Page 87 of How We Began

(11.00 a.m.)

Deathtrap Cooper doesn’t like long journeys and has decided that it doesn’t want to go to Dorset. It thinks the salt air will make it rust or something and that it’s best to stay in the relative safety of the underground parking.

This would’ve been a huge spanner in the works, until Tristan very gallantly offered to lend us his Audi.

(1.30 p.m.)

The super-sexy car goes very fast.

I was a little surprised when Ben began navigating us away from major towns and most especially away from Lyme Regis, which is where I thought we were going.

“Where are we going? Isn't Lyme the other way?”

“To my mum’s.”

He said it casually, like he’d just answered, “To Asda” or “To the pub.”

My foot slipped off the pedal and we had a near miss with a hedgerow and verge. His mum’s? What was this crazy shit?

He smirked as he watched me come up with something to say.

“Why are we going to your mum’s? And why didn’t you mention it before we left so I could pack the right stuff?”

“What do you mean 'pack the right stuff?' What on earth did you pack?” Ben’s brilliant smile was simply the only thing stopping me from hyperventilating. Meeting his mum? Hasn’t he learnt enough about me in the last few months to realise I’m socially inept in all situations. Mums come under that. They are right there, at the top of the list, along with conversing with all other adults.

“Well nothing suitable to meet your mum for the first time.” I glared up at the sky, hoping for a freak storm that would strand us by the side of the road for a good few hours until it was time to go back to London.

“And my sisters,” he added helpfully.

Great.

“Don’t they think you’re a twat?” I had to crack a smile as I turned to face him.

“Yep.”

“They might not be the only ones right now,” I muttered as I tapped on the steering wheel.

He stuck his tongue out—not particularly mature, but then I guess that went both ways with us.

Finally, he directed me to a narrow road lined with neat semis. My hands slicked with sweat, sliding around the wheel as I attempted to manoeuvre Tristan’s car. I managed to park eventually, but it took a few tries of in and out, in and out. The whole time the blues were watched me, gauging my reactions and emotions. I tried to discreetly hand wipe on my jeans. My tatty, horrible, old, baggy jeans that I’d flung on in a rush having no idea I was going to meet his family.

Fuck it all. Gah.

He turned to me from the passenger side and caught my face in his hands. “Lilah, will you calm down? It is just my mum and sisters, and we are just popping in. It is no big deal.”

I gazed into the blues, trying to absorb what he was saying. He was right. It should not be a big deal at all. I am not even his girlfriend really. “I just want to make a good impression, that’s all.”

“Why do I think your spouting something your dad would say?”

I dropped my gaze but he tilted my face back up with his index finger. “Be you, and I can promise they’ll love you.”

Not convinced, I sat with my legs frozen as he opened his car door and walked around to the driver’s side.

Opening my door, he crouched down like I was a toddler who needed coaxing. “Ten minutes and if it’s making you uncomfortable, we’ll leave.”

Sighing I dropped my head back on the headrest of Tristan’s Audi. “God, on a scale of one to ten, how special am I being right now?”

I cracked an eye to find his wide and beautiful grin. “Always a ten, Lilah. Always a ten.”