Kids Included

Still, it could have been worse. If she’d been on the afternoon course, she would have had Jack watching her. It would have put her off so badly she probably would have dropped like a stone.

She might anyway, just thinking about him! She forced herself to concentrate before she killed herself and left her children without a mother…

‘Hi, Tom. Good day?’

‘Brilliant! I learned to roll over in the canoe and come up again, and—ugh, what’s happened to Nicky?’

Jack grimaced. ‘Finger painting.’

‘Looks more like face painting.’

‘Mmm. Where’s Amy?’

‘Oh, she’s got a friend. There she is—her name’s Cassie.’

Jack looked, and his heart slammed against his ribs. Molly was coming down the beach towards the girls, smiling that lovely bubbly smile that used every muscle in her face, crinkling her eyes and tilting her nose and widening that kissable, soft mouth—

Hell.

‘That’s Molly the Magician,’ Tom said, looking longingly at her. ‘She was really cool. She must be Cassie’s mum.’

‘Must be,’ Jack murmured, looking at Molly every bit as longingly. She reached Cassie and hugged her briefly, and he wondered what it would feel like to be the recipient of that hug. The child was the spitting image of her mother, but without the sex appeal. No doubt she’d get it in spades once she was older, and her mother would have her hands full fending off would-be suitors.

His gaze switched to Amy, a darker blonde, more mousy, with pale skin and clear blue eyes, just like her mother. Jack felt a pang of sorrow and hugged little Nicky closer. ‘Shall we go and get Amy?’

And, coincidentally, bump into Molly again. She didn’t notice them approaching, so his greedy eyes absorbed every detail of her. She looked good enough to eat in shorts and a skimpy top that did terminal things to his blood pressure. Those legs—

‘Hello, Molly,’ he said softly.

She looked up, her eyes wide, and those delectable lips tilted. ‘Hi, there,’ she said with that open, ingenuous smile that did him in. ‘Picking up the kids?’

‘Yes.’ His voice was gruff and sounded as if he hadn’t used it for a month. He cleared his throat. ‘Had a good day?’ How was the massage? Blast. Quell that thought.

‘Fine—bit scary. I was abseiling this morning. I must have been mad. How about you?’

Jack found himself grinning like a Cheshire cat—a tom cat, to be exact. ‘The mountain-bike trek was all up-hill, all the way round.’

‘That’s not possible,’ she said with a laugh.

‘Oh, it is. Believe me. They hire someone to tilt the earth—they must.’

She chuckled again. ‘And your abseiling?’

‘A piece of cake by comparison. I was so busy worrying about Seb I hardly noticed my own descents.’

She looked around. ‘Where is he?’

‘Gone back to the cabin. I said we’d meet him there.’

She nodded and looked around. ‘Philip! Come on, darling.’

Philip came, apparently very reluctantly, and somehow they ended up on their bikes all heading back in the same direction.

It seemed as natural as breathing to offer them all a drink as they wobbled back into Area B, and after a second’s hesitation that Amy and Cassie’s pleading overwhelmed, Molly gave him a wary smile and accepted.

His heart thumped again, and for a ridiculous second he felt as if he’d asked her out on a date.

Absurd…

The cabin wasn’t really big enough for eight of them, but he threw open the patio doors and they spilled out onto the short, scrubby grass beside the lake. Ducks came waddling up expectantly, and within moments Nicky was there asking for bread for them.

He absent-mindedly handed her a slice and searched the fridge. Not enough orange for all of them; not enough of anything. He needed to go shopping again.

He diluted the juice, used small glasses and watched Molly as discreetly as he could.

He was watching her. Probably looking for imminent signs of madness. She couldn’t believe that he’d really liked the magic show, and there was no way it was her legs he was studying, so it must be the lunatic tendencies he was waiting for.

‘So, what’s on tomorrow?’ she asked.

‘Ah—tomorrow. Monday? Let’s see—Seb’s bungee-jumping and doing some commando thing, Amy’s doing the theatre workshop all day and Tom’s skateboarding and trail-biking, I think. How about you?’

‘The same, I think. I know Philip’s trail-biking in the afternoon, and Cassie’s certainly doing the theatre workshop. She’ll enjoy that, being with Amy. They seem to get on very well.’

His eyes tracked to the children. ‘They do. I’m glad. I was wondering how it would work, but finding a holiday that suited all five of us was a nightmare. Usually at least some of us are bored some of the time, but I don’t think we’re going to have time to be bored this week.’

She chuckled. ‘No. I think we’re going to be pooped instead. I feel tired already! What about the little one?’

‘Nicky?’ Again his eyes tracked to her, as they often did, his internal radar keeping tabs on the active youngster, she thought. ‘I think Nicky and I are in the farmyard tomorrow morning, and then in the afternoon she’s in the kindergarten and I’m kart racing.’

‘So am I!’ she exclaimed, and then could have bitten her tongue out. Did she have to sound so enthusiastic? He’d think she was following him round! Oh, Lord, her and her big mouth—

‘That’s great,’ he said, and he sounded sincere and—interested? No. He was just glad to have company. It was a bit daunting joining new groups every session, having to work with total strangers. It was easier if there was someone there that you’d seen before.

That was all he meant—surely?

‘What about the morning?’ he asked.

‘I was going to have a lazy couple of hours with a book,’ she confessed.

‘You could always join us in the farmyard,’ he suggested.

Was that interest in his eyes? Possibly. Oh, lawks. Nobody had looked at her like that for so long she wasn’t even sure!

‘Thanks—I’ll think about it,’ she said, vowing to do no such thing. No, she’d lie in the bath, read a book, pamper herself with body lotion and a thorough facial treatment, and lie in the sun.

‘I tell you what, if you’re coming, let me know before eight-thirty.’

‘I will,’ she agreed, knowing she wouldn’t do any such thing.