Saved by the Single Dad (10 page)

‘Only after she passes her exams and the fitness test.' Cass was clearly intent on making the thing believable.

‘And she's going to rescue the prince.' Ellie chimed in.

Jack chuckled. ‘Don't let me stop you, then. This I have to hear.'

* * *

The soft light from the bedside lamp had transformed Jack's features into that very prince. Handsome and brave. Someone who could fight dragons and somehow turn an impossible situation into a storybook ending. When the princess had finished rescuing him, he rescued her back and everyone lived happily ever after.

When Ellie finally drifted off into sleep neither she nor Jack moved. Holding on to the magic for just a little while longer, despite there being no excuse to do so.

But this was no fairy tale. Jack wasn't hers, any more than Noah or Ellie were. Cass rose quietly from her chair, putting the book back in its place, and walked out of the room, leaving Jack to draw the covers over his sleeping child.

The air in the kitchen was cool on her face. She stacked the dishwasher and tidied up, then heard a noise at the doorway.

‘Oh! You surprised me.' Despite all of her efforts to bring herself back to reality, Jack still looked like a handsome prince. ‘How's Mimi?'

He nodded. ‘Very drowsy, and a bit incoherent at times, but that's just to be expected. She's doing well. Thanks for looking after Ellie.'

‘It's no trouble. How about you—are you okay?'

‘I'm fine.' Cass sent him a querying look and he flashed her a smile. ‘Really.'

Cass nodded, picking up a cloth and giving the worktop a second wipe. Jack didn't move and the silence weighed down on her, full of all the things they'd left unsaid.

‘Would you like a pizza princess? There are some left over in the fridge. They don't actually look too much like princesses...' She was babbling and closed her mouth before anything too crazy escaped.

‘I'd like to thank you—for what you said the other night.'

When she turned, the warmth in Jack's eyes seemed more like heat now. Delicious heat.

‘I've been re-evaluating. Giving the believing thing a try.'

Something caught in her throat. ‘H... How's that going?'

‘It's...different.' His gaze dropped to the floor. ‘Can I believe in you, Cass?'

She didn't know how to answer that. But it definitely needed an answer. She touched his hand and he gripped hers tight, pulling her towards him.

‘I want you to know...' He shook his head as if trying to clear it. ‘I didn't ask you here for this.'

‘Anything can be re-evaluated.'

For a moment they were both still. As if the next move would be the deciding one, and neither quite trusted themselves to make it.

‘I can't promise you anything, Cass. I'm not the man you want...'

He was exactly the man she wanted. No lies, no strings and none of the attendant heartbreak. He was saying all the right things, and making her feel all the right things too.

‘Then we're even. I won't promise anything either.'

It was all either of them needed to know. There was no need to hide any more, and the air was electric with whispered kisses.

Then more. Much more, until the kitchen was no longer the place to be and the bedroom was the only place in the world.

They tiptoed up the stairs in an exaggerated game of having to be quiet. Jack looked in on Ellie, closing her bedroom door, and then turned to Cass.

‘Asleep?' She allowed her lips to graze his ear.

‘Fast asleep.' He led her to his own bedroom and as soon as he'd shut the door behind them, he pulled her close. ‘Be quiet, now...'

That wasn't going to be easy. His kiss was just the start of it, and when his hand found her breast Cass swallowed a moan.

‘Keep that up and I'll be screaming...' The thought of being in his arms, all the things that he might do, made her want to scream right now.

‘No, you won't.' His body moved against hers, his arm around her waist crushing her tight so that she could feel every last bit of the friction. ‘You're not going to have breath enough to scream.'

She could believe that. Cass fought to get her arms free of his embrace and pushed him backwards towards the bed. He resisted the momentum, imprisoning her against his strong body. ‘Oh, no, you don't...'

Cass relaxed in his arms, letting herself float in his kisses. Balancing her weight against him, curling her leg slowly around his.

‘Oof...' He fell back on to the bed, caught off balance, and she landed on top of him, breaking her own fall with her arms. ‘Nice move, princess...'

‘I have more.' She pinned him down, running her hand across his chest, luxuriating in the feel of his body. He gasped as her hand found the button on his jeans, and she felt his body jolt as she slipped her fingers past the waistband.

