“There room for one more?”

Millie recognised the voice even before she looked up, but she had to see his face to believe it. Justin left with so much haste the previous evening she’d doubted she’d ever hear from him again. Joining her at the breakfast table was a departure from expectation.

“Course.” She gestured to the seat opposite.

Some eyebrows might have raised themselves at the sight of them having breakfast together, but at this time of the morning the restaurant was near deserted. The only other diners were at the opposite end of the room. Normally she wouldn’t even be down here; she’d have breakfast in her room. The only reason she was diverging from routine was insomnia driven resentment. Staring at the walls made her hate them. (This was only partially down to Justin. The angst was about other things).

Justin slid into the seat opposite, giving her a small smile. It didn’t seem unfriendly so she relaxed a little. He was more casual than she’d ever seen him, in jeans and a faded t-shirt. The obligatory baseball cap was pulled low over his eyes to mask his face from onlookers.

“Coffee’s on its way if you’d like some.”

“Need is more like it,” he said as he pulled his napkin off the plate. “Got to leave after this to get my flight and I didn’t sleep.” He too was downstairs trying to gather some energy, hadn’t expected to find her there. “I’ll be a zombie by the time I get home.”

“You and me both,” she grimaced.

“I, umm…” A pink tinge rose in his cheeks and he lowered his voice. There weren’t many people in the room but you could never be too careful. “I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable last night. In hindsight it was kind of dumb for me to go off like that over a stupid debate.”

His directness was disarming. When he sat down she’d assumed that they would pretend it hadn’t happened. She could only be thankful; if he was worrying about making her uncomfortable she must have misinterpreted his rapid departure.

“Hey, you didn’t do anything I didn’t agree to,” she replied. “Don’t worry.”

It was as if you could see the tide of relief across his face. His muscles relaxed one after the other like waves breaking on sand. When he leaned back in his chair his shoulders dropped like he’d been holding them too tightly.

The waiter’s return with the coffee and her orange juice interrupted anything further he might say on the subject. If the guy was at all surprised by her new companion he was too well trained to show it. He simply asked if they were ready to order – one grapefruit and an omelette later they were alone again.

“So what was keeping you up?” Justin asked.

“Worrying about things, mostly,” she replied. It wasn’t a lie if she didn’t elaborate on the parts ‘mostly’ didn’t cover. “On the bright side, at least it meant they didn’t wake me up when they called. They’re forever forgetting the time difference.”

“They?”

Oops. She’d forgotten she hadn’t told him who was on the other end of the phone when it interrupted dinner. “My London lawyers.”

“Oh.” How far did he dare pry? “Bad news?”

There was a moment’s hesitation before she answered. It wasn’t normally something she’d advertise, but then she’d already told him more than she’d ever intended about the whole saga. Even with the bare details she wouldn’t be giving much more away at this point. Maybe she could do with the vent?

“My father’s lawyers got in touch with them. It was all very dressed up in finance speak I don’t understand, but it sounds like he’s been under some kind of HMRC investigation and they’re about to find my money.”  Her mouth set into a neat scowl.

“Shit.” Justin’s gaze flickered over her, taking in the way rigidity set into her limbs. It was in marked contrast to the sweet and girlish pink cardigan she was wearing. Hardness had fallen over her face. “What’s the HMRC, is it like the IRS?”

“Yes. They were going on about ‘oversights’ and ‘errors’ and all kinds of bullshit that make it sound like he didn’t do the whole thing on purpose. Long and short of it is he was only allowed to cut me off from his money not my mum’s.”

“Gee. And aren’t we surprised?”

“Astounded.” His sarcasm was matched by her caustic sneer. “So there you go. He’s forced to hand her portion back to me with interest.”

“Nice to know that sometimes there’s justice in the world.” Justin picked up the sugar shaker and poured some into his coffee.

“Oh that’s not even the best bit. Only way he can save his hide is to claim that this was an agreed arrangement and the investment was on my behalf.”

“So after all that he’s got the fucking nerve to ask you to cover for him?”

Somehow the swearing was a validation. She was glad somebody else saw it her way.

“Yes. There was talk about ‘due compensation for expenses,’ which I took as code for he’s willing to bribe me to play along.”

Justin’s chuckles sounded diabolical. “So basically you get to decide whether to drop him in the shit or to have him pay you to save his ass? That’s fantastic. That’s just fucking karma in action.”

Millie hadn’t thought about it like that. You might think it would make her smile. Instead it brought gnawing to the pit of her stomach.

