"I desire the things that will destroy me in the end"

- Sylvia plath

PAGE ONE

As the days passed so did the stormy weather and within two days Clementine was out sanding down the front of the house and porch and repainting it a light blue.

After having the outbreak of emotions with her grandmother Clementine skipped around with a new sense of freedom, she had opened up and no longer felt so restricted within her own mind.

It was time now to make the most of the weather, and the boys company.

It was only a month now until they were to leave and the thought pained Clementine.

Across the hallway sat Wren singing along to 'Sweater weather' at the top of his lungs as he lay down the last of the panelling.

Alexander was busy helping the plumbers finish off the last bathroom and Jamie was cutting the grass.

Upon further inspection Jamie was also burning himself in the sun. Upon such inspection Clementine rushed through to the ballroom and started rustling through her suitcases till she found the pot of sun cream, SPF 70, perfect!

The bee's buzzed quietly around and Clementine kicked up the cut grass as she made her way over to Jamie who was very focused on the job at hand.

"Jamie!"

He didn't hear.

"Jamie!"

This time, anyone within a five mile radius was likely to have heard such a loud scream.

Anyone except Jamie that is.

Finally giving up she dared to get closer and tapped him on the shoulder causing him to flinch.

He was very sweaty, you could say he was glistening but all Clementine could focus on was how red his shoulders were.

"I brought you some sun cream" she shouted again even though he had put the machine off.

"Oh, too loud" she laughed before handing him the sun cream.

Jamie studied her before giving her a small smile,

"Thank you Clemmy"

He then took his big sweaty hand and ruffled her hair.

"You didn't!"

"Oh I did" he laughed back as he focused on applying the sun cream.

"Im going to make some lunch, any ideas?"

"Anything, I'll pop in and make some drinks in a few minutes" he replied before handing back the sun cream tub to her.

"Alrighty, thank you!"

As she walked back Clementine couldn't help but notice the improvement of the house. The front was looking much less rundown and thanks to Jamie's hard work the grass at the front was the cleanest she had ever seen it.

Even as a kid the place was overgrown.

Upon entering the kitchen she found Alexander standing buttering some sandwiches.

"Ham salad, sound good?"

"Perfect, would you like any help?"

"You could fill the last few sandwich's for me" he smiled, bumping his hip against hers.

"How is it going upstairs?"

"It's going well, a few problems here and there with the old systems but it'll be finished by the end of today I reckon"

"Thank you Alex, really, thank you" she smiled up at him.

Alexander lifted his arm up and placed it around her waist before carefully bringing her into his embrace.

"No need to thank me darling, it's part of the deal isn't it. You let us stay in your wonderful company and we help you get this place back in order" at that he rested his head on top of Clementine's.

"Im not complaining about it in the slightest, these ast few weeks have been liberating"

He placed his hand on her stomach and brought her closer against him,

"be careful, there's probably paint on me"

"Oh yeah there is"

He dabbed his finger in a piece of paint on the leg of her dungarees before pressing the paint against her nose and turning her around to face him.

"Cute" he laughed as she stood gawking at him.

"That was so mean" she laughed back as he leaned down to press a kiss against her lips.

His heart raced as he anticipated Clementine to pull away but alas she reached up placing her hand around his neck and drawing him in closer.

At that Jamie sauntered in, a smug smile placed on his lips as he poured out the drinks.

"Oh don't mind me" he smirked as the pair pulled apart.

Clementine turned red and Alexander rolled his eyes at Jamie's antics.

"You got a little something on your nose Clemmy" Jamie laughed as he left the kitchen, drinks in hand.

Clementine looked back up to see Alexander intently staring at her,

"What?"

"Nothing" he smiled before wrapping his hand around her waist and picking up one of the trays of sandwich's.

"Time to feed the troops"