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She kept her gaze locked on his and nodded to the space on the sofa beside her.
He paused for a second and then sank down next to her, his sigh of relief audible.
‘I guess that Louie never got you,’ she said in a low voice.
‘Louie?’
She nodded, her hand rubbing gently at Hannah’s back. ‘I phoned him when Hannah appeared.’ Her gaze didn’t waver. ‘I didn’t know your phone number, or your mobile number. And, despite you drawing my attention to the fact I’d parked in your space that first night, I couldn’t remember that number either, so I couldn’t bring Hannah back up to you. I had no way to get in touch with you, Joshua, and, to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure if she was sleepwalking or not. I didn’t want to startle her.’
Joshua had the good grace to break their gaze as a sheepish expression flooded over his face. He let out a low curse. ‘I’m sorry, Clara. I’d put her to bed, went in to check on her after a phone call and she was just...gone.’
He ran his fingers through his rumpled hair. ‘My heart almost stopped. The door was open, and I hadn’t even noticed.’ He thumped his head back against the sofa and groaned. ‘My five-year-old walked out of the flat and I didn’t even notice,’ he repeated. ‘What kind of a crap dad am I?’
She could almost see the breakdown happening—see the pieces of the puzzle slotting into all the worst-case scenarios he could imagine—as he sat next to her. She reached over and tapped his hand with hers. ‘She’s fine. And she’s lovely, by the way.’
For some reason Clara didn’t move her hand from his.
He shook his head. ‘No, Louie didn’t get me. He’ll probably appear up here any moment to make sure everything’s okay.’
Clara nodded. ‘At least you knew to check here first.’ Her eyes glanced towards the key card for the entry panel to her flat. ‘I take it Hannah used to come up and down between you both?’
Joshua sighed. ‘Yes. She wasn’t ever supposed to use the lift by herself and she did know that. But often she would ask if she could come down to Georgie’s, or Georgie would phone and say to send her down. Then one of us would either go up and down with her, or put her in the lift, and the other would meet us at the door.’ He took a long, slow breath. ‘But on a few occasions, particularly around bedtime, Hannah would sneak down to Georgie’s.’ He gave Clara a smile. ‘Apparently my sister’s story-telling skills far outweigh my own.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ said Clara, then raised her eyebrows at Joshua. ‘We should really talk about you having a key to what, essentially, is my flat right now.’
‘Ah...’ He bowed his head a little just as there was a knock at the still open door.
They both turned their heads. Louie caught sight of the scene, clocked Hannah still in Clara’s arms and gave a slow nod. ‘Just checking all was well. I’ll be back downstairs.’ He gave Clara a knowing smile.
Before either had a chance to say anything, he’d disappeared again.
It took her a few seconds to realise that she still had her hand on Joshua’s and she pulled it back. It was odd—having him here in her place. At work he was her boss. Here, he was someone entirely different—a worried parent. And the first man she’d had in the apartment—invited or not.
Joshua leaned forward, putting his head in his hands and squinting a sideways glance at the sleeping child in Clara’s arms. ‘I sometimes think I’m making a complete mess of all this,’ he said.
Clara blinked. She hadn’t quite expected the admission. ‘Why do you think that?’ she asked cautiously.
He raised one hand. ‘Well, first off, I have a child who wanders out of our place and down to a relative stranger’s apartment, climbs into her lap and apparently asks her to read her a story.’
Clara nodded but gave a loose shrug. ‘Exceptional circumstances. I’m not entirely sure if she realised I wasn’t Auntie Georgie.’
‘Oh, she knows,’ he said. ‘She’s been asking when we could come down and meet you.’
‘She has?’
He nodded. ‘I told her it wasn’t appropriate. That you were a new workmate and couldn’t be expected to have us down here.’
‘Seems a bit tough.’
‘You think?’
She nodded. ‘I don’t mind. You could have just asked, you know.’
He pulled a face but didn’t answer.
‘You said first off. What’s second?’ It might be intrusive to ask, but he’d started the conversation and she could see that now he’d relaxed around her a bit he did seem as if he wanted to talk. Maybe she could finally get to see the man that everyone at work told her about.
He leaned back again. ‘Secondly, I have a daughter who seems to start a million activities but doesn’t want to stick at any one of them. She gets bored within a few weeks and wants to quit.’ He sighed. ‘I don’t like to complain. But I just get my schedule to fit around one thing then she wants to swap to another. She’s tried ballet, gymnastics, baton twirling, Brownies and tap dancing so far.’
Clara wrinkled her brow. ‘And you’ve let her quit everything?’
‘Shouldn’t I?’ A worried expression crossed his face.
She gave another shrug. ‘Well, it is up to you. You’re the parent. But maybe you should try something different.’
‘Like what?’
She took a few moments to consider before she replied. ‘Let’s think about an activity which could be an essential—swimming, perhaps.’ She adjusted her position on the sofa so she was facing him a little better. ‘That’s an activity you wouldn’t want her to quit. Safety—every parent wants their child to be able to swim.’
He gave a slow nod. ‘Okay...’
‘Okay, so you tell Hannah that she’s going to start swimming lessons and it’s
really important. You let her know that she’ll probably be going for a few years, and that she can’t stop until she can swim up and down a big pool.’ Clara was thinking back to her own swimming lessons as a kid. She gave a careful shrug. ‘Of course, there could an occasion where she doesn’t gel with a particular instructor, and you might swap her to someone else.’ She held up her finger. ‘But you let her understand this is a non-quit activity. You let her know this is important.’ She looked out of the window at the orange setting sun. ‘You tell her that once you know she can swim safely the two of you can have lots of fun on holiday, somewhere with a big pool.’
His eyes narrowed a little as he thought about her idea. ‘You think I should try something like that?’
Clara nodded. ‘I’m not a parent. And I must have had a different temperament as a child, because once I started something I became a bit obsessed about it. But lots of my friends were like Hannah,’ she said reassuringly. ‘They tried lots of things over the years.’
She reached a hand out again and touched his arm. ‘You know, this has to work for you too. It can’t be easy having to change your schedule all the time. Maybe some kind of stability would be good for you both.’
‘Are you saying I don’t offer Hannah stability?’ He was instantly on edge and sat up straight with a flash of anger in his eyes.
Clara let out a sigh and shook her head. ‘Why are you so defensive? Why is everything I say a fault?’ She rubbed Hannah’s back again, enjoying the way the little girl was snuggled into her. ‘If I didn’t see this gorgeous little girl on my lap, and know you must be finding this tough, I’d think you hated me, Joshua Woodhouse.’ She gave a sad smile as he flinched. ‘Maybe you’re just not used to someone who talks as frankly as me—and calls a spade a spade.’
He waited a long time before he spoke. He gestured with his hand between them. ‘I don’t do this.’
