Strictly Come Dating (The Kathryn Freeman Romcom Collection, Book 3)

by Kathryn Freeman

  Tugging her hand, he eased her down onto the sofa next to him. ‘Are you working tomorrow?’

  ‘Yes. Hannah’s coming round at eight.’

  With any other woman he wouldn’t be this hesitant, he realised. Then again, the answer had never mattered so much. ‘Can I stay tonight?’ He picked up her hand, holding it against his chest where his heart pumped loud and fast. ‘I promise to be gone before Hannah arrives.’

  Her body stilled, and he swore he could see the cogs of her mind working out how to let him down gently. ‘It’s not that, not so much. And it isn’t that I don’t want you to.’ She raised her eyes to his, and he could see how conflicted she felt. ‘It just doesn’t feel right, not with the girls here. Not when this is so new between us. And before you say it, I know you stayed the other night, but…’

  ‘That wasn’t planned,’ he finished for her when she trailed off, remembering how lost with grief he’d been, and how generously she’d taken him in. Inhaling a deep breath, he planted a kiss against her hair. ‘I understand.’ And he did, it’s just his body was taking a while to catch up. ‘What about if we kiss for a while? You can boot me out as soon as you get bored.’

  She laughed, which was a flaming relief because if kissing him really did bore her, he might as well quit now and become a monk.

  As she snuggled against him, he began to plant a leisurely pattern of kisses all over her face, before finally touching her mouth with his. And that’s when the concept of leisurely got blown out of the water. He loved to kiss, he could do it for hours with the right person, and Maggie was most definitely the right person. But settling for kissing after two hours of rumba foreplay… it was bloody hard. And yes, he meant that in every way possible.

  Groaning, he shifted so she was on top of him, arranging them so her core rubbed against the part of him that ached and throbbed.

  ‘I want… I need…’ She wriggled over him, sending his blood to boiling point.

  ‘What?’ he gasped, wondering how far he was from totally embarrassing himself.

  ‘I need more.’

  Eyeing up the throw, he dragged it over them. Just in case young eyes wandered downstairs. Then he trailed his hand down to the zipper of her jeans. ‘I can give you more.’ She moaned as his fingers found her heat and then, before he knew what was happening, her hands were diving into his boxers. ‘Christ, Mags, if you touch me I’m going to go off like a rocket.’

  Her laughter was muffled against his neck. ‘There you go with the fireworks analogy again.’

  He couldn’t reply, because he was seeing stars in front of his eyes. Moments later, they both moaned together, finding their release.

  ‘I’ve not done that since I was seventeen,’ he told her once his breathing was under control enough to actually talk.

  She reached up to kiss his cheek. ‘I’ve not done that ever.’

  ‘Not made out on a sofa?’ he asked incredulously.

  ‘Oh, I’ve done that. Just not, you know.’

  ‘Finished with a happy ending?’

  She let out a strangled laugh and curled up tighter against him. ‘We must do that again sometime.’

  ‘Well, give me ten minutes.’ When she rolled her eyes, he gave her a cocky smile. ‘Hey, recovery time is just one of the benefits of going out with a younger man.’

  He felt her smile against his skin. ‘And the other benefits?’

  Ah. Now his cockiness looked woefully misplaced. He couldn’t offer her fancy gifts, luxury weekends away, expensive restaurants. Maybe Maggie didn’t want any of that, but she deserved it. Deserved far more than he could offer. ‘I’m still working on that.’

  He didn’t know whether she’d heard his reply, because when he checked on her, he found her eyes closed, and her breathing rhythmic. Kissing the top of her head, he tightened his arms around her. He’d carry her up to bed, but not just yet. For now, he needed to hold her for a while.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It was the first Saturday of the New Year, and they’d woken to a blanket of fresh white snow. The girls were beside themselves, but all Maggie could think was how much more difficult the grocery shop was going to be. With the hectic pace at work, and the way days seemed to blur between Christmas and New Year, she’d somehow managed to miss the slot for doing her usual online order.

  And okay, maybe seeing Seb again had helped to blur the days too.

  Fact was, she had no food in the house.

  ‘Sorry girls, we’re going to have to go to the supermarket.’

