Falling For The Single Dad. Jessica Hart

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СКАЧАТЬ CHAPTER SIX

      ‘IT’S looking really good.’

      ‘Mmm.’ Harry swivelled round, studying the newly painted sitting room, then glanced down the hall. ‘The kitchen’s still awful.’

      ‘Well, give them time. I tell you what, if you had the cabinet doors painted while they’re in there, it would give it a new lease of life. Just until you decide what you’re doing,’ she added.

      She was fishing, but he didn’t rise. ‘I’ll talk to them,’ he said, and disappeared upstairs to where the boss was working, leaving her there with Freddie in her arms and Beth at her side, wrinkling her little button nose at the smell of paint.

      Emily was standing by the French doors, keeping an eye on Kizzy outside in the baby-carrier, and she glanced up at the garden, looking at it properly for the first time in ages. As she studied it Harry appeared at her shoulder and made a thoughtful noise.

      ‘Awful, isn’t it? It’s gone to rack and ruin over the last ten years. My grandparents would be gutted. It just needs tidying when I’ve got time,’ he said, but she laughed.

      ‘I don’t think so. Most of the shrubs are too leggy to recover, and it’s a high-maintenance garden, anyway. Tenants won’t want that, and I don’t suppose you do, either.’

      ‘So what do you suggest?’

      She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Something simple? Some gravel, some paving, some serious pruning and thinning of the shrubbery and some more inventive planting—I’d have to look at it.’

      ‘Would you? I’ll pay you to design it for me.’

      She turned and frowned at him. ‘I wouldn’t dream of charging you!’ she said, insulted, but he just arched a brow.

      ‘Do you charge Nick?’

      ‘Well—yes, but it’s business.’

      ‘Yes. And so’s this. Put it like this, if you won’t let me pay you, I’ll get someone else in—one of the garden centre chains. Most of them have a design department. And you’ll have to look at it over the fence and it will annoy the hell out of you.’

      ‘But I’ll need someone to look after the children.’

      ‘I’ll do that.’

      ‘Only if you let me pay you.’ Hah. She had him.

      Or not. ‘But I still owe you babysitting time,’ he pointed out archly, ‘and, come to think of it, a massage.’

      ‘You gave me that the other night.’

      ‘Not a proper one. I only did your shoulders.’

      And that had been bad enough. The thought of taking her clothes off and lying down on a towel while he massaged her whole body with those incredible hands was enough to make her hyperventilate. She turned back to the garden.

      ‘Fair cop,’ she said, her voice a little uneven. ‘OK. Instead of the massage, you can look after the kids and I’ll do you a design. If you like it, you can pay me. If you don’t, then there’s no charge.’

      ‘Is that how you normally work?’

      ‘Yes,’ she lied.

      He grunted, and she guessed he didn’t believe her, but it was tough. She wasn’t taking money off him if he didn’t agree with her design, and she wouldn’t take much off him anyway. And she’d oversee it for nothing and pretend it was part of the service. Maybe even do some of the work. And maybe he could do some, too. They could do it together, working side by side while the children played in the soil and ran around getting grubby.

      Just like a family.

      The sudden ache in her chest took her by surprise, and she sucked in her breath and turned back to him with an overbright smile. ‘Deal?’

      ‘Deal,’ he said, but before he could say any more or lay down any conditions of his own, her mobile phone rang.

      ‘Hey, Georgie!’ she said with relief. ‘How are you?’

      ‘Fine—fancy the beach? We’re going down with the kids and taking a picnic. Want me to do enough for you, too?’

      ‘You don’t want to do that! I can make something for me and the kids.’

      ‘Aren’t you forgetting Harry?’ Georgie said, and she shot him a look, wondering if he’d heard. Probably.

      ‘Fancy going to the beach with the kids?’ she asked him, hoping he’d say no, but he grinned and nodded.

      ‘Love to. I haven’t been to an English beach for years. Bucket–and-spade time, eh, Freddie?’

      Freddie was jiggling on her hip and squealing, Beth was bouncing on the spot and nearly tugging her arm out of its socket, and Harry looked almost as enthusiastic.

      ‘I think that’s a yes,’ she said to Georgie, giving up the unequal struggle, because, in fact, she couldn’t think of anything she’d like more than going to the beach with Harry and the children.

      And if it was just another example of them playing happy families, well, maybe he’d find it was so much fun he wanted to do it again and again and again…

      ‘Freddie, no!’

      He was being crushed to death! He was lying flat on his back, buried up to his neck in sand, and Freddie was bouncing on his chest and laughing. Beside him Nick was similarly buried, with Dickon sitting on him and giggling helplessly, and he turned his head and caught Nick’s eye.

      ‘Enough?’ Nick mouthed, and he nodded.

      ‘OK. One, two, three!’ Nick yelled, and they both erupted out of the sand, grabbing the giggling children and dumping them in the dents they’d made.

      ‘Look! I can still see you!’ Beth said, pointing at his impression in the sand, Freddie sitting in the middle of it—giggling hysterically.

      ‘’Gain!’ he yelled.

      ‘You’ve got to catch me first,’ Harry said, and headed for the sea, Nick at his side and the children in hot pursuit. As his feet hit the water he stopped dead and gasped. ‘Hell, it’s freezing!’

      ‘Not quite Sharm-el-Sheikh, I’m afraid!’ Nick replied with a grin. ‘We can always go back to the house for a proper swim if you want.’

      ‘You’ve got a pool?’

      He nodded. ‘And a hot tub. I love my hot tub. I’ve got one in London at the apartment, and I couldn’t bear the thought of not having it, so we built one here.’

      They strolled along the fringe of surf, the children giggling and chasing each other round and round in the shallow water and splashing each other, while Georgie sat under a big hat and fanned herself and Em sat with her, the baby at her side under a little parasol she’d found СКАЧАТЬ