Page 32 of Better With Kevin

“In that case, thanks,” Adam said.

Ray was still going through the photos. “You. Are. Precious. Wait, is that Liam?”

“You have pictures of Liam?” Adam demanded, leaning over to look at the photo Ray was squinting at. “Why?”

“The Chipped Cup catered the tea for his wedding,” I reminded him. The photos were of the table settings and the cake, but a twenty-something Liam and his now-ex-wife, Verity, were visible in the background.

Amalie had been in charge of our dad’s camera, and she’d been taking photos for the parents to use for marketing. Once she’d dutifully taken them, she’d run off with the camera—hence the number of Adam, Jasper, and other young locals, more than half of whom were long gone from Chipping Fairford.

Mostly of Adam, though. By that point, he was eighteen and shockingly beautiful.

Ray gave me a weird look. He’d obviously made it past the cake photos and hit the thirsty Adam photos.

They were close-ups of Adam’s beautifully shaped lips, and his equally beautiful arse. He’d worn a navy three-piece suit and white shirt that set his copper-gold hair on fire. He’d dumped the tie and the jacket and rolled his sleeves up. There had been a fair few snaps of his strong wrists and forearms.

Knowing Adam back then, he’d flexed and posed for them.

“Amalie took those,” I told Ray.

“Have you shown them to Jasper?” Adam said suddenly.

I shook my head. “No. I thought…I thought maybe not?” Jasper hadn’t been happier than I had been back then. I didn’t think he’d appreciate the reminder, either. “I thought I’d let you have them first. If you think there are any he might like, you could pick them out.”

“Good idea.” He shuffled through the stack and held up a photo of fourteen-year-old Jasper, who was still scrawny at that age, all knees and eyeballs, with a real situation of a hairstyle happening on his little pinhead. Adam’s amusement faded. “I won’t show him the wedding ones.”

“Why not?” Ray said. “I liked those. He looks very dapper in his little suit.”

“It wasn’t a great time for Jas,” Adam said.

“Oh? Ohhhh. Right. Liam married a woman right in front of his face. That would sting. Poor Jasper. It all worked out in the end, though, didn’t it?”

It really did.

“Are you sure you don’t want to keep these, Charlie?” Ray asked.

“I’m sure.”

“Not a nostalgic man?”

“It’s not that. It’s just…better with Kevin. Everything is. You know?”

“Yeah,” Ray said. “I know.”

Adam reached for a brownie, Ray smacked his hand and got yanked off his chair and onto Adam’s lap again for his trouble, and my phone dinged.

“That’ll be Kevin,” I said, knocking back my coffee and getting to my feet. “Come on, Phil. Let’s go home.”