A/N Another apology, been a little unwell. Better now. Not sure you'll all like chapter, but promise this is a turning point of sorts, enjoy if you can, xxx

Chapter Twenty Three

Lizzie was glad of the separation from Oscar that night. After a reunion with his sister and family, which Nate loved, Lizzie had escaped quite gladly. It was late, and Nate was asleep before his head hit the pillow. As she watched him sleep, she sighed. He'd taken the loss of his mother so well, and she wondered how things would have been if Oscar hadn't turned up like a whirlwind.

He'd made the loss so much more palatable for the boy, and that was a good thing, but he was just so overpowering. She thought back to the previous night, that kiss. She almost swooned. It had taken more than her breath away. And now he was trying to convince her that his relationship with Krystal was over.

Lizzie hadn't met her, but Freya had been quick to express her dislike, and now Oscar was trying to convince her that they weren't together. Cheating was one of her biggest hates, after walking in on her college boyfriend in bed with the most glamorous girl in their class, she realised exactly how painful that was for anyone, if she'd doubted it before.

And until they sat on the plane and he told her it was over with Krystal, she'd had the sickening fear that she'd been on the brink of doing what someone else had done with her. Being the other woman. And she hated herself. It had only been a kiss, but there was no saying it was going to end at that. They'd been play-fighting, it wasn't as if either of them had planned to end up as they had, wrapped around each other on the sofa. But when they did...it was like fire between them.

She'd spent the day convincing herself that it was a mistake, that it would never happen again...but his words had changed that. He told her he couldn't stop thinking about it...and neither could she. This was purgatory.

Again she glanced across at Nate, he was sleeping in his half of the big bed, she'd enjoyed having him in the same bed since they'd been in the US, largely because it made her feel that she was closer to her sister with him in her arms, cuddling her. Eased the guilt in her own mind.

But there were other reasons that she was glad he was with her, especially when there was a knock at the door.

Taking a deep breath she crossed the lounge, to open the front door, and as predicted Oscar stood there, his head dropped but his eyes on her as he gave her a coy smile.

"Wanted to check on how you guys are."

She was really tempted to stop him there, block his way in, but she couldn't do that, plus the deep inner part of her wanted to spend time with him, even though she hated that. He had something to say, he'd told her as much on the plane, and she'd tried to avoid it, but now there was no way to hide.

Stepping back she offered him inside, "we're good...Nate was asleep before his head hit the pillow."

He glanced across the room to see the boy fast asleep, his chunky fist under his cheek, face relaxed in deep sleep.

"He's beautiful," she offered.

That made him look up and stare at her for a moment, "I feel like the luckiest man alive."

Lizzie grinned, "me too...he makes every day happy for me."

Oscar sighed, "are you ok, with me moving in?"

She gulped at that, then offered, "you could ask me on a date first!"

It stunned him, but then it had stunned her too. She wasn't flirtatious, anything but, yet it was almost instinctive that she responded to the double entendre in his question. Instead of smiling, she grimaced at the awkwardness, but Oscar burst into a deep belly laugh.

"Just when you think you know someone, they do the unexpected!"

Mortified she was blushing, but the more he laughed, the more she was tempted to as well.

"You're allowed to laugh Lizzie."

She nodded, "I know."

He sighed, "this is my fault."

"What? What is?"

He laughed, "the fact that you can't laugh about something now that you would have last week."

She shook her head, "I'm just a bit prudish, that came from nowhere. Sorry."

Taking her hands he gave her a gentle shake, "that was fun, you are a funny person, you said something funny. Don't over think this."

When she gave a nervous nod, he groaned, "this is exactly what I mean. You're scared of me."

She wasn't, she realised as she looked at him, trying to do the right thing. She was scared of herself. "I'm happy that you're coming back to Manchester. And it'll be good to have someone there to help clear out Janis's room. I haven't been able to face it."

He stepped closer to her, "and we're going to ignore last night? Is that what you're telling me?"

The dance continued as she stepped back, "last night? I was a little emotional last night, if I did anything..."

A hand grabbed her jaw, and his lips thrust onto hers before she could finish the sentence. She resisted...for all of five seconds. Then she swooned...again. Legs weak, head foggy, heart and soul in sync with the lips that were teasing hers.

It was Oscar that pulled back, and he looked down at her in that split second before she realised he'd stopped kissing her, her eyes closed, her face free of those worrisome frown lines, relaxed, happy...he wanted more of that.

But her eyes snapped open and the wrinkles between her eyebrows returned.

"Oscar! We can't do this."

He chuckled, keeping his arms around her despite her physical protests, "do what? We're two single people aren't we? And I enjoyed kissing you."

She fought out of his embrace and snapped at him, "we can't do this; we have to think about Nate."

"We have to think of ourselves, each other too."

Shaking her head vehemently, she stepped away from him, "too much has happened for him without us muddying the waters. He's emotionally fragile, he needs us a hundred percent on his side, not bickering or falling out."

Oscar gave her a roll of his eyes, "we deserve fun too, Lizzie. Surely you can see that?"

He watched as her face contorted and he realised that he wasn't winning her over, when she opened her mouth it was as though she was literally breathing fire.

