deeds,’ she murmured, already anticipating naughty ones.
They both took a sip, feeling the evening settle into its second act. She had been waiting for this all weekend. Their first meeting on Friday had left her frustrated and impatient for this as it was, but last night’s news about Cunningham had only compounded her need for an escape. She needed to think about something other than him for a while.
‘So you think he enjoyed that, then?’ Sam asked, sinking slightly against the unit.
‘It was everything to him! His eyes were just . . .’ She tried to find the right word. ‘. . . ablaze when I was tucking him in just now. He’s at that age where it’s all still so real for him.’ She paused for a moment, trying to imagine a world like that, one full of magic and hope and good things. ‘I just hope he’ll be able to sleep tonight. I don’t think he can believe what just happened.’
‘Then I’m glad to have been of service.’
‘Oh, trust me, that’s going to keep him going for a full year.’ She chuckled. ‘God only knows what we’ll do next year to top it!’
He shrugged. ‘Well, I can always come back and do it again.’
Her eyes flashed towards him, her heart stuttering and missing a beat, panic pinballing through her. Next year? He was just being polite, right? ‘That sketch was beautiful,’ she said instead. ‘You’re very good. And so fast! I can hardly draw a stick man.’
‘Oh, I’m sure you could. It’s just a matter of confidence and finding your style. I spent years trying to master oils and gouache, only to realize that my preparatory paper sketches in pencil, ink and charcoal were far better than anything on the canvas. It was a bruise to my ego at first, it felt like I wasn’t a proper artist.’
‘Does it relax you, drawing?’
‘Yes. It’s almost like a meditation sometimes.’
‘You make it look so easy.’
‘Well, I could say the same about you.’
‘Ha. Anyone can point and click a camera,’ she said dismissively.
‘That’s true, but in the way that anyone can also put a pen on paper and draw a shape. There are levels, aren’t there?’ He took another sip of wine, his lips becoming gently stained. ‘What’s your bread-and-butter work? You said you were just volunteering the other day?’
‘Oh, mainly editorial for magazines – features, occasionally fashion shoots.’ She rolled her eyes in disdain. ‘But I only do studio stories. I won’t go on location.’
‘Because of Jasper?’
‘Yes. He’s in kindergarten. I have to keep a routine for him.’
‘Sure. And do you have a nanny, or . . .?’
‘No, it’s just the two of us.’ He nodded and she knew what he wanted to ask her next – what about his father? – but she closed the door on that opportunity. ‘But we like it like that.’
‘Right.’ He was watching her closely, studying her almost, and she felt he could see more than she was giving, as though he could read her regardless of what she showed. ‘And you said you’re English?’
She nodded. ‘But I lived here for five years when I was a teenager, which is why my Dutch is passable. My father was a diplomat, so we were stationed here when I was thirteen.’
‘Are your family still here?’
‘No. My parents moved back to the UK when Dad retired, but they’re both dead now. Passed away within eighteen months of each other.’
‘Oh. I’m sorry.’
‘Yeah, me too.’ She gave a small smile; the pain of being an orphan, alone in the world, was still as undimmed as the day of her mother’s funeral. ‘Still, I’ve got Jasper and he’s all I need.’
‘No other family? Brothers, sisters?’
‘Nope. But I do have a small circle of very good friends who are like surrogate aunts and uncles to him, so they’re our family now.’
‘It sounds good, maybe I’ll do that. I’m not sure I’d choose certain members of my family,’ he quipped.
She chuckled. He was easy to talk to as well as easy on the eye.
‘So what are you doing here in Amsterdam? Why not the UK?’ he asked.
‘Umm, well, I guess it was because of Mila, really; she was my best friend when we were living here. We’d done so much travelling over the years for Dad’s job that the UK didn’t really feel like home. Especially after they died.’ She sighed. ‘So when I was coming back and needed to put down roots, this seemed as good a place as any. She