  Their faces fell. ‘Can’t we build a snowman?’

  ‘Maybe later, but we need to get Penny a new pair of school shoes too. You start back next week.’

  The doorbell rang as they were putting on their coats. Distractedly, Maggie went to answer it, only to find Seb on the doorstep, grinning widely.

  ‘Hey.’ His eyes ran up and down her big puffy jacket, and her woolly hat. ‘That’s a good look on you.’

  Her insides fluttered, not so much at the words – he had to be kidding – but the hungry way he looked at her. ‘And that’s flattery gone mad.’

  He shook his head, eyes flirting. ‘It’s true a bin liner would look good on you, but seriously, I like the hat. It also happens to be perfect for what I had in mind.’

  ‘Oh?’

  The girls came to the door, and Tabby lost no time in opening her mouth. ‘Hi Seb, it’s snowing but we have to get food.’

  ‘What, and miss all this amazing tobogganing material?’

  Tabby’s eyes rounded, but it was Penny who spoke, her voice filled with awe. ‘Are you going tobogganing?’

  He waved towards his car, and it was only then Maggie realised there were two wooden toboggans strapped precariously onto the roof. ‘No, Penny, we’re going tobogganing.’

  ‘Bogganing, yay!’ Tabby squealed.

  They all looked so happy about the prospect, and Maggie wanted to join in, but all she could see was an empty fridge. Penny cramming her feet into shoes that had split the last day of term.

  ‘Sorry, but we can’t go today. We need to buy food and a pair of school shoes for Penny.’ The girls gave her a look laden with disappointment and edged with annoyance. Immediately Maggie had a flashback to her childhood. Emily giving her the same dark look when she’d told her she couldn’t go to the party their parents had banned her from, just before they’d buggered off, leaving Maggie to ‘watch her sister’.

  Seb, blonde hair trailing beneath the beanie on his head, eyes a vivid blue against the white backdrop, flashed her one of his lazy smiles. ‘Come on, Mags, food and shoes can be bought any time. How many days can we dust off the toboggans in this country?’ He turned to Penny. ‘What do you reckon? Tobogganing or buying a pair of school shoes?’

  ‘I’ve never been tobogganing,’ Penny stated quietly.

  Maggie felt a dart of shame. Nine years old and her parents had never found the time to take her tobogganing? Yet it was easy for Seb to turn up and promise fun. She had practical issues to sort out. ‘Girls, go back inside for a minute please. I want to talk to Seb alone.’

  Their shoulders drooped as they trudged back down the hallway, and Maggie’s guilt turned to anger. ‘Sorry, but you can’t just turn up like this, Seb.’ She waved at the toboggans on the roof rack. ‘Why didn’t you phone me first? We have plans, things we need to do.’

  ‘I wanted to surprise you.’ His eyes skimmed her face, and she could read every ounce of the disappointment he felt. ‘I thought the girls would enjoy it.’ He sighed, shifting on his feet. ‘I thought we all would.’

  Oh God, when he said it like that, when he looked at her like that – the cocker spaniel pup who didn’t know what it had done wrong – the gap between them seemed like a chasm. Not just age, but outlook. ‘It would have been fun, if you’d phoned first, if we’d planned it around the things I need to do today.’ She looked him straight in the eye. ‘If you hadn’t put Penny on the spot like that, but talked to me, instead.’


  His shoulders fell, and the wounded look in his eyes intensified. Dragging the beanie off his head, he sighed. ‘I guess I didn’t think. I saw the snow, and wanted to enjoy it with you.’ Nodding, he took a step back. ‘No worries. Say sorry to the girls.’ Another step away. ‘I’ll see you soon.’

  He half jogged back to his car, despite the snow which surely most adults would be cautious about slipping on. And he didn’t look back at her once he’d opened the door, just ducked straight inside.

  Her heart felt heavy as she closed the front door. She’d upset him, yet he’d upset her, too. This is what happened when you had two people with vastly different views on life. Paul, for all his faults, had never sprung anything on her.

  Then again, he’d never said things like I wanted to surprise you or I wanted to enjoy the day with you.

