A knowing gleam appeared in his eyes, but he nodded at me before winking at Heidi. “I’ll see you around.”
A tiny frown appeared between her brows. “What was that all about?”
“The wink?”
“Yes.” Realisation flashed in her eyes. “Never mind. It’s none of my business. So, the jumping castle. Do you still want one? Because I thought it might be too dangerous. The tents are a good idea, though. What do think about mac and cheese for the kids for dinner? They can have cheese for dinner before they go to bed, right? Because—”
I reached out and wrapped my fingers gently around her palm. “What’s going on, Heidi?”
Her eyes went wide before they dropped to my hand on hers. I let her go instantly, stepping a respectful distance away from her. Strangely, her hand twitched almost like she wanted to reach for me.
She didn’t.
With a soft sigh, she planted both her hands on her hips instead. “Let’s be honest. You already know what’s going on. Do you really want to talk about it?”
I shrugged, bringing a hand up to drag it through my hair. “Why not? We still have about a month together and it doesn’t need to be this weird. Also, of course kids can have cheese for dinner.”
The corners of her lips twitched, and then her shoulders came down. “Fair enough. I was being weird. I’m sorry. I’m not very well versed in the one-night-stand culture.”
“Neither am I,” I said, watching as her eyes became disbelieving. “Okay, the one-night stand maybe, but not what comes after. The one-night thing kind of usually ensures that there is no after.”
“Good point.” Her pink tongue darted out to lick her lips. “So what do we do now?”
“We clear the air,” I said. “We slept together. Would you like to talk about it?”
“No.” She looked mortified by the mere question. “I’m all good, thanks.”
“So am I.” I didn’t want to talk about it, but I sure as shit wanted to do it again. “Can we just agree not to discuss what happened then?”
“Sure. We’ll keep it professional.”
Damn it. “We are at work, so no worries there.”
“Great.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, so kids can have cheese before going to sleep. We still need to address everything else I said, though.”
“Yes.” I smiled and started walking to a part of the railing that was shaded by a large tree in a pot. “There were a couple of other things I wanted to discuss with you, too.”
For the rest of our meeting, I kept things as professional as promised. By the end of it, we’d actually been pretty productive and I thought we both had a good idea of what would be expected of each of us to do next.
I walked Heidi downstairs and had to suppress the urge to put my hand on her back or touch her at all while we walked. When we reached the reception area, she turned to face me. “I’ll send you an email outlining everything we talked about so we can make sure we’re on the same page. If I misunderstood anything, just let me know.”
“Will do,” I said, then gave in to the urge just a tiny little bit when I reached out to catch her shoulder to stop her from turning away from me. “I’m going to take Millie ice skating on Saturday. Do you want to come with us?”
Her dark eyebrows jumped. “Going ice skating with you and your daughter isn’t very professional.”
“It’s a Saturday,” I said, a soft smirk forming on my lips when I realised it was the same words I’d said to her last weekend. “No work on a Saturday, remember?”
“I remember.” Her hazel eyes searched mine for a moment. Then she gave me another beautiful smile. “Okay, I’ll come with you. No work on a Saturday, after all.”
Chapter 18
Heidi
“We need these.” Bonnie plucked a small box of fairy lights off the shelf and frowned at it. “We’re going to need a lot of these.”
I nodded at our half-filled trolley. “I’m going to go get another one. You’re right. We’re going to need a lot of those.”
When I returned and we’d stacked one of the trolleys full of different kinds of lights, we headed off down the aisle. “We’re also going to need a lot of cable ties to put these up. I think they were down that way.”
“Do you want to grab the batteries first? They’re at the end of this aisle.”
I nodded and reached into my pocket to take out the shopping list I’d made for the day. Unfolding it, I used the pen I’d hooked to the strap of my dress earlier to tick off the items we already had. “We’re going to need a lot more of these trips before Archer’s party. That space is huge. Every time I think of how much it’s going to take to make it look like anything, I feel like fainting.”
“Like that’s the only reason you feel like fainting when you think of him.” She fanned her face with a wide grin. “Speaking of which, did something happen at your meeting yesterday? You’re a lot more relaxed than you have been all week. It makes me wonder if he helped you out with all that stress you were carrying around.”
I waved her off, the corners of my lips pressing in. “It was nothing like that. Keep it in your pants, would you?”
“Oh, it’s in my pants all right. We’re talking about you here, not me. And you happen to have had an encounter with a man I’d happily have taken it out of my pants for over and over again. All I want to know is if you did or not.”
“Everything remained firmly in everyone’s pants. Thank you very much.” I stopped beside the shelf with the batteries hanging on it and checked which kinds we needed before I started loading up. “Maybe it should have been you who hooked up with him after all. I’m sure you’d have had more interesting stories to tell about the meetings afterwards.”
And yet, despite the offhandedness of my comment, a pang of jealousy shot through my gut when I even thought about Bonnie being with Archer. Even though technically, she had seen him first.
I hadn’t considered that before, but she beat me to the punch with a loud snort.
