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Ambrose shrunk back into the sofa. “Um, yeah.”
“To clarify,” Mum said, pursing her lips a little, “the first time we met you, at the restaurant at The Rocks, that was you being you?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Oh, thank goodness!” Mum said and sagged with relief like a balloon with the air let out. Liam expected her to rally and launch into a lecture, but instead she let out a triumphant “Ha!” that was loud enough that it had Grandad Billy startling in his sleep. “I knew you were nice! I said, that first night we went out, now there’s a nice boy for Liam!”
Ambrose just looked confused, and Liam couldn’t blame him. “So, you don’t think I’m a liar and a terrible person?”
Fi pursed her lips. “Well, I will admit you threw me for a loop a few times there, but really, what you do isn’t really lying, is it? It’s—” Liam watched her cast about for the right words. “Well, it’s acting, isn’t it? You’re just an actor, playing a part.”
“I guess?” Ambrose said cautiously.
“Well then, there’s no reason to hold it against you.” She nodded to herself. “No reason in the world. Like I say, I knew you were a nice boy.”
Ambrose let out a long breath. “I swear I didn’t mean for this to happen—the thing with Neve and Marcus, I mean. Marcus saw me on a fake date the other week when he was there with some blonde, and he tried to blackmail me. I’m so sorry about everything.”
“No,” Liam said firmly, reaching for Ambrose’s hand. “This looks like she’s letting you off easy, but really she’s letting herself off easy. Mum, you put a lot of pressure on us, to the extent that I paid a stranger to pretend to be my boyfriend, and that’s on me, but it’s on you a bit as well. Because it’s crazy, isn’t it? That I’d rather do that than tell you the truth? That I wasn’t ready for another relationship because the last one…” He swallowed. “The last one I got cheated on, okay? Jonah cheated on me.”
“Liam!” Mum exclaimed, immediately outraged. “He did what? I’ll wring his scrawny little neck!”
“No!” Liam groaned. “It was ages ago and it doesn’t matter now, and just…just leave things alone, please.”
“Fi, sweetheart,” Dad said from the door. “Liam’s trying to tell you that you need to back off sometimes.”
Mum sucked in a shocked breath.
“You have to let them make their own mistakes,” Dad said. “Liam, and Neve too, and do you remember how many frogs Bridget kissed before she found Orhan?”
“I just want them to be happy!” Mum exclaimed.
“It looks to me like they’re all figuring it out at their own pace,” Dad said. His eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled at Liam and Ambrose. “What sort of money do you make from being a fake boyfriend anyway? I reckon I scrub up all right.”
“You’re a silver fox,” Ambrose said. “You’d make a killing.”
Liam wrinkled his nose and pondered the awkwardness of having to be jealous of his own dad. “Ew.”
But he flashed a secret smile at Dad too, to thank him for lightening the mood. He knew Mum wouldn’t let the Jonah thing go—she’d fret about it on his behalf for ages before she finally burst—but she was letting it go for now, and that was a hell of a big step for her.
“Hear that, love?” Dad asked proudly. “I’m a silver fox.”
“I know you are, love. I’m very lucky.” Her smile wavered a little. “Oh, Liam, is it really all my fault?”
“Liam is also terrible at conflict,” Ambrose said suddenly. “And I don’t mean fighting. I mean that Liam is the sort of person that if a waiter brought out his soup and it was cold and also there was a dead sparrow in it, Liam would tell him it was fine and then he’d eat around the sparrow.” He squeezed Liam’s hand. “I get it, Fi. What you have, you and Will, it’s pretty amazing. And you want that for your kids as well. You want them to be happy. Except Liam doesn’t know how to ask you to give him space, because he’s scared you’ll think he’s rejecting you, so in some crazy part of his brain it actually made more sense for him to hire me than it did to just tell you that he didn’t want a boyfriend right now.”
“Then you changed my mind anyway,” Liam said softly, warmth flooding his chest.
“I am super convincing,” Ambrose said. His smile was cocky, but his fingers shook a little against Liam’s.
“It’s not your fault, Mum,” Liam said. “It’s my fault too. But also, if we were both normal people from a normal family, I never would have called Ambrose, so, ah, thanks.”
“He thought I was horrible at first,” Ambrose agreed. “But he kind of likes me now.”
Fi got a twinkle in her eye. “You know what Ambrose is, Liam?”
Liam had a horrible feeling he knew where this was going. “Don’t say it, Mum,” he warned.
She ignored him. “He’s your Vegemite!” She paused and thought. “Actually, he’s mine too, I think. I’ve quite got the taste for him now.”
