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Ellie nodded vigorously and Cass reached up, slipping the badge into her coat pocket. Her arm brushed against Jack’s and she pulled it away.
‘Would you like to come and see the fire engine, Ellie?’
‘You missed a bit.’ He lifted Ellie off his shoulders, setting her down on the ground, and leaned towards Cass, mouthing the words to her. What about the message?
‘Ah. Yes.’ This would be a great deal easier if he wasn’t so distracting. Was it really legal to be so downright sexy, in public and in the presence of children?
‘Ellie, what do you do if there’s a fire?’ She repeated the words numbly, wondering exactly why it was that suddenly all she could think about was Jack’s touch. If she knew the answer, then that would at least be a first step to doing something about it.
‘Don’t hide.’
‘Good. Well done.’
Jack nodded. ‘And what else?’ Cass frowned at him. He was pinching her lines now.
‘You shout Fire! or Help!’ Ellie decided to enlarge on the instructions. ‘As loud as you can. And you could wave if you liked.’
‘Yes. Waving’s good too. You have to make sure that someone sees you and knows you’re there.’
‘Would you like to see the fire engine, Ellie?’ Jack smiled down at his daughter.
‘Do you mind? This is all very carefully worked out; I can’t have parents stealing my lines.’ Cass glared at him and he shot back a mouthwatering look, half-humour, half-remorse, and wholly delicious.
‘Sorry. Carry on, I’ll just watch.’
‘Thank you.’ Cass caught Ellie’s hand, walking her over to the vehicle.
* * *
Jack watched as Cass showed Ellie the fire engine. Then stepped forward when Cass climbed up into the driver’s seat, to hand Ellie up to sit with her.
She seemed to light up around children. She was a little awkward with them, in the way that he’d been before he’d had his own child, but she obviously loved their company. Why she’d made the decision to concentrate solely on her career, a marriage to her job which couldn’t give her what she so clearly wanted, was just another of the imponderables about Cass.
Jack waited, handing up his phone for a few pictures of Ellie at the driver’s wheel and then taking it back for a couple of Ellie waving out of the window at him. Then one of Cass and Ellie, hugged up tight together.
Then Ellie got down, accepting the colouring sheets and running back to him, waving the fire safety instructions that Cass had given her. There was nothing in there he didn’t know and practise already; Jack had seen too many burns victims to be anything other than rigorous about fire safety in his own home. But it would be a good exercise to read them through with Ellie, and for them to go round and double-check together.
The next group of children was heading towards them and it was time for him to move on now. He’d hoped that the feeling of tearing himself away from Cass each time they parted might lose its sting, but it never seemed to.
‘We’re...um...we’re all going for a drink afterwards. Friends and families—we’re going to a place just out of town with a kids’ playroom. If you and Ellie...’ She left the sentence unfinished.
‘Thanks, but Ellie’s been invited to tea with one of her friends. I’m going to take the opportunity to pop in and see Mimi.’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘Next time, maybe...’ This was crazy. Even here, now, he couldn’t quite let go. Not while there was still some glimmer in her eyes which told him that Cass had been thinking about how close they’d come to being lovers.
‘Yeah. See you later, then.’ One short moment of connection, in which Jack fancied that they both shared an understanding of how hard this was. Then he took Ellie’s hand, listening to her excited chatter as he walked away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CASS SAW JACK’S car ahead of hers on the main road and flashed her headlights as he turned into the road that led to his house. His hazard lights winked on and then off again, and his car came to a halt outside the driveway. Cass drew level with him, winding down the window as he leaned across.
‘You’re early...’
‘Yeah.’ Cass had nursed a glass of orange juice for half an hour, then decided to go home. And then she’d driven back here. She wasn’t quite sure when she’d started thinking of Jack’s house as home, but she supposed it must have something to do with looking forward to being there every evening.
She leaned round and saw that the child’s seat in the back of Jack’s car was empty. ‘Where’s Ellie?’
