Was it the programme he was looking forward to? he wondered. Or seeing the emotions flit across Maggie’s face?
Chapter Seven
A week later, Maggie opened the car door for the girls, who dived inside.
‘It’s going to be a quiet Strictly Saturday tonight,’ she told them as she climbed into the driver’s seat. ‘Jack has taken Alice away for the weekend and Hannah just phoned to say she’s coming down with a cold, so she won’t be able to make it either.’
‘Will Rebecca be there?’ Penny asked, snapping her seat belt in place.
‘Yes, and Edward. Sarah’s offered to look after them for the weekend.’ Alice had been so chuffed when her husband had announced he was whisking her away for two days, without the kids. ‘I love them,’ she’d told Maggie excitedly, ‘but I’ll love them even more after this weekend.’
‘What about Seb?’ Tabby demanded.
Maggie didn’t like the way her heart reacted, just a little, at the mention of his name. ‘I don’t know.’ I hope not. Call her a coward, but she could do without another dose of him tonight. His offer to dance with her had been kind but also really, really embarrassing. He must have her down as some pathetic divorcee trying to recapture her pre-marriage youth.
‘If he is there, I’ll have to tell him to be quiet again.’ Tabby sniggered. ‘He’s funny. Last time he asked if people had to be orange to dance.’
‘What do you mean, orange?’ Penny asked, frowning.
Maggie glanced in the rear-view mirror and smiled as she saw Tabby shrug her shoulders. ‘Dunno. I said Mum can dance, and she’s not orange.’
‘I’m learning to dance,’ Maggie corrected, though she wasn’t sure how long that statement would remain true. ‘I think Seb was referring to the dancers having fake tans.’
‘What’s that?’ Tabby looked confused
‘It’s where they spray a lotion to make your skin look a shade browner, like you’ve been out in the sun. People think a tan is more attractive than pale skin.’ She glanced down at her hands as they rested on the steering room. Yep, there was skin that had barely seen the sun. Unlike Seb’s, which positively glowed, making him look healthy, vital. His eyes vivid.
God, no. She shook the image away. The man made her uncomfortable enough. She didn’t need to start thinking he was attractive.
Ten minutes later Maggie rang Sarah’s bell. Only it wasn’t Sarah who opened it. Of course it wasn’t. ‘Oh, hi.’
Seb, dressed casually tonight in faded jeans and a T-shirt with the words I’d rather be surfing, gave her an amused smile. ‘That’s the second time you’ve sounded less than enthusiastic to see me.’
‘It’s also the second time I’ve been expecting Sarah.’
‘Fair enough.’ He glanced down at the girls. ‘I’m afraid only Strictly Come Dancing fans are welcome here tonight.’
Tabby grinned. ‘That’s us.’
He nodded, as if considering. ‘But I only have your word for it. How about some proof. Name me one of the presenters.’
‘Tess Daly.’ Tabby rolled her eyes. ‘That was easy peasy.’
He smiled and opened the door wider. ‘Okay, young lady, you can go in.’ His gaze landed on Penny. ‘Umm, the climate change wizard needs a less easy peasy question. Let me think.’ He furrowed his brow, as if thinking very hard. ‘Name me not one, but two of the judges.’
Penny gave him a shy smile. ‘Craig Revel Horwood and Shirley Ballas.’
‘Is she the one in charge?’ When Penny nodded her head, he winked at her. ‘Excellent, in you go.’ Seb looked over Maggie’s shoulder. ‘Where’s Hannah?’
‘She can’t come tonight, she’s ill.’
‘Ah.’
She’d been enjoying the little diversion on the doorstep, admiring how effortlessly he talked to her daughters, but now she felt a twinge of unease. ‘Ah?’
He shifted awkwardly, and it was only then she realised he was barefoot. He caught her staring, and laughed softly. ‘You want to tell me to put some socks on.’
Was she that transparent? That boring? ‘It is November.’
‘Yeah, but where I’ve been living, it’s thirty degrees in November. Socks aren’t something I’m used to wearing. They feel too restricting.’ As if to emphasise the point, he wriggled his toes and, God help her, she watched.
‘Can we get back to the ah?’
‘Yes, right.’ He rested a hand on the door frame. ‘Sarah’s got to work late.’
