the garage to take them after she’d gone.
In fact, by the time Ronan made it back to Kirchhoffen his shoulder pain had subsided to a dull ache, thanks to managing the steering wheel mainly one-handed. He found Curtis still sprawled on their neighbour’s lawn between Natasha and Jordan, heads close together as they played something incomprehensible on their phones. Alister was nowhere in sight but Michele looked up from a magazine to greet him.
Ronan, returning a polite response, wondered if her smile would be quite so wide if she knew what beans he’d just spilled to Leah. He nudged Curtis with his toe. ‘We’d better get something sorted for dinner.’
Curtis didn’t even look up from the game he was playing so furiously. ‘We’re eating here. Natasha, get the wither skeleton skull.’
‘What do I do with it?’ Natasha frowned as her thumbs darted over her phone screen.
‘Put it on the wither skeleton!’ Curtis and Jordan chorused scornfully.
‘Oh, yeah.’ Natasha looked abashed and the three laughed together as if Ronan had become invisible.
‘Curtis,’ Ronan said quietly, in the voice that meant he wasn’t enjoying invisibility.
Curtis paused his game with a put-upon sigh, the heading-for-a-storm expression Ronan was getting to know lurking in his eyes. ‘Natasha and Jordan’s mum has invited us to have a barbie with them.’ Then, perhaps realising from Ronan’s frown that the use of manners might help achieve the result he was looking for, ‘Can we stay, please?’
Michele called. ‘Do! Leah will be home any time with the food. She does a mean barbecue.’
Ronan debated. Leah wouldn’t tackle her sister about the boyfriend in front of the children and Curtis having company was exactly what Ronan wanted as, so far this summer, the only other teens around the village had been French, and Curtis’s language skills weren’t quite good enough to keep up. And Ronan was prepared to put up with Michele now if it meant gaining a little more of Leah’s company later.
‘Thanks.’ He pulled up a garden chair and assumed a politely attentive expression as Michele launched into her impressions of Alsace, thinking, as he listened, how little resemblance he could discern between the sisters. Michele’s hair was shorter, curlier, and highlighted an improbable silvery blonde. Taller and more thickset, she was pallid compared to Leah’s sun-kissed glow. If Ronan had to pick a descriptor for Michele it would be ‘self-orientated’, whereas there seemed no single term to express Leah. She was complex, fun, unexpected, valiant, interesting – not to mention so hot and curvy that she’d look just as at home sprawled over a bonnet at a car show as she obviously was behind the wheel. And she’d probably be extremely hacked off at him if she knew that he’d let the thought of her as a hood ornament stray across his mind.
Still, he tried to turn the conversation to his topic of interest. ‘Your sister loves her car.’
‘Leah’s pose-mobile.’ Michele wrinkled her nose. ‘Proper petrol-head is Leah. Spends half her life at circuits with Scott Matthewson.’
‘Is that her boyfriend?’ Damn.
‘No, just her ever-present best buddy. I’m quite glad, really,’ she added, frankly. ‘He wouldn’t be the best boyfriend for Leah. Heteroflexible,’ she added, meaningfully.
Reassured by ‘buddy’ and not needing ‘heteroflexible’ explained to him, Ronan decided not to make his interest obvious by enquiring whether there was a boyfriend as well. Hearing a deep engine note approaching, he jumped up. ‘Sounds like Leah. I’ll help unload.’ He strode around the house, intercepting a frowning Leah as she yanked shopping from the Porsche’s boot.
He made his voice low as he threaded his fingers through the handles of several bulging bags. ‘Heads up. Michele’s invited us for a barbecue and Curtis was keen so I agreed. Sorry if that creates an obstacle to you shaking her by the throat.’
She managed a one-cornered smile. ‘I haven’t finished brooding so she’s safe.’
‘Good to know.’ Following her around to the kitchen door, he let his voice return to social volume. ‘That boot takes more than I’d have guessed.’
‘Enough for me,’ she agreed. Passing through the garden, she shouted hellos.
‘I thought we could barbecue,’ Michele called, without moving a muscle.
‘Already got the news. On it.’
Not intending to get stuck with Michele again, Ronan elected to hang out with Leah in the kitchen. Soon the kids piled in and there were four pairs of helping hands. Or one pair of hands, plus three eager potential diners making menu requests and getting in the way.
Leah made no complaint that Michele didn’t budge from her comfortable spot, or that when Alister reappeared he was grouchy because he’d drunk too much wine in the sun and, despite a nap, his head was clanging. She just laughed and joked with the children and calmly managed to barbecue in the garden as well as preparing a salad and steam a chocolate and marshmallow melt-in-the middle pudding in the kitchen.
Ronan buttered bread and carried whatever needed carrying, earning an approving nod from Leah. ‘A kitchen porter who doesn’t forget, avoid or bitch about the task at hand; you’re a priceless commodity.’
‘Glad you’re impressed.’ He was enjoying his arm brushing hers as they manoeuvred around each other so he forbore to point out that fetching and carrying wasn’t hard compared to his normal job of delicately controlling the height and speed of a complex piece of machinery in the air, reading instruments, navigating, communicating with the ground and simultaneously giving his spiel to exclaiming tourists about the Gherkin Building and the London Eye.
He helped clear up after the meal when Michele excused herself in pursuit of an early night and the children went off indoors somewhere to play pool. Alister dozed over more wine and Ronan was glad all over again that Alister and Leah weren’t married. It made Ronan feel better about hanging on for coffee with her and remembering how good she’d looked in that purple bikini.
Natasha, Jordan and Curtis were already strapped into The Pig and Alister was loading the day’s supply of drinks and snacks when Leah, reasoning that the end justified the means, dropped the bad news on him.
‘Alister, do you mind taking the kids to the aerial activity park on your own? I’m feeling too bleugh to whiz down ziplines. First day of the month, you know.’ Smiling apologetically, she counted on the reference to her cycle to discourage protests or questions.
Alister flushed slightly as he took the car