“I need to talk to Lizzie, see what she says. I’ll get the inheritance I should have either way but I’m not sure what’s for the best.”

That caught his interest. What stopped her from telling him to go to hell? Nothing she said about the man suggested he deserved any consideration from her. Perjuring herself to Her Majesty’s Government was sizeable consideration. He wasn’t even sure he’d lie to the IRS for people who loved him and had his back – forget anybody who’d been an asshole to him. Not for the first time he wished he knew what was ticking away inside her head. What would be the best in those crystal eyes?

“You owe him nothing, Millie. You just do right by you and your sister.”

She sat back in her chair, fiddling with her teaspoon. “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

“If you’re sitting there feeling nostalgic for family summers or something, don’t let that buy him any sympathy. What he did to you was fucked up.”

“Rarely spent summers with him.” The way she said it sounded more like an aside than an answer. “He carted us around with him when he had to but with an au pair. I spent more summers with Felicity.”

That was a dilemma for his curiosity. On the one hand Felicity was a touchy subject for him right now. On the other he wouldn’t mind finding out about their past. Listening to Felicity’s diatribes in the here and now made it hard to imagine them spending halcyon childhood days together.

“Oh really? Like you went on vacations with them?” 

“They’ve got this estate in the Hamptons, did she ever take you?”

“No.” He shook his head.

“It’s beautiful. Huge garden, backs onto the beach, pool, a game room… kids’ paradise.” Her eyes grew out of focus and she seemed far away, back at the house she was describing.

“Sounds nice.” Justin refrained from jokes about wishing he’d been invited.

“It is. Her parents were working most of the time so we had to amuse ourselves, but they always used to insist on this one week where it was family time only.”

“And you were family?” That was one from left field. The more he heard about her past with Felicity the less he understood their present estrangement.

“Not until after my mum died.” She was matter of fact. “Her mum started making an exception for me and Lizzie if my dad still needed somebody to watch us. I used to pray to be there that week because it was brilliant.”

“How so?”

“They just used to indulge us in everything, spoiled the hell out of us.” A smile played at her lower lip. “Like, her brother Max got really into reptiles for a while, so her dad took us to some friend who kept snakes and we got to hold them. Once they were talking about baseball and Lizzie and I didn’t know what it was, but the next time we went to visit they hired the local place and her dad taught us to pitch. I was dreadful but it was so much fun.”

“Really?” This tallied with what little Felicity said about her parents – people who came off as well meaning but absent.

“Yeah. And that was just really nice, you know, to feel like he wanted to do something nice for me and Lizzie. Even if it was probably out of pity.  My dad used to do precisely bugger all and now the bastard wants me to bail him out.”

It took a few moments of silence before Justin realised the speech was over. Millie didn’t seem to expect comment from him either. She was drinking her juice like they’d been chatting about the weather.

He couldn’t help his astonishment - not at what she’d said but the way she cut things off. All the while he’d been thinking the chat about Felicity was a tangent, a way to move the conversation away from her father. Then along came that sentence at the end to let him know that she wasn’t really talking about how she used to spend vacations. So why grind things to a screeching halt? It was like he had all the facts and yet none of the meaning.

“Why do you always do that?” he asked.

“Do what?”

“It’s like you start to tell me things, but then you stop right before you get down to it.”

“Think maybe it’s a bit soon in our acquaintance to say I always do anything.” 

“Sure,” Justin said. He paused for another sip of coffee. “Go ahead. Deflect.”

Her lips pursed, and she briefly nodded her head. “You’re very nosy, you know.”

“Just trying to figure you out.”

“Ha.” She gave a snort. “If you manage let me know. It’s been vexing me for years.”

The kick he continued to get from her turns of phrase defused his annoyance. He found himself laughing at her again.

“I could tell. Are you aware of how many knots you got in your back?”

He was skating close to the edge, bringing that back up. Millie suspected it was on purpose.

“Well credit where it’s due you didn’t do a bad job. Bit of training, if the pop star gig ever falls through you could do it as a back up.”

Justin silently admitted defeat. She would continue to swerve him and pushing it head on would yield nothing. He had no plans to give up however. They’d swapped numbers to talk further about the possible William Rast gig and he’d bet he could get a more friendly conversation going at the same time. Besides enjoying her sneakily backhanded humour, he was determined he was going to work this woman out.

Preferably without any more stupid ideas like the massage this time.