Maggie’s heart plummeted. No Alice, no Sarah, no Hannah. No way could she stay. ‘That’s a shame. Don’t worry, I’ll grab the girls and we’ll be out of your way.’
‘What? Wait.’ He removed his hand from the door frame and raked it restlessly through his mane of shaggy blonde hair. ‘I promised Sarah I’d host. I’ve bought pizzas, as instructed. Lots of the ruddy things.’
She didn’t know where the ripple of panic came from. Only that it was there, and she needed to leave. ‘I’m sure you can enjoy them with Rebecca and Edward.’
‘I’m sure I can.’ He rested his arm back against the door frame, and those bright blue eyes unerringly found hers. ‘I’m also sure I can enjoy them with Penny and Tabby. And you.’
Now, alongside the panic, was a flash of heat.
‘So, can I tempt you to come in?’ He flashed his sexy-as-sin crooked smile. ‘I promise not to bite unless you ask me to.’
Maggie spluttered with laughter. She was being ridiculous, getting all flustered over nothing. Seb was Alice and Sarah’s younger brother. He was fun, entertaining, harmless company.
Nodding her head, she stepped inside.
She found Penny and Tabby larking around with Alice’s kids in the living room. A glance through the open doors to the kitchen revealed… okay, better not to look. She didn’t want to interfere.
‘I’ll stick the pizzas in now, shall I?’ Seb strolled past her into the kitchen. ‘Bugger, I forgot to put the oven on.’
‘Bugger’s not a nice word,’ Tabby announced.
Seb stilled and turned towards Tabby. ‘True, but your mum will be calling me worse words if the pizza isn’t ready in time for your programme.’
Maggie cringed. God, he must have her down as a total control freak.
‘Mum doesn’t say rude words.’
Seb glanced at Maggie and raised an eyebrow. Not just a control freak, but a squeaky clean head-girl type, too. The boring one. Damn it, she wasn’t though. She’d become weighed down with the responsibility of raising a family while trying to work. That Paul hadn’t been able to see past that. That instead of helping her, he’d chosen to ditch her for some young carefree model…
‘Maggie?’ Seb wondered where she’d disappeared to. She looked upset, no, more than that, she seemed angry.
But then she appeared to shake herself and wherever her mind had taken her, she was back, and her walls firmly intact. ‘I don’t swear in front of the girls.’
‘Ah, so you do let rip a juicy f-word sometimes?’
She smiled in that way he was starting to enjoy. A small, sort of surprised curve of the lips, as if she wasn’t sure why she was smiling, but couldn’t stop. ‘If the occasion warrants it, yes.’
Her gaze left his and flicked towards the kitchen, which, granted, looked like he’d tried to empty the contents of the entire place, blindfolded.
‘Bet you’d let one rip now if that was your kitchen, eh?’
This time she laughed. A gentle sound, but it crinkled her eyes and made him feel ten foot tall. ‘Quite possibly.’
‘In my defence, I haven’t learned where everything goes yet. Plus I’d only just got home when you arrived. Sarah warned me you were always on time, but Becca and Eds dawdled after their swimming lessons, though it’s fair to say the stop for an ice-cream hadn’t been strictly necessary.’ He grinned. ‘Strictly… see, I’m getting into the mood of the evening already.’
Another bout of soft laughter. ‘Glad to hear it. Do you want a hand in there?’
&nb
sp; ‘No, no, I’ve got it.’ When she gave him a sceptical glance, he grinned. ‘What you see is organised chaos. There’s a difference.’ He gave her another study, noting her hair was loose tonight, falling in a curly wave around her shoulders. With that, the dark jeans and the same black sequinned top he’d seen her wear for previous Strictly nights, she looked both unshowy and strikingly attractive. ‘Then again, if you want to help, I’m not about to stop you.’
‘Maybe I could sort out some drinks?’
Damn, he was a crap host. ‘That’d be great, thanks.’
‘So, how are you settling in?’ she asked as she went straight to the right cupboard to find the glasses. ‘You don’t seem short of friends to go out with.’
He gave her a quizzical look. ‘I don’t?’
Her eyes were focused on pouring the orange juice. ‘Alice said you were going on to a club last weekend after Strictly.’