‘I just bet you do.' Suddenly she was on her back and Jack had the upper hand again. Holding her down, stretching her arms up over her head, dipping to whisper in her ear.

‘I'm going to strip you naked... Then I'm going to find out just how many moves you've got...'

A shard of light from the hallway. Jack froze.

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘D
ADDY
! W
HAT
ARE
you doing?'

The one question he'd never had to even consider an answer for. Jack closed his eyes in disbelief, feeling Cass wriggle out from under him.

‘Don't hurt her, Daddy.' He heard Ellie pound into the room and he rolled over on to his back, feeling something soft smack against his legs. Ellie had obviously come armed with her teddy bear.

‘It's okay, Ellie. It's all right...' How the hell was he going to explain this one?

‘Ellie...' Cass's laughing voice. ‘Ellie, it's okay. We were just playing. Daddy was tickling me.' Jack opened his eyes and saw Cass, on her feet and swinging Ellie up in her arms.

‘Like this...' Ellie's fingers scrunched against Cass's shoulder in a tickling motion.

‘Just like that.' She plumped down on to the bed, rolling Ellie on to her back and tickling her. Cass seemed to have a better handle on the situation than he did. Maybe because she didn't have to worry about surreptitiously refastening any buttons.

‘What's the matter, Ellie?' He waited for their laughter to subside, wishing his wits would unscramble themselves.

‘I had a bad dream.' Ellie remembered what she was here for and flung herself into his arms. ‘Make it go away.'

‘Okay.' He held her tight, flashing Cass an apologetic look, but she just grinned. ‘Tell me all about it and we'll make it go away.'

* * *

It hadn't taken long to comfort Ellie and Jack had suggested that she might like to go back to bed, but she wouldn't budge. So Cass had put an end to the dilemma by getting Ellie to lie down on the bed next to her, with Jack on the other side.

‘I'm sorry.' He mouthed the words quietly over the top of Ellie's head, a mix of uncertainty and regret on his face.

‘That's okay.' This seemed so right, so natural. Lying on the bed with Jack, his child curled up against her.

‘Really?' He stretched out his hand, brushing the side of her face.

‘Not quite what I expected.' She whispered the words quietly so as not to disturb Ellie, and Jack dropped a kiss on to his finger and planted it on to her cheek. ‘But it's really nice.'

‘Could I hold your hand?' His eyes were so tender. When he folded his hand around hers, in the space above Ellie's head, it felt as if a circle of warmth had closed. One which included her. Cass had often wondered what this would feel like, and given up hope of ever knowing.

She had been so afraid of this, terrified of the hurt when she and Jack were torn apart again. But now that didn't seem to matter. It was complete, a thing of itself that couldn't be touched by anything. Tomorrow it would be gone—Jack wasn't hers to keep and neither was Ellie—but even that couldn't spoil tonight.

She stayed awake for as long as she could, knowing that when she slept it would be the beginning of the end. Ellie was sleeping soundly, and when Jack's eyes finally fluttered closed she watched him sleep. If tonight was going to have to last her for the rest of her life, and right now it felt that it could, she didn't want to miss any of it.

* * *

It had been almost forty-eight hours since he and Cass had lain down on his bed with Ellie. Thirty-six since he'd woken, stretching over to plant a parting kiss on Cass's fingers while she slept, before picking Ellie up and taking her into her own bedroom to get dressed. Jack had managed to spend one waking hour without thinking about it, largely due to a difficult call at work, although at night he wasn't doing so well. But he couldn't be expected to control his dreams.

He didn't speak about the shock of having Ellie walk in on them, or what had followed, which had somehow been so much more intimate than the night he'd been expecting. Cass said nothing either and their conspiracy of silence seemed to protect those few short hours from the indignity of careless words or doubts. Jack knew two things for sure. It had been perfect, and it mustn't happen again.

Then a girls' night out put all his resolve to the test. Cass had mentioned that she was going out on Friday night and so Jack and Ellie were on their own for supper. But when she came downstairs, fresh from the shower, her handbag slung over her shoulder and her car keys in her hand, what had seemed just difficult was suddenly practically impossible.