“Yeah, right. I never stood any chance with that man. Even at our first meeting when he was being such an arse, you were the only one he had eyes for.”
“He did not have eyes for me then,” I argued, though I couldn’t say the same for myself. That first time I saw him, I’d definitely been instantly attracted to him. I didn’t blame myself, though. The man was hot as fuck. Anyone with eyes and a vague interest in men would have been attracted to him if they ever saw him.
“You were too busy standing up to him to notice how thoroughly he eye-fucked you. But trust me. I would have needed a cigarette after that if I smoked and I wasn’t even involved.”
“He was probably just checking out the competition.” While I talked, I counted the batteries I’d already taken and deciding that it was enough for now, slowly started moving.
Bonnie pushed her trolley right next to mine, stopping every so often to grab something she either knew we needed or thought we could use from the shelf.
“You weren’t competition yet, then,” she said. “It started as soon as we walked in. Before he’d even snapped at us that first time. The two of you had some serious chemistry going on. That’s all I’m saying. Call it lust at first sight, but it was definitely there.”
“So you’re not pissed off at me about it? You did say he’d be praying for a break if you ever got your hands on him.”
She laughed and waved her hands in front of her chest. “The same way people say that if they ever meet their favourite celebrity, they’d have a pass for cheating on their spouses. It’s not something that’s actually going to happen. I wasn’t ever really going to get with him. You, on the other hand, he was clearly interested in right from the start.”
“Maybe or maybe not.” I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter either way because it’s not going to happen again. We talked about it, sort of, and decided to keep things strictly professional from now on.”
Bonnie harrumphed. “I’m sure he didn’t make any moves whatsoev
er. Just let it go and shook your hand afterwards.”
“He didn’t shake my hand,” I admitted, then thought about the fact that we’d also sort of made a date for the weekend. “He didn’t make any moves either, but he did invite me to go ice skating with him and his daughter tomorrow.”
She stopped walked abruptly, both of her eyebrows sitting high on her forehead when I turned to face her. “You didn’t think you should have led with that? I mean, what kind of business will be talked at the ice-skating rink? That’s not exactly keeping it strictly professional.”
“I know.” I sighed, my voice coming out smaller now. “But it’s a Saturday. There’s no work on a Saturday.”
She laughed. “You always work on a Saturday. Okay, maybe not always but often.”
“Okay, okay.” I put my hands up in surrender. “That’s true but not this Saturday.”
“So is this a date then?” Her green eyes brightened. “And if so, why the hell are we buying things for his party and not an outfit for the date you have with him tomorrow? The party’s still almost a month away. We have plenty of time to shop for it but much less to shop before tomorrow.”
“I don’t think it’s a date.” Even though I’d found myself wondering the same thing, which was why I’d settled on calling it a “kind-of date” in my head. “His daughter will be there. I don’t think you can call it a date if you have a chaperone who’s under ten.”
“On the contrary, my dear friend,” Bonnie said, and I laughed at the pretend British accent she’d put on for those six words. “It’s much more intimate if he’s taking his daughter with you. It means much more than asking you to meet him at a hotel room for a quickie or something, for example.”
I rolled my eyes, but she wasn’t completely wrong. “Do you really think it means something?”
She nodded. “I know I was giving you a hard time about it before, but I do think it means something. The question is what, if anything, you want it to mean.”
My teeth sank into my lip. “I haven’t really thought about it. You know that I’m not looking for a relationship right now or anything else that’s serious. But on the other hand, I’m not opposed to giving it a try if the right man comes along while I’m not looking.”
“Well,” she said, planting her hands on her hips and fixing me with her most serious stare. There was still laughter in her eyes, though. “If there is a man to trap if you can, it’s him. Get to all that money and some of that fine arse in the meantime.”
“I’m not looking to trap anyone.” A shudder ran through me at the mere thought of it. “Frankly, I’m not interested in his money at all. That’s not what I meant when I said that I wouldn’t be opposed to getting involved with someone if they were the right someone.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “I was just saying. That man has a lot going for him. If there’s someone to lure in and keep with you, it’s him.”
“It doesn’t matter how you phrase it.” I smiled at her attempt. “I still don’t want to trap anyone.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, lowering her eyelid for a quick wink. “But it’s still a date, and in my humble opinion, it’s a date that might mean something more than just someone he’s trying to butter up for casual sex.”
“I think I’m just going to go into it with an open mind, have fun with them and see what happens.”
“Sure, sure.” Excitement made her gaze light up. “You can go into it with an open mind, but you’re not going into it with a completely open body. That would be inappropriate, considering that there will be children around you. As such, you need an outfit. Which means it’s time for us to go shopping for something other than party supplies.”
I laughed but allowed her to drag me to the front to pay. As we were loading up my car, my phone pinged with an incoming message.
When I pulled it out of my handbag, my heart stuttered at the name of the sender.
Archer: Millie and I are excited about ice skating tomorrow.