"Fun? Casual? Is that what you're suggesting? That the two legal guardians of a recently bereft child, each with a ton of baggage and issues of their own shack up in some fuckfest regardless of what that will do to their charges. Am I hearing you right?"

That was not what he was expecting, and he wasn't prepared to digest all that she'd just said. His eyes were wide and suddenly, he who was usually so confident wasn't sure how to handle this, so he just offered, "we're both human, we both have needs."

She stormed to the front door and held it open, "I think you should leave, you've said enough, Oscar. At the moment I can go to sleep and pretend this never happened. Anymore and it'll all be over, Nate's life ruined. Your choice."

He flapped for a moment, open and shutting his mouth, but then did as she asked. He needed to get on top of what she'd just said as he was floundering...and that wasn't him.

When he stepped through the doorway, she added, "I don't do casual or fun, and I definitely don't do sex, not like this anyway, so if that's what you were thinking when you walked over here tonight, then you are barking up the wrong tree Mister."

Faking it. That was what Lizzie was expert at. All her life she'd managed to deal with her parents' disinterest, their disappointment, and lived in her sister's shadow without alerting anyone to how she felt. SO the next morning when she met Freya for a walk to the park with the kids after breakfast, she had her mask in place. She was stood in the hallway as chaos ensued around them all, when Oscar appeared from a room to her right looking awful.

"Hey Dad!" Nate trotted over to him as Freya cooed at how cute that was. She really did love her brother, and already Nate. As they hi-fived, Oscar's eyes flitted to hers and she gave him a warm smile. She wasn't going to change the atmosphere or make things awkward. The fact after one kiss he thought he could talk his way into her bed so quickly annoyed her. She had no hesitation in thinking that maybe his tactic would have worked on her sister, but she wasn't her sister, and she didn't do casual sex.

Her response surprised him, but all too soon he was grabbing his coat, "I've got to go and do some work Champ. You want to do something tonight?"

Nate nodded enthusiastically as he hugged his father, then Oscar once again turned to Lizzie, "if that's ok with you?"

Lizzie gave a smile, "of course, will give me some 'ME' time. I can't argue with that."

Freya clapped her hands, "could we maybe go out have some beers and some food? A girly night?"

Lizzie thought that she'd hate that, going out when all she wanted to do was curl up alone and mope. But that wasn't her way, and she could do with a relaxing evening, and Freya was great company, that was no lie.

At the park Nate and Elena ran and climbed, were pushed on the swings and wholly had great fun. Afterwards they visited a near coffee shop where they could warm their hands. The snow had cleared, but it was still cold. Nate and Elena had warm milk, she had a black coffee, and Freya tea...it seemed that she lived on the drink.

"So Oscar said you're staying another week?"

She sipped at her coffee for a moment, "we haven't really discussed it, but it's until he's kind of sorted to work from Manchester."

Freya's mouth fell open, "so he's moving out permanently?"

Lizzie shrugged, "he's going to be based there, he didn't say it was short term, I don't know more. He isn't one for explaining himself."

Freya chuckled, "you know him well!"

Did she? She pondered that thought all the way home, as the previous evening had blown her confidence right out of the water. When Oscar had kissed her in their hotel she'd spent all night wondering how she'd resist him, because deep down she thought he wanted her. She was going to fight that, for so many reasons, Janis, Nate and her own fragile past...but then the previous night he'd hinted that he wanted commitment free sex, some sort of casual thing.

Even if that was her thing, the way that he completely didn't get that, well it made her more than angry. He was a father first and a bloody horny teenager second, he needed to understand that. The bloody imbecile. She was furious, thinking how alike Janis he was, because she had regularly abandoned Nate, left Lizzie to care for him so she could chase after the next man in a line of good looking losers. Did people never learn?

When they got back to the house she left to get ready for a night out with Freya, not that she was about to hit the town in her gladrags, but she wanted a shower. As she kicked off her coat, laughing at the sounds of Elena and Nate squealing in the garden with Coop, she checked her phone. There were several messages from Oscar. All from earlier in the day.

"Sorry about last night, you got me wrong. Can we talk later?"

"You didn't ignore me earlier, but you're ignoring me now? Lizzie don't do this."

"I'm taking Nate to a movie, at five...but I'm coming early so we can talk. PLEASE don't run away from me."

She rolled her eyes, just what she needed, another round of confusion with Oscar Wicker.

But he hadn't arrived, and when she got down to the house, Coop was feeding the kids.

"Oscar's running late...some conference call ran over. So we're having a boys' night in. Go enjoy yourself, ok?"

Nodding she moved to sit beside Nate, "you ok mate?"

He nodded as he chewed on a piece of pasta, "I like it here."

She smiled, "I know you do."

"Coop is cool, and him and Osc...Dad are going to watch Turbo with me."

Chuckling, she looked up at Coop who rolled his eyes, but he was grinning though, "that's your fave, isn't it. You be good?"

When he nodded, Freya emerged, ready to join her.

Before they left she finally sent a reply to Oscar.

"I'm not ignoring you; I've just had a hectic day. We don't need to talk; we just need to get on with things. Honestly, it's all good."

She just had to hope that he agreed with her, there was no other option. Then another message pinged on her phone.

"Breakfast, tomorrow. Just me and you. It's all arranged."

She groaned, life had become a soap opera and she had no way of stopping it.