‘Where are you off to?' He tried to keep the question casual but he heard a note of possessiveness in his voice. He was going to have to practise that and do better when Ellie was old enough to pick up
her
car keys and go out for the night.

‘One of the wine bars in town. The one in Abbey Street.'

He knew the one. Quiet and comfortable, a good place to talk and a nice bar menu.

‘Great. Well...' He suppressed the temptation to ask her what time she'd be home.

She glanced into the mirror in the hall, running her fingers through the burnished copper of her hair. The arrangement seemed somehow softer, brushed to lie heavy on her brow, and Jack could see sparkles of twisted silver hanging from her ears. Her lips were... Jack wasn't sure what shade of red that was. Delicious Red, maybe. Kissable Red.

‘You look pretty.' Ellie supplied the words that he couldn't. She looked gorgeous. Boots, a black suede skirt and a sheer top with a sleeveless slip underneath, which allowed a tantalising glimpse of the curve of her shoulders and the shape of her arms.

‘Thank you, sweetie.'

‘I want a handbag like yours.'

‘You like it?' Cass flushed a little at the compliment and Jack almost fainted. Was she actually trying to make him dizzy or did she really not know just how amazing she looked?

‘I like the dangles...' Ellie ran up to her, tugging at the long fringe that hung from the sides of her bag. Jack imagined that when she walked it mimicked some of the graceful sway of her hips.

‘Let Cass go, sweetie.' Ellie was about to throw her arms around Cass and the thought of rumpling such perfection was unbearable. ‘She'll be late.'

‘Bye, Ellie.' She bent down and gave the little girl a hug, somehow managing to keep her make-up intact and her hair just so. ‘See you in the morning.'

‘Yeah. Have a good evening.' Jack wondered whether he was going to wait up for her, and decided that if he did so it would be from the safety of his bedroom. Probably with most of the furniture piled up against the door, to at least provide some pause for thought before he marched out to ask her what kind of time she called this and then dragged her into his arms.

‘Thanks.' She grabbed her coat, giving a little wave and a bright grin, and Ellie followed her to the front door, which gave Jack the chance to watch Cass walk down the front path and appreciate the fluid movement of her body.

Then she got into her car, a bright pearl shining in a sea of blue paint, mud and rust spots. Jack watched her draw away and turned, taking Ellie back inside. The house seemed suddenly very quiet.

* * *

He'd listened to the silence in the living room and then gone to bed early, just to see whether the silence in his bedroom might feel less grating. Finally, at eight minutes past one, Jack had heard the front door close quietly and then the pad of stockinged feet on the stairs.

The soft sound of her bedroom door closing allowed him to track her progress. Jack tried not to imagine her throwing her bag on the bed. Taking off her jewellery and slipping the sheer top from her shoulders. He turned over in bed and resolutely shut his eyes.

The silence seemed less a sign that something was missing and more an indication that all was well. Jack drifted off to sleep, but even then his unconscious mind was unable to filter Cass out of his dreams.

* * *

It seemed that Jack's unerring radar for detecting any signs of movement on Ellie's part had failed him once again. Cass, on the other hand, seemed to be picking up that instinct. Despite a late night, she woke early, to the sound of Ellie singing to herself in her bedroom.

She turned over in bed, trying to pretend she hadn't heard. Jack would be up soon and it was his job to look after his daughter. The singing continued, and she found herself out of bed, struggling into her dressing gown, before she had a chance to think about it any further.

‘Go back to bed, sweetie...'

Ellie's answering smile indicated that she would do no such thing. She reached her arms up for a good-morning hug, and Cass gave in to the inevitable.

Toast and some juice were followed by coffee for herself and a glass of frothed milk for Ellie. The little girl sat at the kitchen table, carefully mimicking Cass's actions, sipping her milk slowly as if she too felt the caffeine bringing her round after a late night.

‘Morning.' Jack was still bleary-eyed, his hair wet from the shower. Suddenly Cass was wide awake.

He looked good enough to eat. His washed-out jeans low on his hips, a dark shirt which seemed to have one of the buttons at the top missing, the extra inch or so of open neckline seeming to draw her gaze. Beautiful. From the top of his head to the tips of his sneakers.

