AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ryan’s epic run-on sentence came to an end and he took a large gulp of the brightly coloured drink he’d ordered from the kids’ menu in the restaurant Cal had chosen. Heather was now regretting agreeing to let them have anything they wanted. The E-numbers would keep them awake for a week.
‘Magic camera?’ she asked Cal, while Ryan was quiet.
‘The Camera Obscura,’ Cal explained. ‘Victorian ingenuity at its finest. Have you ever been?’
Heather shook her head. ‘I’ll have to go some time.’
Cal opened his mouth—almost as if he were about to say I’ll take you—then shut it again, so hard she heard his teeth click.
‘So you had a good afternoon, then?’ she asked, turning to Daisy.
Daisy shrugged. ‘It was okay, I suppose.’
Heather gave Cal a small smile. From Daisy, that was high praise indeed. She’d known letting them spend the afternoon together was a good idea—and she’d managed to do some much-needed clothes shopping, too. Ordering online could only get a girl so far, especially when it came to maternity bras.
Later, as they drove home into the darkening summer sky, with Ryan passed out in the back and Daisy with her headphones on, Heather asked, ‘Was it really a good afternoon?’
Cal’s smile was slow, but telling. ‘You know...it was. I mean, there’s a big difference between a few hours at a tourist attraction and the rest of their lives, but it was good. It’s a start, right?’
‘A really good one,’ Heather said, and tried to ignore the warmth that filled her at his words.
She was not falling for her boss. And she was definitely not falling for the brother of her baby’s father. No matter how gorgeous he was when he smiled. Not happening.
She hoped.
* * *
‘Daisy did well on her history assignment this week,’ Heather said, handing Cal a printout of Daisy’s short essay as they sat in the little sitting room by the kitchen a few days later.
Despite Cal’s progress he’d insisted on continuing their kid lessons, even if they were mostly just catch-ups on how they’d got on that day.
‘Seems she has a real grasp of the blood and guts part of historical conflict.’
‘Why am I not surprised?’ Cal took it, grinning up at her, and Heather knew it was pride she saw in his gaze.
She couldn’t help it; she smiled back. Just as their fingers touched and his eyes turned dark again...
Was this how her mother had felt? Falling for someone she knew she couldn’t have? She’d been married, he’d been thirteen years younger than her... Her mother couldn’t have thought it was a good idea.
And yet she’d fallen for him anyway. Been so consumed by love and lust that she’d left her whole life behind for him.
Heather, fortunately, wasn’t that stupid.
She might not be able to stop the feelings that flooded through her every time she was with Cal, but she could call them what they were. Attraction. Lust. And wildly inappropriate.
She pulled back quickly and turned her attention to her notes. She’d found early on that if she didn’t approach each evening with a list of things to discuss with Cal about the children it was too easy to forget everything she’d meant to say when she was with him. Or for the conversation to get distracted, to stray onto forbidden topics.
Like how badly she wanted to kiss him.
It hadn’t felt like this with Ross, she realised. Or anyone else ever, actually. This incredible drawn-out anticipation of something that couldn’t happen.
With Ross, it had been a stupid idea after one too many cocktails. He’d been gorgeous, oozing confidence, and she’d been having a bad day. He’d wanted her, and she’d wanted cheering up, and that had been enough.
But with Cal... Want wasn’t a strong enough word to encompass the feeling that flooded through her every time she saw him. It seemed impossible that they’d never even kissed. That her body could hum with need just being in the same room as him, yet she’d never felt his lips on hers or his hands against her bare skin.
And it felt even more impossible that she never would.
‘How about Ryan?’ Cal asked, clearing his throat first.
Heather forced herself back into the moment. ‘Um...he’s doing fine, too. A little distracted this week, actually. I’m not sure why.’
