Page 53 of In at the Deep End

He pressed the doorbell.

Please don’t let him have skipped to the love scene.

Matt froze.

Fuck.

He jabbed his thumb at the remote.

Nothing happened.

“Come on…” He pressed another button.

The volume went up.

“Oh, for God’s sake.” He hit another button.

The picture disappeared.

Success.

Except now the DVD menu was blaring cheerful music through the speakers.

He fumbled again, finally finding Mute, and was rewarded with silence. His pulse hammered as he stabbed Eject.

The tray slid out with all the enthusiasm of a civil servant on a Monday morning.

“Today, please?” Matt ground out. His unexpected hard-on had wilted, unsurprisingly.

The doorbell rang again.

He grabbed the disc, shoved it into the nearest case without even checking the label, snapped it shut⁠—

—and immediately realised it was the wrong one.

“Bloody brilliant.”

He yanked it back out, found the correct case this time, shoved everything into the box, slammed the lid down and, with nowhere else to hide it, dropped another cardboard box on top.

Then he made a dash for the door.

Owen stood there, along with Mum and Dad.

“There you are,” Mum said warmly. “We’ve been wondering where you’d got to.” She chuckled. “I didn’t realise the house is that big.”

Matt pasted on a bright smile. “Sorry. I was… doing something.”

Dad gave him a curious look. “Everything all right?”

“Fine.” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “Absolutely fine.”

Mum wandered into the dining room. “Oh, this is lovely.”

Matt silently thanked every deity he could think of that none of them had arrived five minutes earlier.

Then Owen stepped inside. There was the faintest hint of a smile playing around his mouth.

“You weren’t doing anything you shouldn’t, were you?” That tone was far too innocent.