Nothing New for Sophie Drew: a heart-warming romantic comedy - Katey Lovell (best english novels for beginners .txt) 📗

for bouncing.” I was wearing a plain white balconette bra rather than the industrial-strength support I’d have gone for if I’d have known trampolines were on the cards. I’d only chosen it because it wouldn’t show through my T-shirt.

“You’ll be fine. It’s only a bit of fun. It’s not like you need a gym kit. They’ll let you bounce in your everyday clothes.”

“I wasn’t about to dig out my old school leotard.” My voice hissed through my teeth. “I was thinking of…” I stopped short, thinking better of mentioning my boobs around my ex, but my eyes automatically looked down at my chest, and Darius’s followed.

“Oh…” He dragged the word out so it sounded like it had twenty-two letters rather than two, and raised his eyebrows suggestively before saying, “I don’t really see the problem.”

Of course he didn’t. There was probably nothing he’d like more than watching my unrestrained puppies jumping freely like… well, like unrestrained puppies.

“How about the soft play? Are you sure you don’t want to go? You used to love it there, Summer.” The desperation was obvious in my voice, and Darius smirked as I squirmed.

Summer didn’t notice my discomfort, instead adding stickers to the plastic toy that had come with her meal. “I’m too old for soft play, So-So,” she said, as though it was an absurd suggestion. “I’m not a baby anymore.”

My heart melted as she used the nickname she’d given me the first time I’d met her. She’d been two, with a lisp, and Darius and I hadn’t been dating long. Sophie had morphed into Sosie, which in turn had been shortened to So-So. There was no one else in the world who called me it. It was music to my ears.

“I know you’re not, pet. I was just thinking of how much fun we used to have in the ball pools, that’s all.”

“And we’ll have fun on the trampolines, I promise. I’m really good,” she said, with a child’s innocence. “I can even do somersaults. Daddy Rob taught me how.”

Darius flinched, and I felt his pain.

“Okay,” I found myself saying, despite my better judgement, “we’ll go trampolining.”

I needed to know exactly what was going on. Whatever it was sounded serious. Serious enough, even, to risk giving myself a black eye from bouncing around on a trampoline with insufficient support for my knockers.

The trampoline park was exactly what I expected – loud, dark and overrun with excitable kids. My legs were like jelly after five minutes on one of the small square trampolines that lined the floor, and I resorted to tentatively bouncing with my arms tightly folded over my chest to stop my boobs jiggling.

Darius watched with amusement as he bounced up and down, barely breaking a sweat. I on the other hand, felt like I’d had a real workout.

“Relax a bit,” he encouraged. “It’ll be far more fun if you throw yourself into it.”

Far more fun for him, he meant, copping an eyeful.

“We’re not here to actually trampoline,” I reminded him, bending my knees as I landed to bring myself to a standstill. “We’re here to talk.”

“You’re right.” He executed one final piked jump before coming to a faultless stop. Show-off. “Let’s grab a drink.”

He swept his hair out of his eyes as we moved to the café area. It was an action that used to send me weak at the knees. They weren’t the most stable at that moment either, but I was putting that down to the trampolining and using muscle groups that had been in long-term hibernation.

The café was typical of the place, selling brightly coloured slush drinks and undrinkable coffees for way over the going rate. I opted for a can of Sprite. At least then I knew what I was going to get.

“This is hard to talk about,” he said when we sat down. The table we’d found was covered in rings from who-knows-how-many customers’ cups. “But thanks for saying you’d meet me. I thought you were still pissed off with me.”

A woman bouncing a baby on her lap tutted at his choice of language, as though her child was suddenly going to start spouting obscenities.

Darius carried on regardless. “Nadia’s trying to push me out. When she first got with Rob she said I’d still get to spend time with Summer the way I always have, but now she’s threatening to move in with him.”

“It must be hard for you, but you can’t expect her to live like a nun. She’s pretty.” It pained me to pay the woman who was always looking down her beautiful ski-slope nose at me a compliment. “It’s surprising it’s taken her this long to start a relationship, when you think about it.”

“That’s what’s making it hard. It’s been so long that I kind of thought she wouldn’t find anyone else.”

The comment made me wonder if Darius might be jealous of the muscular man dating his ex. No one likes to feel replaceable. I knew that from experience.

“Have you met him? Is that the problem?”

Darius laughed wryly. “Oh yeah, I’ve met him all right. She invited him to Summer’s birthday party. That wasn’t awkward at all, having the woman at Build-A-Bear Workshop not knowing which of us to call Daddy.”

I winced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah, made me feel like I wasn’t even needed at my own daughter’s birthday.” His lips pursed tightly together, his chin dimpling like a golf ball. “Nadia kept draping herself over him. I know what she was doing, trying to make me uncomfortable.”

“And he was acting like a knob too?”

Darius shook his head. “That’s the worst thing, he was as nice as pie. Can’t fault the guy, and Summer loves him to bits. Of course she does, he’s buying her everything she asks for. He spent a fortune at that party on accessories for the teddy she chose, told the staff to let her get whatever she wanted. Clothes, sunglasses, shoes… I mean, did you know teddy bears needed shoes? Because apparently they do nowadays.”

I nodded sympathetically, but didn’t