Stop, it's not like that. I don't even fancy him.
The lies she'd managed to half believe last night were coming back to slap her in the face this morning. And the questions from her friends about who she was staying with and what he was like had suggested possibilities that she'd been doing her best to ignore.

He bent to kiss Ellie and then turned his gaze on to her. ‘Did you have a good evening?'

‘Yes, thanks. Seems like an age since I've been out.'

He walked over to the kitchen sink, pouring himself a glass of water and downing it in one go. Cass got to her feet.

‘I'd better get going. There's bunting to be hung.' She was trying not to notice what she fancied might be the remains of the look she'd seen in his eyes when she'd left the house last night.

‘What time does it start, again?'

‘Two o'clock.' Cass gave Jack a wide berth, making sure she didn't accidentally brush against him as she walked out of the kitchen, heading for the shower.

* * *

The fire station was decorated with flags and bunting, standing to attention in the stiff breeze, and the two fire engines on the forecourt shone in the sun. Cass looked up at the sky.

‘Think it'll rain?'

Mike, another of the firefighters, glanced at the clouds.

‘If it does, then it'll add some authenticity to the demonstration.' He chuckled. ‘After the last month, I'm not sure I'll be able to get a ladder up unless it's raining.'

‘Me too.' Cass tipped her helmet on to the back of her head. ‘Shame we don't have bigger puddles out back. We could have done rope and water rescue as part of the demonstration.'

‘Don't push it, Cass. Have you seen the roof of the office?'

‘No?' She looked across at the prefabricated office, on the far side of the yard.

‘Enough water on that flat roof to bath a donkey. I'm surprised it hasn't leaked yet.'

‘Suppose we could always take a shot at waterfall rescue.' Cass grinned.

‘Is that in the manual? Come on, I bet you know what page.'

‘Everything's in the manual. And I wouldn't tell you what page it was on even if I knew; you'd just call me a swot.'

‘You're a swot. Everybody knows that.' Mike watched the stream of cars turning into the car park. ‘Here they come. Prepare for terror like you've never known before.'

* * *

Cass looked for Jack in the sea of heads and saw him with Ellie, who was dressed in red wellingtons and a matching waterproof coat. They were being guided across the yard with the first of the visitors and into the garage, where Mike was overseeing the most important part of the afternoon. The demonstration and being able to see a fire engine up close was the fun bit, but there was a serious message to get across as well.

Everything was distilled down into easy steps that a child might remember if faced with a fire or flood. Cass leaned against the front of the tender, listening to the kids' voices chanting along with Mike's.
Don't hide.
A child's first instinct, to hide away in the face of danger, was every firefighter's worst nightmare.

No nightmares today, though. Cass watched as the station commander's wife made a blood-curdling job of yelling for help from the roof of the garage, and four firefighters raced across the yard with a ladder. She was rescued with the minimum of indignity, as befitted her status, and to general applause. Then some of the smaller kids were lifted up on to a lower platform, where they were held safely by one of the crew until a shorter ladder was run across the yard to perform similar, if less hair-raising, rescues.

In between talking to the first of the groups which clustered around her and showing them around the fire engine, Cass saw Ellie on the platform.

‘Help! Fire!' she called across the yard at the top of her voice. The firefighter squatting down next to her said a few words and then grinned as she waved her arms energetically above her head. ‘Help! Fire!'

Ellie was duly rescued, received a round of applause and ran back to Jack. He hoisted her up on his shoulders and started to walk towards Cass, coming to a halt behind the family who had just approached her.

She bent towards the two little boys, seeing only Jack. Tall and relaxed, smiling at her.

‘What...' She cleared her throat, trying to dislodge the lump that seemed to have formed. She'd already done this half a dozen times but she was suddenly acutely aware of being watched. And acutely mindful of the gentle dark eyes that were doing the watching.

‘What have you learned today?' She waited for the boys' answers and then began to show them the fire engine, making a conscious effort not to rush them through. Finally they accepted the colouring sheets and badges that she handed them, along with the fire safety information for their parents, and walked away talking excitedly.