Ash looked at Rory with some concern.
“Do you want to go or should I?”
“We should speak to Quinn first. He did text to say the school called again.”
I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Raphi, who was rolling his eyes. What on earth had Cole done at school?
“Okay, well, we’ll be back in a few as I’m sure E has dinner ready.”
Ash and Rory left the room, seemingly having a silent conversation with each other over their son.
“All right, Meredith?” Duke said, throwing himself down on the sofa next to Raphi and nicking the remote.
“Yeah, you?”
“All good.” He nudged Raphi’s side. “You two really aren’t dating?”
“Would you shut up? You’re as bad as our dads,” Raphi retorted, scowling.
Xav, who was still standing behind us, ruffled Raphi’s hair.
“We’re only playing, Raphi. We know you don’t have a girlfriend. Hell might freeze over before that happens.”
Before Raphi could say a word in response, he walked out of the room. That’s when I noticed Aurora staring at me with interest.
“I could get a girlfriend if I wanted one,” Raphi muttered.
“Doesn’t that girl in chess club like you… what’s her face, Mimi?” I said whilst still keeping my attention on Aurora, who’d circled the sofa and planted herself in one of the armchairs.
Raphi looked alarmed, pushing his glasses up his nose and glanced around as if Mimi was actually in the room.
“What? Jesus, no way in hell am I going there. She’s a full-on stalker.”
I grinned. He’d complained about it on many occasions.
“Mimi Lintott?” Aurora asked.
“She keeps asking Cole if I’ll go out with her, even his death stares won’t keep her away.”
Mimi was in the same year as Cole.
Aurora gave Raphi a sly smile. Mimi Lintott’s older sister was her friend, Colleen. Those two had been top dogs when they’d been at school. No one gave Aurora Knox shit or they’d have their head bitten off.
“Oh, I’m sorry, should I not have been encouraging her when she asks me about you?”
Raphi looked like he wanted to put his sister in the ground. Lucky for Aurora, his dad walked in and told us dinner was ready or I think Raphi would’ve had a go at her.
“My sister is a fucking pain in the arse,” he muttered to me as we got up and walked through into their dining room.
“For once, she isn’t giving me shit,” Duke said as he shoved Raphi in the arm.
Raphi had me sit down next to him on one side of the large dining table whilst his brother and sister sat on the other side. His parents duly filed into the room. I guessed the one I hadn’t met with greying black hair and little crinkles around his eyes was Quinn. He sat at the head of the table, his gaze landing directly on me.
“Is this our guest, Raphi?”
“Quinn, this is Meredith, my friend from school.”
He gave me a quick nod in acknowledgement before turning his attention to his daughter, who was sat to his left.
“I have yet to see evidence of your family being anything other than normal except the whole four dads thing,” I whispered to Raphi.
“Just you wait… dinner usually has someone getting into an argument, Xav making inappropriate comments, Quinn telling him to shut up and Mum trying to keep the peace.”
I braced myself for the show as Eric and Xav came in carrying dishes and set them in the middle of the table.
“Did you tell Cole dinner’s ready?” Eric asked, looking around the table.
“Yes,” Ash replied with a frown. “He should be here.”
The boy himself sloped into the room, glancing around the table before his eyes landed on me and the only free chair to my left. I watched his eyes narrow as he made his way towards me and sat down. The anger radiating off him scorched my skin. Why did I have to get stuck next to Cole? I didn’t think Raphi had planned this, so I wasn’t going to comment on it.
“Dig in,” Eric said as he sat down at the other end of the table.
It was a free-for-all the next moment as people served themselves and passed dishes down to each other. There were three different pasta dishes, garlic bread and salad. It seemed Eric had catered for different tastes considering both Raphi and Cole only chose one type of pasta.
I barely had time to stick a fork full of food in my mouth when various conversations started up at different ends of the table. It was like watching ping pong as one person would talk across the table at another. I leant over to Raphi, who was busy eating and ignoring what was going on around the table.
“Is this how it is every day?” I murmured.
“No, usually it’s only a few of us. Mum implemented Friday night dinners so we’d all spend time together as a family, and one Sunday a month we have our grandparents over for lunch. Everyone is expected to attend.”
“Or what?”
Raphi grinned.
“Or they get guilt-tripped by Mum.”
“No, they get an earful from Quinn,” Cole muttered from next to me.
I glanced over at him, not realising he’d been listening to me and Raphi.
“That too,” Raphi agreed.
I went back to my food, but it did not escape my notice that Cole kept staring at me with unnerving intensity. Goosebumps prickled all over my skin, making me hyper-aware of how close his body was to mine. Why the hell was I having this weird reaction to him? I wished he would quit giving me weird looks like he couldn’t work out whether he wanted to strangle me fast or slow.
Seriously, what the hell did I ever do to him?
“So, Meredith, what A-Levels are you taking? Raphi didn’t mention it.”
I looked up at Ash, who was sat across from me.
“Art and Design, Drama and English… I’d like to be a set designer one day. My dad used to take me to the theatre all the time.”
My heart tightened when I realised I’d mentioned him. Some days it would be normal to talk about him, but others, it would upset me. I tried not to think too hard about it.
“So the complete opposite of my son who likes all things science.”
I smiled.
“Yeah, guess so. They do say opposites attract.”
I had meant that innocently, but movement to my left caught my attention. Cole gripped his fork harder in his hand and almost slammed a glass down on the table.
Why would that bother him?
“What Mer meant is we get along just fine despite being different,” Raphi interjected, “in a strictly platonic way.”
“And here I was wondering why you can’t get a girlfriend,” Duke said, waving his fork at his brother. “Now I know. You’re too pussy to make a move on a girl.”
“Shut up.”
“Dukey, don’t wind your brother up,” Ash said, frowning at her son.
Duke scowled.
“Don’t call me that. I’m a grown man.”