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I felt like I was a penguin living in the Twilight Zone, the way I was flapping my hands around. Did he really not know what I was thinking here?
“Xavi, she needs to be in her own seat.”
He glanced toward the traffic, which was hardly moving, then back at Sofia before pulling his hand from mine so he could wrap both arms around her. “No worries. I’ll keep her safe. Can’t stop a girl from hugging her daddy, can we?”
I frowned. This was legitimately sweet and all, but was he being serious?
The car moved again, then came to a lurching stop. Ben slammed on the horn. Sofia jerked forward with the movements.
“Xavi, seriously,” I said. “Her booster is in the back. She can’t sit in your lap like that. It’s dangerous.”
Xavier opened his mouth like he wanted to argue, but before he could, Elsie turned from the seat up front.
“I’d do what she says, boy,” she said. “It’s a thousand-pound fine if you’re not wearing a seat belt. And they might call social services if the girl’s not in a proper car seat. You don’t want to end up looking like that pop star in the papers, do you?”
“I remember that,” Jagger concurred. “They practically crucified that Katie Derek for driving around with a baby in her lap. You don’t want to be called an unfit mum, do you, Xav?”
Despite the jokes, Xavier scowled at all three of us. Reluctantly, he unwound his arms from Sofia, reached a long arm to grab her booster from the back, then placed the seat between us and took a few extra moments to buckle her in safely.
“There we are,” he said. “Snug as a bug in a rug.”
Sofia giggled and gripped Tyrone harder. “That’s for sleep, Daddy, not the booster.”
“Ah, well. How about…sweet as a beet in your seat, eh?”
Sofia tipped her little head and wrinkled her nose. “Are beets sweet?”
Xavier winked. “They are when I make them.” Then over her head to me, with considerably less sparkle: “Happy, now?”
It was slight, but the resentment in his voice surprised me. Xavier wasn’t typically passive-aggressive—no, he was the type to come banging on your door in the middle of the night, shout profanities at prospective suitors, and growl at anyone who looked at him wrong. Or maybe that was just Xavier in America. Was Xavier in London the type who cared more about what the damn papers thought than his own daughter’s safety? I didn’t like to think it, but apparently so.
“I am,” I told him cautiously. I didn’t want to fight. Not within minutes of seeing each other. “So, where are we headed?”
He pulled out his phone. “There’s a bit of a fire I’ve got to put out at one of the restaurants.” He smirked. “Chef’s acting up again. Got to put him in his place.”
In front, Elsie tittered to herself. I could only imagine what Xavier “putting him in his place” looked like.
“Then I thought maybe we could take a walk down to the river. Maybe see London Bridge, and later we could all get dinner. There’s this new place in Camden I’d like to try out. They’ve got a black cod that’s getting raves, and I want to know if it’s better than mine.”
“Like the song?” Sofia immediately started singing “London Bridge is falling down,” though without the ability to pronounce the lettersrorlfully. She was working on it, poor kid, but they weren’t quite there.
“That’s right, babe,” Xavier said. He looked at me. “What do you say, Mum? Feel like a codfish?”
I made a face. “Mum? Codfish?”
His grin turned a bit more mischievous. “Babe?”
I shook my head, suddenly annoyed. “Why don’t you try something that isn’t what you call hundreds of other people? Frankie’s fine.”
Instantly, his grin disappeared. For a moment, I thought he might give in to the urge to argue too.
Instead, Xavier leaned over Sofia, who was still singing her song, and whispered into my ear, “How about my perfect, luscious, inexplicably delicious Francesca?”
He ended with a nip on my earlobe that no one else in the car seemed to notice before sitting back in his seat, clearly satisfied. No wonder, since my heated face had once again turned the color of a scarlet rose.
How could he do that with just a few words? And in a car full of people, no less?
I bit my lip. His eyes lasered onto the movement.
