‘It’s just that George seems to like you, and I wondered if you could hang about for a minute or two until his parents get out.’
‘Of course I can,’ he said, and I liked the way he hadn’t hesitated for a single second.
One of Rhys’s hands was still being firmly held by George, but with his free one Rhys reached for a water bottle.
‘I’ve not drunk from it yet,’ he said, offering me the container. Despite my raging thirst, I was about to decline when he added. ‘You look a little hot and bothered.’
That was perhaps more to do with him than George. There was a sheen of perspiration that glistened on his arms and broad shoulders like a sprinkling of fool’s gold. His running vest, with its university logo, was sticking to him like a second skin that I very much wanted to peel away. I was suddenly incredibly glad my arms were full of baby.
‘Ahh, Georgie, have you been a good boy for Ellie?’ crooned a voice from behind me.
I summoned a smile for my charge’s mother. It grew when she plucked her offspring from me. George looked far more distressed at losing his hold on Rhys’s finger than he did at leaving me.
‘This is Rhys. He’s a friend of mine,’ I explained as George’s dad slammed shut the door of the house they’d been viewing.
‘We really like the place,’ he said. ‘We just need to go home and do our sums and then we’ll get back to you.’
I nodded slowly, making sure the smile on my face didn’t slip.
The couple didn’t quite manage to hide their relief when I politely declined their offer of a lift back into town, even though we’d all travelled to the property together. As they fastened a newly calm and chirpy George into his car seat and drove away, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that that would be the last time I ever saw them.
‘They’re not going to buy the house?’ Rhys asked, as though I’d just displayed psychic abilities.
I shook my head.
‘How do you know that?’ he asked, clearly fascinated.
I gave a small shrug. ‘You just get a feeling for how these things are going when you’ve done this job for a while. I used to think it was all about TikTok engagement and selling the best house in a street at the highest price, but actually it’s more about matching the right property to the right person. That’s the bit I now realise I like best.’
‘Perhaps you’re just particularly insightful?’ Rhys suggested as he lifted the loose hem of his running vest and absently used it as a makeshift towel to wipe his face, which was still streaked with perspiration from his run.
I lost my train of thought and then all ability to think straight as the action briefly exposed the taut flat planes of his stomach. I saw exactly what he’d meant about the marks left by the lightning. The curious fern-like patterns, the Lichtenberg figures, that hadalmost faded from his arm were still clearly visible on one side of his torso, running across his chest in a diagonal swathe that bleached into thin tendrils before disappearing beneath the waistband of his running shorts.
‘I’m sorry,’ Rhys apologised. ‘I don’t think I’m the most fragrant of company right now.’
He smelled just fine to me.
‘Are you heading back to town on foot?’ he asked, his head tilted to one side with a look that was pure adorable Labrador. The decision I’d made to get an Uber back was suddenly the last thing on my mind.
‘Yes, I am,’ I said, conveniently forgetting that I actually had no idea of the route back.
‘Well, if I promise to stay downwind of you, do you fancy some company?’
My entire day just got exponentially better.
‘I won’t have to run, will I?’ I joked.
His smile was on maximum wattage. ‘No. You can set the pace,’ he said.
Sadly, the speed at which we walked was probably the only thing in my control as far as Rhys was concerned, because everything else felt like it was totally out of my hands.
We walked in companionable silence as the sun shifted lower in the sky, throwing some much-needed slices of shade onto the pavements and pathways. I didn’t know the streets he was taking me down, but I felt nothing but safe in his company. I always did.
We eventually emerged at a crossroads. There was a sprawling business park on one side of the road, a post office delivery depot on the other, and several utilitarian apartment blocks right in front of us.
I was looking around as we walked, trying to orientate myself, when the door of the centre block of flats opened and a middle-agedman exited. He spotted us, raised a hand, and called out a greeting to Rhys before heading towards a row of parking spaces.
All the pennies dropped at once. ‘Is this your place?’