The Good Father by Maggie Kingsley

Author:Maggie Kingsley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

‘SO…YOU accept my apology?’ Nell said, her face anxious, her eyes uncertain. ‘For what I said to you on Thursday evening about Jonah?’

‘Of course I do, you idiot,’ Maddie replied as she took the last of the washing out of the washing machine and began loading it into the tumbledrier. ‘We both said things we shouldn’t have, and you’re right about Jonah. He is nice. He’s just not for me—not in a romantic sense.’

‘I know.’ Nell glanced up at the kitchen clock, and sighed. ‘I’d better get going but I wish I could stay here with you—give you some moral support when Gabriel arrives—instead of going into work.’

It’s not moral support I need, Maddie thought. It’s to grow up. To stop being a walking doormat for men with hang-ups to wipe their feet on before they dump me.

‘What did Charlie say when you told him Gabriel was coming?’ Nell continued, and Maddie hit the tumbledrier’s ‘on’ button with more force than was necessary.

‘Nothing. He just shrugged.’

‘It could have been worse,’ Nell observed, watching her. ‘He could have flat-out refused to meet him.’

‘I know.’

Nell stared at her for a moment, then shook her head. ‘OK, what’s up? I know you have the boss from hell arriving in half an hour and Lord knows that’s enough to put a damper on any woman’s Saturday morning, but there’s something else—something you’re not telling me. So give.’

‘There’s nothing wrong,’ Maddie protested, and her cousin gave her a very hard stare.

‘Yeah, right, so how come you’re standing there, looking like you didn’t get a wink of sleep last night—’

‘Charlie was restless.’

‘Wearing what has to be your oldest and tattiest sweatshirt and jeans—’

‘I don’t see why I should dress up for a visit from Gabriel Dalgleish.’

‘Almost as though…’ Nell’s eyes narrowed. ‘Almost as though you’re deliberately trying to make yourself look as unattractive as possible. Why are you trying to make yourself look unattractive?’

‘Nell…’

‘He’s hitting on you, isn’t he?’ Nell said, her face suddenly dangerous with anger. ‘The arrogant bastard’s hitting on you, and you don’t want to knock him back in case you lose your job—’

‘He’s not hitting on me,’ Maddie interrupted, then flushed slightly as her cousin gave her an I-don’t-believe-you look. ‘Well, he is—sort of.’

‘What do you mean, sort of?’ her cousin demanded. ‘How can you sort of hit on somebody?

‘He keeps looking at me. I know that sounds really dumb and stupid,’ Maddie continued quickly, as Nell stared at her, ‘but you know how sometimes you can meet a man, and he looks at you, and somehow you can’t look away? Well, that’s how it is with Gabriel and me. He keeps looking at me, and when he does, my heart…it does this stupid little back flip and I get…I get these weird feelings and thoughts about him.’

‘Oh, Maddie, why can’t you just feel fear and loathing like the rest of us?’ Nell groaned.

‘I don’t know,’ Maddie retorted. ‘I don’t know why he makes me feel the way I do, but it’s OK.

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