Page 24 of In at the Deep End

Matt laughed.

“I’m still like that,” Owen protested. “Just with better coffee.”

“Do you want to know why your dad and Owen worked so well together?”

“Please.” Matt appeared rapt.

Owen chuckled. “I assumed because we were both idiots.”

She laughed. “Jeff would walk into a pub knowing nobody and leave with six new friends.” She pointed at Owen. “You were the one who made them feel as though they’d always belonged.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“You never noticed?” Her eyes twinkled. “Jeff introduced people. You kept them.”

Owen frowned.

“Think about it. At every party, Jeff would be chatting to whoever had just walked through the door. Meanwhile, you’d notice the person standing on their own and quietly go and rescue them.”

“I was just making conversation.”

She shook her head. “You were making people comfortable.” She looked at Matt. “But back to Owen and his camera… We once spent forty minutes looking for him.”

“And?”

“He’d climbed onto the roof of the halls of residence.”

Matt blinked. “Why?”

“So he could get everyone into one photograph.”

Owen shrugged again. “It was the only place high enough.”

“Jeff didn’t even ask why. He simply looked up and shouted, ‘Did you get everyone?’” Then she grinned. “Owen shouted back, ‘Almost. Tell Barbara to move three feet left.’”

Callum grinned. “Yeah, that sounds like Dad.”

Owen rubbed a hand over his beard. “Right. I think that’s quite enough nostalgia for one morning.”

Cyn’s smile was downright smug. “Embarrassed?”

“Mildly.”

“Liar.”

He sighed. “Fine. Deeply embarrassed.”

Matt laughed.

Owen pointed at him. “You too?”

“Sorry.” Matt failed to sound sorry in the slightest.

Owen stood, went over to her, and bent down to kiss her cheek. “I’ll let you know when the house is safe to visit. Right now you’d spend more time climbing over boxes than admiring the place.”

“Don’t wait until the garden’s finished,” she said. “I want to see the before and after.” Her gaze settled on Matt. “It was lovely meeting you.”

“You too.”