His mind skipped back to last Saturday. Was Maggie interested? Or was she making conversation? ‘I went with a few of the guys I used to go to school with. One of their sisters gave me a lift.’ For some reason he found himself willing her to ask more, and was disappointed when she simply smiled and nodded to the juice, indicating she’d take it out to the kids.
‘How about you?’ he asked when she came back. ‘What do you do for entertainment, aside from watching Strictly Come Dancing?’
‘Entertainment?’ She said the word as if it was foreign. ‘I’m nearly forty, and a single mum. Entertainment for me is being in bed at ten o’clock with a good book.’
He wanted to say she was thirty-seven, not seventy-three. That she was in her prime. And having kids didn’t mean she had to put her own life on hold. The words died on his lips though as the opening sounds of the Strictly theme tune reverberated round the house.
Maggie disappeared out of the kitchen faster than Bruno doing a quick step.
See, he was learning something from these Saturday evenings.
He made it in with the pizzas just in time to hear the opening announcement. ‘Tonight, the couples all dare to dream of a seaside resort two hundred miles north of here.’
‘North of here?’ he repeated. ‘Who on earth dreams of a seaside resort that’s not sunny?’
Tabby shook her head at him, as he’d kind of hoped she would. ‘They don’t want to go to the beach, silly. They want to dance in Blackpool.’
‘Ah.’ He placed the tower of pizza on the coffee table, wondering if he should have put a mat down first. Then realised even if he could be bothered, he didn’t know where they were. ‘Well, I can see why they don’t want to go to the beach there. The golden mile might be a mile, but it sure as hell… heck isn’t golden.’
‘Shh.’ His niece gave him an admonishing look.
‘You have to be a mouse again.’ Tabby grinned adorably at him.
Chuckling, he grabbed a slice of pizza and sat on the vacant armchair. ‘I’ll nibble on my pizza in silence,’ he promised.
And stuck to it, in the main.
He’d cooked too many pizzas and made way too much salad. Blame it on the fact that he’d forgotten, or maybe never consciously twigged, that kids didn’t eat as much as grown-ups, women tended to eat less than guys, and nobody really wanted the green stuff, given the choice.
As the closing credits flashed up on the screen, Maggie looked over at her girls. ‘I’m just going to help Seb clear away and then it’s time to go.’
Seb watched as she began to pick up the plates. Clearly his guest was in a hurry to leave, which didn’t say a lot for his hosting skills. Or his ability to entertain a woman considerably smarter and classier than he was.
‘Can’t we stay for a bit?’ Penny gave Maggie a beseeching look that Seb wouldn’t have been able to refuse. ‘Rebecca wants us to play her new marble run game.’
Maggie glanced at him, and he wasn’t sure from her expression whether she was hoping he’d turf them out, or encourage them to stay. ‘You can hang here as long as you like. Sarah will probably be back soon,’ he added, figuring it might push Maggie into staying for a while, and yes, he wanted that. A little bit of time, just the two of them, to see if he could nudge at that wall of hers. The one he wasn’t sure was permanent, or if she just put up when she was around him.
‘Okay, but not too long,’ she warned. ‘Just while we clear up.’
All of them dashed up the stairs and Seb grabbed a few empty glasses before going to join Maggie in the kitchen where she was meticulously rinsing plates under the tap before stacking them neatly in the dishwasher. The desire to rumple her, to turn the neat and tidy into a flustered, uninhibited mess, caught him by the throat. Shit, he really was developing a crush on his sisters’ friend.
‘How was the dance class?’ he asked, needing to divert his thoughts. ‘Any taller men come forward?’
Her attention remained on loading the dishwasher. ‘It was fine.’
‘You’re going to keep going then?’
‘I’m not sure. I’ve paid up until Christmas, but, well, we’ll see.’
Her lack of eye contact was beginning to frustrate him. ‘Where is it held?’ That got her attention. Her head snapped up so fast he had to laugh. ‘Hey, I’m not planning on going to watch.’ Though actually, now he’d said it, the thought held a lot of appeal. ‘I was just making conversation. I imagine these classes are held in some dreary hall with zero atmosphere.’
She gave him a tight smile. ‘You’re right.’ She named the town, one over from theirs. ‘It’s a long way from the Tower ballroom at Blackpool.’
