She, like he, couldn't help but noticed how well their hands fitted together.
"Jo, stop teaching my children that dreadful behaviour! It's bad enough you too still play about in that manner; don't bring it further upon my head, please." Meg led little Demi and Daisy off into the kitchen, sure to throw a few good glares over her shoulder at the two who were using their weight to balance as they leaned in the opposite direction.
Laurie laughed and stood up straight, making Jo lose her balance and fall to the ground in a loud heap.
"You big oaf, why didn't you say you were going to stop leaning!?" she asked, thumping his helping arm with a smile. Laurie hauled her back up and rubbed his arm in mock pain.
"Well I would have if I'd known you were going to hit me, Jo. 'Honestly, some people never grow up'!" he imitated Meg's voice causing Jo to double over in laughter. She'd not had a good laugh in so long.
"Indeed." Amy said quietly from her corner before she nodded to the Professor who was watching Jo with tired eyes, and went outside.
…
"Amy, Amy!" Laurie panted after his wife. The woman had quite a stride! "What's wrong?" he stopped in front of her, holding her arms to halt her pace. Red-faced Amy glared at him through her blonde lashes.
"You Theodore Laurence are an incorrigible flirt! Jo's your sister and you insist on playing her little fool!"
He stepped back from the woman's spit-fire anger, wondering what had changed his wife so. "I beg your pardon?"
"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" She threw her hands up, and found it hard to swallow the words she'd never say, "You both pretend to be so oblivious of the whole idea and yet you're both oblivious to the rest of us. Me, your wife! Her Professor!"
Laurie watched her, dumbfounded. What exactly could he say to her very real fears?
"I hate this!" She lowered her voice and stepped back too, feeling that the larger gap between them could cool her. "I despise you."
He cringed and shut his eyes against the flood of memories that came with her quiet words. He had been so passionate and so morose before she touched him with her icy finger, muddling him with calm when he should have been hot and angry with the world and with Jo. And oh, he could feel himself returning.
If Amy had stayed polite and distant both times they might never have made this mess.