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Reece
Frankie shielded her eyes from the sun and surveyed my vegetable garden. She plunged her shovel into the ground, dangerously close to my rhubarb plants.
A shadow of alarm went through me. “Be careful.”
She yanked the spade out, sending soil everywhere. I drew a deep breath. By some strange miracle, the twins had volunteered to help me with the garden. It was good of them, and it had never happened before. I’d have to suck it up and be grateful for the “help.”
Frankie bent down and fingered a slug-eaten cabbage before looking up at Elliot. “I don’t understand how humans have even evolved, since it’s impossible to grow vegetables without things eating them.”
I moved around the vegetable patch, ripping up the odd weed. Frankie’s gaze burned into me. Something was up. There was no other reason for them both to be outside with me. “Come on then. What’s going on?”
Frankie cleared her throat. “I’ve got someone I want to set you up with. A friend at university.”
I suppressed my eye roll. “No. Thank you.”
Elliot smirked. “I’ve told you not to risk introducing anyone you know to Reece. I reckon he’s a full-on freak. I’m talking manacles, gimp masks… the whole lot. Why else would he have put up with Megan for so long? She had to be fulfilling some specialist kink.”
I sighed. “Can we get through one day without the two of you speculating about my love life?”
Frankie angled her trowel at me. “What do you say? Do you want me to set you up?”
“No.”
“Why not?
“Because I’m not interested in meeting anyone at the moment.”
Frankie raked over the fresh earth she’d turned over. “Why not? You’ve looked sad since you split with Megan. Fuck the pain away, I say.”
“Sure. Why not? That’s the first thing we learn when we train as psychologists. It’s followed by ‘eat the pain way’ and ‘inject the pain away.’”
Elliot flashed me a glance. “You should do it. I’ve never seen anyone more in need of getting laid. See if she’ll remove the stick from your arse while you’re at it.”
I drew a calming breath. “I appreciate your concerns, but respectfully, I don’t want to talk about my love life with either of you.”
Is this why they’d volunteered to help out? So they could tag team in annoying me? Frankie threw a weed into a bucket with a heavy thud and slid me a glance. “I bumped into Megan the other day. She’s cut her hair short. It doesn’t suit her. She asked how you were…”
I kept my gaze on the strip of lighter soil where I’d planted my corn. I didn’t need to hear about Megan.
“I told her you have a hot new girlfriend and you’re fucking each other’s brains out all day. She looked mortified. She made that little squeaky noise she makes when she’s about to cry.”
I kept my voice flat despite my rising irritation. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”
“I know, but it was too fun not to. Megan was the worst.” Frankie slammed her shovel into the ground. “She left you when you needed her the most, and she was so dull. She wasn’t good for you. You need someone with a bit of life. Someone a bit… wild.”
“Megan made a choice. I respect it. You should respect it too. And I don’t need wild. I like a quiet life.”
“No. You need someone to bring you out of your shell. There’s more to life than books and gardening. You have the hobbies of a pensioner.”
“I like my garden, and I don’t want to talk about Megan. I come down here for peace and quiet.”
Frankie swiped a muddy hand across her sweating forehead. “When shit got real with Mum, Megan jettisoned out of here. Be angry about it. It’s okay to be angry about it. Isn’t that what you bang on about all day anyway? It’s okay not to be okay? Or is it okay for everyone else and not you?”
I pulled out a potato and scraped away the dirt before tossing it into the pile. I drew another calming breath. Birdsong filled my ears. I tried to relax the tension in my jaw.
Frankie trampled over my strawberry plants to pick up a watering can. She showered water over a patch of weeds. “Anyway, I’ve signed you up for a couple of dating apps. You’ve already had a few matches.”
My blood turned to ice. “You’ve. Done. What?”