‘Have you ever been?’
‘No, well, not to dance, anyway. Paul and I drove along the prom once on our way to the Lake District, but he refused to stop. Said it was too tacky.’
‘True.’ Seb grinned. ‘But they say that’s part of its charm. And you can’t deny a place that has the tallest rollercoaster in the UK.’
She screwed up her face. ‘You’d never get me on there.’
He wasn’t sure whether it was the emphatic way she said it, or just this ridiculous crush raising its head again, but he took a step towards her, one hand on the work surface, the other on the island, almost trapping her where she was. ‘Is that a dare?’
Her eyes widened, the grey looking less cool now, more… turbulent. He wondered if her pulse was racing as fast as his. If she was feeling the air between them crackle, as he was.
Wondered too, if the way her eyes darted to his mouth, and then away again, was a sign that she was thinking what it would be like to kiss him.
Because in that moment, it was all he could think of. Would her lips feel as soft as they looked? If he leant forward, if he pressed his mouth against hers, would she melt? Could he lower some of those walls, relax some of that stiffness? Or would she slap him round the face?
He’d never know, because at that moment the front door opened.
‘I’m back,’ Sarah called from the hallway. ‘What did I miss?’
Me nearly kissing your friend. ‘A bit of dancing. A lot of pizza,’ he shouted back, turning to give Maggie a wry smile. She wasn’t looking at him though. Her head was bent as she slowly, and with seemingly rapt attention, wiped her hands on the tea towel.
‘There you are.’ Sarah appeared in the doorway and glanced between him and Maggie, the question in her eyes making it clear he wasn’t the only one aware of the tension in the room.
‘I didn’t realise we were playing hide and seek,’ he answered, figuring sarcasm was his best route out. ‘I’d have chosen a better spot.’
Sarah ignored him and turned her attention to Maggie, who’d finally put the towel down. ‘I’m sorry I’m so late. I hope Seb looked after you properly.’
Was it his imagination, or did Maggie look less composed than usual? ‘He did. The pizzas were plentiful and only a few minutes behind schedule.’
Sarah laughed and grabbed Maggie’s hand. ‘Well, I’m glad to hear it. And I hope you’re not planning on dashing off just yet. I could rea
lly do with a big glass of wine, a few slices of that plentiful pizza, and a good chat with my friend.’
Seb cleared his throat. ‘What about your brother?’
Sarah looked pointedly at the mess behind him. ‘He can finish off tidying up, and then check on the little people he’s supposed to be looking after.’
Thanks, sis.
As he listened to the faint hum of female voices in the other room a few moments later, he couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if Sarah hadn’t come back. Would he have dared to kiss Maggie? Would she have let him?
With a resigned sigh he finished emptying the bin, and then trudged upstairs to play marble run.
Chapter Eight
Monday morning and Maggie was in a bind. Hannah had phoned an hour ago, and it had been clear from her voice, and from the constant coughing, she was still in the grip of the virus she’d caught. Though she’d offered to take the girls if Maggie was stuck, Maggie had told her not to worry, she’d manage. All Hannah needed to do was focus on getting better.
It had been easy to say, but now she was having a mild panic. She could drop the girls off to school early – yep, that idea had gone down well – and, traffic willing, just about make it in time for her first patient. But she couldn’t pick Penny and Tabby up.
Sarah was working. Alice was working, and her two children were being picked up by Jack’s mother. There was no way Maggie could foist another two onto the seventy-year-old.
Of course Maggie knew of one person who wasn’t working. A guy her girls seemed to like, probably because he acted like a big kid himself, but who she sensed, deep down, was far more responsible than he let on. Why else would he come back to England to help out his family? Still, she really didn’t want to phone him.
Her belly gave a long, slow flip. God, they’d nearly kissed on Saturday night.
Even now, knee deep in Monday morning stress, her mind kept darting back, replaying every vivid moment. Seb’s husky-voiced question, Is that a dare? Delivered with a sexy smirk. The way he’d moved towards her, caging her in with his tall, athletic, sun-kissed body. Never had she been so aware of a man before; his fresh, outdoor smell, the incredible blue of his eyes. The sensuous curve of his lips and the heat of his body. All that young, virile maleness.
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