"Ollie?" Mums voice pulls me from the depths of sleep and her hand moves from my knee just as Maggie lifts her head from my shoulder, "We're home."

I'm exhausted, even if I slept nearly the entire four hour drive from Cornwall to London. And to add to it, I still have to be back in Italy tonight if I want to make the Leonardo Christie fashion show. I'd been formally invited and it would be rude and incredibly unprofessional to not show up when I already accepted the invitation.

But staying busy is exactly what I need right now. Fuck, I'll wager Thylane knows of a role I could delve into ASAP. Who gives a shit if it's even good or not at this point. I don't care. I will take whatever job I can get that'll take every ounce of my spare time so I don't have to spend it thinking about Muriel.

"Ugh, I'm exhausted as fuck." Maggie grumbles beside me and lazily unclips her safety belt.

Mum clears her throat as I undue mine and gestures with her eyes to Muriel in front of me. I shake my head no and roll my eyes.

I've had enough of hearing 'No' from Muriel. All I want at this point is to forget all about last weekend in Cornwall and what happened after the bar Sunday night.

"Hey Dad." I hear Maggie and spot dad giving us a wave as he approached the car.

"Ollie, Sweet Heart. Why don't you help Muriel carry her trunk inside?" Mom suggests and I let out a loud annoyed sigh.

"She can carry her own trunk-" I start, annoyed the Nun is still getting the princess treatment.

"Ello everyone, we erm, have a visitor." Dad says and all of us look at him in confusion. "Well, specifically, Mur has a visitor."

I climb out from the back seat and Murry follows suit asking him, "What do you mean?"

"Jeremy is here, inside, waiting for you."

I can't help but laugh. The laugh that comes out of me is boisterous because of course the wanker is here.

"Bloody brilliant." I say and slam the car door shut. I wouldn't mind yelling at someone right about now, especially after the fucking night I just had.

"Ollie, we will give Mur and Jeremy some privacy to get everything sorted." Dad tells me. I snort a laugh and cross my arms glancing to Murry.

"Right, we might need to hold her hand. The girl hates confrontation."

Mum scolds me and Murry gives me a glare but I don't care. They all can continue to kiss her arse, after last night and today I'm totally aware of how manipulative she is.

"Did he say what he wants?" Murry asks dad approaching him.

"To be sure you were alright. He mentioned he wasn't able to reach you by phone."

Well, he can get in line.

Muriel let's out a long breath and twists her pretty ginger hair over her shoulder, "I'm sorry for leaving like that... I really want to stay here, at least until mom and Gemma arrive in September, if you'll still have me?" She asks dad.

Yup, I'll be sure to find a job then.

"Of course. As before, you can stay here as long as you'd like." He says clapping a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you." She says, her beautiful smile forcing my eyes away so I don't have to look at it and melt into a fucking puddle. "Ollie?" My name on her lips causes my heart in my chest to flutter a moment, as it always does. "Do you, I mean, will you come with me, please?"

"As tempting as getting in a screaming match with Jeremy sounds, I'm all set."

"Ollie." Mum scolds again and I shoot her a glare.

"No, he's right." Murry says, then tucks her her behind her ears and turns to go inside.

"Let's go to the back garden shall we. We don't want an audience." Dad says gesturing the for once empty sidewalk across the street and we all nod.

I begrudgingly grab Muriel's light luggage case from the boot of my car and hoist it over my shoulder by the handle and follow the others through the side gate to the back garden. Dad wraps his arm around Maggie's shoulders and Mum falls back into step with me. "I spoke to Muriel." She tells me and I shrug trying to act like I wasn't interested. Perhaps If I act it out it'll sink in finally. "Oh for goodness sake, Oliver. You of all people should know how she takes things slow and does not like change."

"I'm bloody exhausted. Of it all, mum." I say, literally feeling as if my feet were trudging through setting cement.

"Have you put yourself in her shoes? I'm not saying she's right but you aren't either. The two of you need to sit down and figure it out. You need to not push her and she needs to not run."

"She's already said 'no'. And now Jeremy is here probably talking her back into being with him and going to New York." Honestly, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. The girl hates change and Jeremy is all things safe and boring - fucking perfect for her.

"You've been gone the last five years. We all noticed glimpses of her changing even before last week. Henry's cheating was the catalyst that finally forced her into taking a step into becoming more independent." I gnaw on my cheek noting Ty had mentioned this as well when he was in town. "She told me in the car she does have a lot of feelings for you but she's afraid of your work."

"For fucks sake." I stop in my tracks and Mum giggles that Mum laugh when they know they're right. "I can't fucking change-."

"I reckon it's the attention she's afraid of not the job itself."

"Jesus Christ." I exhale and drop the suit case from my shoulder letting it hang at my side heavily. "She's maddening, that one. I literally have no energy to argue with her."

"Good." Mum shrugs shading her eyes from the sun and smiling a dimpled smile. "Just agree with her. Trust me, as a woman, she only wants you to agree with her, hun."

The exhaustion I was feeling only moments ago is suddenly gone and my veins are charged after mums pep-talk. I know the respectable thing to do, and what dad would want me to do, is wait outside until they're done but now after everything mom's said I really don't want to wait and chance Jeremy talking Muriel into anything.

"Should I wait, or-."

"Hell no. Tell Jeremy to piss off." Mum tells me with a cheeky smile and I chuckle shaking my head, "Of course, if dad asks I said nothing." She gives me a wink and nod and go around to the stoop and open the back glass door and step inside.

"This is going to be interesting..." I say closing the door behind me, already hearing the two of them argueing down the hall.

__________________________________

I wasn't going to double update but I thought I might as well! I'm due for some catch up on reading so I wanted to get this chapter done!

And to burst everyone's bubbles the next flashback chapter is next LOL so you'll have to wait to find out what happens next!

Thanks for reading!
CC