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‘When are we going? I’m bored. I want to go home.’
He wasn’t really bored, of course, he was tired and he needed to go to bed.
She made her decision. ‘Come on, then.’ It was quicker than arguing and it wasn’t as if it was far, she reasoned. And it wasn’t as if she was making Josh go out of his way. He lived right next door.
Archie took all her attention on the way home. First he wanted to walk. Then he wanted to be carried. And he whined and moaned and generally made a fuss.
Josh frowned as she scooped him into her a
rms for the second time. ‘He’s too heavy for you.’
‘I’m used to carrying him if he gets tired. I always carry him.’
‘Well, you shouldn’t.’ He looked at Archie. ‘Aren’t you big enough to walk?’
Archie buried his head in Kat’s shoulder. ‘I’m tired.’
‘Too much running around. Fancy a ride on my shoulders?’ He angled his head. ‘The view is probably better higher up.’
Archie’s face lit up and he stretched out his arms, making it impossible for Kat to refuse.
‘There.’ Josh lifted him easily and hitched him onto his shoulders, holding firmly onto the little boy’s legs. ‘How’s that?’
‘Cool.’ Archie gazed upwards. ‘I’m quite close to the moon. Did you know Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon?’
Josh looked at Kat, astonishment in his eyes. ‘Do kids his age know things like that?’
‘Of course we do,’ Archie said scathingly. ‘We’re learning about it in summer camp. The planets. Mars, Jupiter, Pluto…’ He curled his fingers into Josh’s hair to keep his balance, and Josh winced.
Kat struggled not to laugh. ‘Don’t grab his hair, Arch,’ she said quickly, reaching on tiptoe to unclasp her son’s hands. ‘He’s got your legs, you’re quite safe. Just hold his head gently—that’s it.’
They arrived outside her door and Josh reached up and lifted Archie down from his shoulders with effortless ease while Kat watched. Something twisted inside her. She couldn’t put Archie on her shoulders, he was too heavy. And she’d never be able to lift him like that.
‘OK—well, here we are.’ She smiled at Archie. ‘Say bye to Josh.’
‘Bye, Josh, and thanks for the ride.’ Archie shot up to the front door, suddenly eager to see his toys, and Kat was left alone with Josh.
For some reason she suddenly felt hideously shy. ‘Right then…’ She gave him an awkward smile. ‘This is me, so…’ she waved a hand, ‘…I’ll say goodnight.’
He hesitated and glanced towards the door, and for a wild moment she thought he was going to suggest that he come in for coffee.
But then he gave a brief smile and a nod, shifted his sports bag on his shoulder and made off down the road without a backward glance.
Kat walked up the path to her cottage and unlocked the door.
Sunday night.
She’d bath Archie, read him a story and then settle down with her A and E textbook. And if that was a slightly sad way for a twenty-seven-year-old to spend a Sunday evening, she wasn’t going to think about it.
And she wasn’t—she definitely wasn’t—going to think about Josh Sullivan.
CHAPTER SIX
THE following week was a nightmare.
Kat hadn’t thought it possible to be so distracted by a man. Since her disastrous relationship with Archie’s father, she’d had no trouble at all in keeping men at a distance. She barely noticed them as anything other than friends and colleagues.
But it would have been impossible not to notice Josh. Everything about him was designed to be noticed. The glossy dark hair, the laughing blue eyes that teased and hinted at no end of wicked thoughts, the bold pirate’s smile designed to turn a woman inside out. And then there was his body, of course. Kat clutched the notes she was holding to her chest and tried valiantly to blot out the image. Maybe if she’d met him in the winter things would have been different. Maybe then he wouldn’t have been half-undressed all the time and she wouldn’t have had such a clear image of strong male shoulders and lean muscular legs.
