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She took the chair opposite. ‘Of course you should come here whenever you want to,’ she said. ‘You have every right to see your father.’
His eyes came back to hers momentarily before shifting away again. ‘I don’t think of him that way … He’s always been just Jasper to me.’
She frowned at him. ‘You don’t call him Dad?’
He shook his head. ‘It wouldn’t be appropriate. We don’t have that sort of relationship.’
Hayley felt her hackles rising over the way Jasper had treated his only child. How had it come to this? The boy was obviously deeply troubled, his face looked a
s if he’d been in some sort of nasty scuffle and his whole demeanour was dejected and downtrodden. She knew enough about young men to know they needed good role models in their life. Daniel was obviously a casualty of Jasper’s neglect to follow through on his responsibilities as a father.
‘Does your mother know where you are?’ she asked into the silence.
A mask came over his face that instantly reminded her of Jasper. ‘I told her I was going to a friend’s house.’
‘Would you like to stay here tonight?’ Hayley asked on an impulse she couldn’t restrain in time.
His lowered the ice-pack to look at her with both eyes. ‘Would that be all right?’ he asked, his expression touchingly hopeful, making him look a whole lot younger than his fifteen years.
‘Of course it will be all right,’ she assured him. ‘Haven’t you ever stayed over before?’
He shook his head and reapplied the ice pack to his eye. ‘It wasn’t really encouraged,’ he said.
Hayley felt her anger towards Jasper hit an all time high. No doubt he didn’t want his son hanging about when he brought his various lovers home to seduce the way he had seduced her, she thought resentfully. She gritted her teeth and determined that it was all going to change now … well, for the short time she was here at least.
‘Have you had dinner?’ she asked.
‘No.’
‘Would you like an omelette or a toasted sandwich or something?’ she asked. ‘It won’t take me a minute or two to rustle one up for you.’
He gave her a grateful glance. ‘If you’re sure it’s not too much trouble.’
She sprang to her feet and pushed her chair in. ‘It’s no trouble at all. I love cooking. I also love eating, which is a bit of a downside really.’
He gave her a lopsided smile on account of his lip. ‘I don’t think you have too much to worry about. Jasper told me you had a fabulous figure.’
She gaped at him in surprise. ‘He told you that?’
‘Yes.’ He paused for a moment before adding, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t come to your wedding. I wanted to but …’
‘I understand,’ she said, wondering what Jasper had told his son about the circumstances leading to their marriage.
‘I think it’s great Jasper’s going to settle down at last,’ Daniel continued. ‘I’ve always felt a bit guilty that it was because of me that he shied away from marriage for this long.’
‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ she said, even though she knew for a fact it was.
Daniel looked at her again. ‘I don’t think anyone should be forced to do something they don’t want to do,’ he said. ‘It would have been a disaster … you know … him marrying my mum.’
Hayley turned her attention to cracking eggs into a bowl. ‘What makes you say that?’ she asked.
‘He doesn’t love her. He has never loved her.’
He doesn’t love me either, Hayley felt like saying. She turned around, the bowl still in her hands as she faced him. ‘But he cares for you,’ she said. ‘And you care for him, don’t you?’
Daniel’s expression visibly softened. ‘He’s the best friend a guy could ever ask for. I don’t think there’s a person I care more about than Jasper. He’s the reason I’ve coped for this long.’
Hayley felt as if she’d missed something somewhere. What was he talking about? Coped with what? She put the bowl down and turned on the cook top, busying herself with the task of making him a meal, her mind twisting and turning as she tried to make sense of his contradictory statements.