A smile came to my lips unbidden at the simple message. It wasn’t a grand declaration of love or an assurance that everything would work out okay, but somehow, it was exactly what I’d needed.
They were looking forward to it, to seeing me. Truth be told, I was looking forward to seeing them, too, and I tapped out a quick reply to tell him so. It was only fair.
Me: Also looking forward to it. See you tomorrow.
Chapter 19
Archer
Millie sat in her seat in the SUV, and despite the tight straps keeping her from bouncing properly, she seemed to be hopping up and down anyway. Excitement radiated from her light blue eyes, so bright it was like I could see the entire universe in them.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her as excited as she was now, to pick Heidi up for ice skating. I didn’t really know whether it was the ice skating or Heidi causing the extreme excitement, but it was nice to see either way.
“Do you think she’ll have dinner with us after?” Millie asked as we stopped outside of the building Heidi had texted me the address of.
It was in a nice part of the city, if not as nice as where we lived. A safe neighbourhood, though I didn’t know why the knowledge of Heidi living in a place like that made me feel calmer.
“I didn’t ask her yet, but we can.” I parked in an empty spot and pulled up the handbrake, opening the door when I saw Heidi walking out of the building.
Climbing out of the SUV, I smiled at her and, not wanting to leave Millie alone, stayed next to it while I waited until Heidi was close enough. “How did you know this was us?”
She shrugged, but I saw the smirk playing on her lips. “It was an educated guess. That’s probably the most expensive car that’s been on this street since I came downstairs to wait a few minutes ago. But also, I saw you getting into it after lunch the other day.”
I opened my mouth to reply but heard the window behind me being buzzed open. Millie stuck her head out of it and waved frantically. “Hi, Heidi. I’m so glad you could come with us today. It’s going to be so much fun. I went skating for a friend’s birthday party, and I fell, but I wasn’t very sore.”
“I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself.” Heidi’s entire demeanour seemed to soften whenever Millie was around. Her smirk melted into a genuinely warm smile, and her eyes went all gentle.
For some reason, more than just my dick stirred at the sight of her when she was like this. My dick stirring around her was something I was used to by now, but the other parts of me? Not so much.
My stomach felt weird and whatever it was doing spread upwards, making it feel like my heart was beating out of my chest. I hope I’m not getting sick.
Deep down inside, I knew that I wasn’t. But I didn’t want to think very hard about any other reasons for feeling the way I did. Which was anything at all for this woman.
Thankfully, Millie’s continued chattering pulled me back into their conversation and I didn’t have to think anymore. “Can Heidi sit in the back with me, Daddy? Please.”
“That’s up to Heidi,” I said, shooting her an apologetic glance. “She can if she wants to, but adults usually sit up front. There’s more legroom.”
“I’d love to sit with you, Millie” Heidi said as she flashed me a smile that made the weird feeling in my stomach and chest spread to my knees now too. “My legs aren’t that long, anyway. I’ll be fine in the back.”
Some of the manners my mum had instilled in me were still rattling around somewhere inside because I found myself reaching for the door handle and opening it for her. “If you change your mind, just tell me. I can always pull over.”
She waved me off. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
By the time I’d closed the door and was settled in the driver’s seat, Millie hadn’t stopped talking to Heidi. “At Jamie’s party, that’s my friend’s name, the one whose party we went ice skating for? Anyway, at Jamie’s party, we all had to be fitted for skates and mine were too small.”
�
��Did you get a new pair?” Heidi asked, her gaze fixed firmly on my daughter as if she was telling the most interesting story Heidi had ever heard.
I switched on the SUV and pulled out into the road, but I wasn’t convinced either of the girls in the backseat had even noticed we were on the move.
Millie nodded with enthusiasm. “I did. Jamie’s mummy noticed I was walking funny and she took me back to the counter.” A sudden sadness seemed to dim her mood, a dead giveaway that she was lingering on the fact that Jamie’s mother had noticed her distress because her own wasn’t around to do it.
I tightened my grip on the wheel, about to jump in if she needed me. But then she fixed another bright smile on her face and carried on as though there hadn’t been any pause at all. It broke my heart that she was so used to feeling sad about not having her mother in her life that she could shake it off just like that.
But it was what it was. I’d done everything I could to get her mum to stay with us, but she hadn’t been remotely interested. A while back, I’d heard that she’d moved to Melbourne and was acting in small theatres there. It was her loss, really.
But Millie felt that loss intensely sometimes, too. Not that anyone would know it if they looked at her now. “They said I needed a bigger size and then I could walk and skate.”
“We’ll have to make sure we get you the right size today,” Heidi said. “For us, too. If the skates are too tight, it ruins everything.”
“Have you skated before?” Millie asked.
Heidi nodded. “A long time ago. Before I came to Australia was the last time.”
My ears perked up. I’d noticed her faint American accent, but I hadn’t asked her about it because neither of us had ventured into any territory that was too personal in our interactions thus far.
“Where did you come from?” my daughter asked, her eyes still only on Heidi.
“New York,” she said.
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