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‘Don’t let Hopeful eat your sausages,’ she warned as she dropped a kiss on his head. ‘This time they’re for you.’
‘That dog has already eaten loads,’ Louisa grumbled, adding dressing to a huge green salad and lifting a bowl of shiny black olives. ‘Help yourselves, everyone. Not you, Hopeful.’ She tried to grab the dog but he dodged her and bounded over to Archie, who waved a finger at him sternly.
‘Sit.’
Hopeful sat.
Four adults stared in astonishment.
Playing to his audience, Archie looked at the dog.
‘Lie down.’
Hopeful lay down, his head resting on his paws.
Louisa made a sound in her throat and Mac laughed.
‘Finally, that dog listens to someone. Looks as though we can cancel the hearing test, Lu.’
‘It’s amazing.’ Louisa tilted her head on one side and watched as Hopeful lay at the boy’s feet, gazing up at him. ‘He never, ever does as he’s told. Archie, you obviously have the knack.’
Archie munched his sausage and basked in the praise.
‘Maybe he likes children,’ Kat suggested, and Louisa patted her rounded stomach.
‘I really hope so. He’s going to be my babysitter.’
Mac rolled his eyes. ‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this. That dog isn’t going anywhere near the baby—we’d better get that straight right now.’
Josh helped himself to food and Kat concentrated her attentions on her own plate. She was trying so hard not to look at him that her body was aching with the tension.
Since he’d returned from the beach with Mac he hadn’t glanced once in her direction. And she hadn’t glanced at him. But she felt him. With every bone in her body, she felt him.
When he’d swum out to sea, she’d understood exactly what he’d been doing.
He was putting as much distance between them as possible, as if the few moments of fun they’d had together had placed an intolerable strain on his bachelor genes.
She bit her lip. He’d been fine until Archie had asked him to race. Which meant it was Archie who was the problem.
Impatient with herself, she sighed. Well, of course it was Archie. Why did that come as a surprise? A man like Josh didn’t want to spend his day with a child. Or with a woman who worried about her child. He was used to women who worried about their hair and their nails and what they were going to wear. She never had time to afford more than a cursory glance at her appearance. And when she was with Archie she was just pleased if she got through the day without wearing ketchup.
All right, so there was chemistry between them but a relationship needed more than chemistry to make it work.
She watched Archie discreetly feed a sausage to the dog and felt a twinge of sadness. Things could have been so different and it would have been wonderful to share the load with a man who shared her strong belief in family.
But unfortunately Paul had only believed in himself.
‘He’s a lovely boy.’ Louisa followed her gaze. ‘Am I allowed to ask what h
appened to his father?’
‘He wasn’t interested in Archie.’ Kat’s tone was flat. ‘We don’t see him. But it’s hard. Archie is getting to that age where he notices differences, and he’s starting to ask about his dad.’
‘Hmm.’ Louisa looked at her thoughtfully. ‘And what do you say?’
‘That relationships don’t always work out.’ Kat nibbled her chicken. ‘That families aren’t always a mummy, daddy and two children. The usual sort of stuff that you say to justify being on your own.’ She looked at Mac and Josh. ‘You’re so lucky, being part of this family.’
Josh might be a confirmed bachelor, but there was no doubting his strong attachment to his brother and Louisa. And she was sure that if there was anything he needed to learn about being an uncle, he’d learn it.