  Tears welled in her eyes as she recalled Seb’s sweet words. They started to overflow when she thought of him racing around this morning, finding the toboggans and then strapping them to the roof of his car. Turning up to her house all excited and eager to see them, heck, to please them.

  A band tightened around her chest, and Maggie sagged against the wall. Her girls were disappointed, Seb was hurt, and for what? Because she wasn’t prepared to be flexible?

  She hung her head, wiping her wet cheeks with the back of her hand. Sometimes she was every mean, angry word Paul had thrown at her: controlling, boring, irritating. It was beyond galling to have to admit it. And it was damn well going to change.

  Seb cursed as he parked back outside Alice’s house and turned off the engine. What a way to spend a morning. Wake to find snow – fan-bloody-tastic. Knock on his mum’s bedroom door – yes, somehow he’d become a twenty-seven-year-old living with his mum – to locate their old toboggans, only to be told she’d given them to one of his sisters, she couldn’t remember who. Drive to Sarah’s, only to find that Alice had them. Annoy Alice by forcing her out of bed too early on a Saturday – her words – to try and find said toboggans in amongst the absolute shite that filled her garage.

  ‘I know, I know. We’ll clear it out one day.’ A gleam had entered her eyes. ‘I don’t suppose you’d fancy doing it in exchange for the loan of the toboggans?’

  He’d looked at her scathingly. ‘You’re proposing to effectively charge me for giving Tabby and Penny a go on our toboggans?’

  She’d grumbled something along the lines of him not playing fair, and using the girls to win brownie points with the mother, at which point he’d had to shut her up.

  ‘I’m not just doing this for the girls, you dummy. I’m doing it for Maggie. She’ll love it.’

  Only it turns out Maggie didn’t love it, or if she did, she didn’t love the way he’d gone about it.

  And now he had two toboggans and nobody to enjoy them with.

  When he knocked on Alice’s door, she answered still in her pyjamas.

  ‘I’m making myself a coffee because apparently I’m awake now, thanks to some pain in the arse who woke me up at stupid o’clock on a Saturday.’ She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What are you doing back here. Were they out?’

  ‘Nope.’ He stepped inside, threw his hat onto the hook and peeled off his coat.

  It might have been his tone, or what she read on his face, which apparently he’d never been able to really mask. Either way, her expression turned from griping to concerned. ‘She didn’t want to go?’

  He sloped into the kitchen, dragged out a bar stool and slid onto it. ‘She didn’t like being surprised.’

  ‘Ah.’ Alice winced, sitting down opposite him. ‘You didn’t message her first?’ She shook her head. ‘Of course you didn’t, because you’re a single guy who does what he likes, when he likes.’

  He wanted to say that was unfair, but for too much of his life it had been true. ‘I ballsed up.’

  She smiled sympathetically at him. ‘We all do that from time to time, even me. Thankfully you’ll discover Maggie is very forgiving.’

  ‘If we’re to stand a chance, she’ll have to be.’

  ‘This thing between you, is it getting serious?’

  He was at a loss to verbalise his muddled thoughts. ‘We’ve only been together a few weeks, and most of that we spent apart over Christmas, so no, I wouldn’t say it’s serious.’ He shuffled on the chair, something not right about what he’d just said. ‘Do I think it could become serious? Well, put it this way, it’s been weeks since I went online, researching flights to Oz, or places I might want to go to next.’ He shrugged. ‘Could be because I don’t want to leave you guys and Mum yet.’

  ‘Or it could be because you don’t want to leave Maggie.’

  He was saved a reply, when his phone beeped with a message.

  Apparently shoe shops open on Sundays. Groceries I’ve ordered online. Just need to get essentials to last us till they come. Could do that on the way back from whatever hill you’ve earmarked us to hurtle down. M xx

  As a huge smile split his face, he received another message.

  The hurtle was a joke. M xx

  And then as he started to laugh, a final message.

  At least I hope it was. M xx

  ‘Something tells me you might be taking those ruddy death-traps out after all.’

  Seb glanced up to find his sister smiling at him. ‘Yep, looks like I am.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad I didn’t get woken at dawn for nothing then.’

