Trust - Page 100

“If I park that car outside our house, it’ll be stolen by midnight. Scratched to hell. And I can’t park it up in the backstreet outside work. Again, stolen within hours. It’s that kind of car. The kind of car we stick in the secure lock-up in the garage at work. We charge people an extra hundred quid a day to park there. That’s what we’re looking at.”

“Easy solution.” I pouted, then I rolled my eyes at myself. “You park it here and move in downstairs. Peckham is Peckham. Here, you could walk to the Tube and be at work in ten minutes. Simple.”

“Yeah, Dad. You could get a bike.” Reuben grinned.

I had to laugh because Stewart looked a bit green at the suggestion.

“Boys,” he said, and got up. “I’m going to take a walk.”

Good, I thought, watching him walk out the front door, letting it slam shut.

“I want to choose the people I have in my life, and I want you. And having you means we have to look after your dad too.”

“Dad can look after himself,” Reuben reassured me. “And you should… Man. Just stop spending your money on other people. Buy yourself a car. I need to take you out for that driving lesson. Soon as your provisional licence arrives.”

“Yeah.”

I felt a bit flat. Disheartened. And sad.

“Stop spending your money on shit that doesn’t matter.”

“It’s my money.”

“Gray,” he said again, cupping my face in his hands. “This past week? Most fun I’ve had in my life. Honestly. We did a road trip—”

“You did a road trip.”

“Yeah, but I rescued you, and then we did a road trip home.”

“We went shopping.”

“Tesco Express around the corner. I survived that, didn’t I? Then we ate.”

“We did.” He laughed. “And I stopped you buying the entire top one hundred in hardback fiction from Amazon, just so you could have something on the bookshelf.”

“I’ll give you something on the bookshelf,” I countered, trying to get out of his grip, but he held me tight. Kissed me.

“G,” he whispered.

“Yeah?”

“We’re good.”

“We are, aren’t we?”

“And I know you’re under a lot of stress now with everything, but… Yeah. The car. Thank you. I think Dad is seriously overwhelmed. Give him some time to calm down.”

“Okay.”

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“What?” I smiled. He kissed me again.

“My leave got approved, so I have to work tomorrow, and then I have two weeks off. Just you and me. And we’ll get this house sorted. Move the rest of my stuff over. Work on your spreadsheets and figure things out.”

“That sounds good,” I agreed. “Tonight, though, I want to watch a film. Sit on the sofa and have popcorn. Can we go buy popcorn? They had some at Tesco.”

“Yup. Sounds good.”