I wasn’t nervous. I mean, we’d kissed before. So why would I be nervous? I tried to say I wasn’t nervous, but nothing came out.

Shut up.

A moment of silence passed, the energy between us building. Her fingers found my arms and she traced a line from my elbow to the palm of my hand with her finger on both sides, holding my hands lightly when she reached them. Our fingers played gently. I could feel the rise and fall of her chest against mine. All the hairs on my arm stood up. A shiver ran from my throat to my stomach and further still. Our lips didn’t touch yet, but the tip of her nose grazed my cheek and I could feel long eyelashes flutter against my cheek as she closed her eyes. For a second we breathed the air between us. Her hips moved, squeezing out the last bit of light between our bodies.

“I know some guys who’d pay good money to see this.” Oliver leaned in the doorway, a smug grin across his face, as always. “But it’s not really my thing, so close the door next time.”

I was going to murder him.

“Oliver!” Ruby squealed. She buried her face in her hands.

“Go away, creeper.” I started toward him and he jumped.

“Believe me, I have no desire to see my darling cousin lobbing the gob on my mortal enemy, but the door was open.” He looked so genuinely affronted that I would think he’d spy on us that I believed him.

“It’s fine, Oliver,” Ruby said through gritted teeth; her face had reappeared, but her cheeks were pink. She had retreated to her chair and had her knees pulled up to her chest.

“You left your phone on the couch.” He threw it to me and I just about caught it. It must have fallen out of my pocket.

“You better not have messed with it.”

“Would I?” he said, indignant. I made a mental note to check through my photos and messages later.

“Mum asked me to drive you home,” he continued. “She said it was too late to let you walk home by yourself. I said you’d probably rather face a murderer in the bushes than spend ten minutes in the car with me, but for some reason, she thought I was joking.”

I hesitated.

“I haven’t been drinking,” he added. “It interferes with the integrity of my instrument.” He stroked his throat.

I could have called Dad to pick me up, but at least this way I wouldn’t run the risk of interrupting him mid-anything. And if it inconvenienced Oliver, so much the better. I looked behind me, Ruby’s face was back to its normal color. Was that disappointment I saw?

“Can you give me five?”

“Even I last longer than five minutes, Saoirse. There are pills for that.”