  Feeling like he’d just navigated a precarious ledge, Seb bent and gave Alice a smacker of a kiss on her cheek. ‘It was eight thirty, sis. Doesn’t the early bird catch the fat, juicy worm?’

  ‘Go and take your too happy arse out of here and back to where it’s appreciated.’

  ‘You think she likes my arse?’

  Alice gave it a stinging slap. ‘Out of here. Let me enjoy my Saturday morning, my long Saturday morning, in peace.’

  The girls loved haring down the slope every bit as much as he’d hoped.

  And if he wasn’t mistaken, there was an extra sparkle in their mother’s clear grey eyes.

  So far they’d tried most combinations: Seb with Penny, Seb with Tabby, Maggie with Penny, Maggie with Tabby.

  Now, standing at the top of the gentle slope, Seb wound an arm around Maggie’s waist and whispered in her ear. ‘Are you ready to go down with me?’

  She looked up at him. ‘You did say with you, yes?’

  He chuckled, kissing her nose. ‘Surrounded by all this pure white snow, and your mind is in the gutter? Shame on you.’

  ‘It isn’t usually,’ she muttered. ‘You must be having a bad effect on me.’

  He stilled, unconsciously holding his breath. ‘Does this bad effect extend to forcing you to adjust your well-ordered plans?’

  Her body rose and fell as she sighed, her eyes on Tabby and Penny as they threw snow at each other. ‘I was a nightmare this morning. I’m sorry.’

  His body relaxed in relief. ‘No, I should have phoned you first. Next time I will.’ He turned so she had to look at him. ‘I’m going to balls up from time to time, Mags. I’ve not too much experience with relationships, and none where the lady was a mum. It’s unchartered territory for me.’

  Her breath came out in a soft exhale, and her hand reached to touch his cheek, the intimate gesture causing an unexpected pressure on his chest. ‘I love that you wanted to surprise me. In fact that’s kind of new for me too, but… I find it hard to be spontaneous. I make plans and then follow them through. It’s what I do.’

  It’s what you’ve always had to do. He kept the words to himself, unwilling to upset the moment. ‘I act spontaneously, as the mood takes me.’ He tightened his arm around her. ‘It doesn’t mean I can’t adjust, learn to think before I jump.’

  Her head shifted, burying into his shoulder. ‘And vice versa.’

  He smiled against her head. ‘Did we just navigate through our first argument?’

  ‘It would seem so.’

  They stood in a comfortable silence, her body nestled war
m against his as they watched Tabby and Penny. He felt content, he realised with a shock. It was a word he used to sneer at, seeing it as a polite word for boring; used to describe people who were settled, stuck in a rut. Yet here on this hill, surrounded by sparkling white snow, his arms wrapped around Maggie, her girls laughing in front of them… here, content didn’t feel like something to be sneered at. It felt like something to aspire to.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Maggie was in a flap. It was a day, just like any other day.

  Yet it was also a day when she became another step closer to being forty. She was only two years away from it now. Closer to forty than to thirty-five.

  And she was dating a man who wasn’t even close to thirty yet.

  Part of her wanted to whoop because hey, how flaming cool did that make her, being wanted by a younger man?

  Yet it also scared her to death, because this younger man she was dating – and yes, she could officially say that – this man was starting to become the best part of her week. God, she was scared to admit how often she counted down the days to when she knew she’d see him again.

  ‘You have to come out tonight.’ Alice fixed her with a hard stare as they sat in the café next to the giant soft play area where their kids were currently letting off steam. ‘Birthdays don’t fall on Saturdays very often. Jack’s happy to be in charge of all the kids. Sarah and Hannah are up for a night out.’

  ‘I doubt Hannah is.

  Alice eyed her shrewdly. ‘Hannah’s not invested in Seb, you know. It was more the idea of dating a dishy guy. She’s already turned her eyes to someone down at the gym.’ She gave Maggie a sly smile. ‘So there’s no excuse for you not to come out. I’m sure Seb will want to join us, once he’s finished his stint at the centre. Unless…’ She leaned back, raising her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Crap, I’m so dumb. You don’t want to come out with us, because you’ve already planned a cosy birthday celebration with my brother.’