Chapter Twenty-Six
Anna sat on the end of Maisie’s bed, waiting for her daughter to jump in, smiling at the small silver Christmas tree Maisie had insisted she needed to have in her room in case she forgot it was nearly Christmas when she woke up.
For once there’d been none of the usual Sunday night argument about wanting to watch the end of Dancing on Ice. That’s how tired her daughter was.
‘Best weekend ever,’ she exclaimed as she flopped into bed.
‘Better than the last time we were in London?’
Maisie screwed up her face. ‘I mean, that was great, but this was even awesomer.’
‘Even more awesome.’
Maisie grinned. ‘That’s what I said. Before Max was a bit quiet, but this time he was well funny.’
‘Last time we did The Lion King. And the Christmas lights.’
‘Yeah.’ Maise nodded soberly. ‘But this time we did all the Christmas trees. Where was that huge one with the big red bow and all the red and white lights?’
‘Covent Garden?’
She grinned. ‘That was my bestest. Then there was that one with the funny robot.’
‘The St Pancras Station tree. The robot was made out of boxes from Tiffany’s.’
‘I liked that second best.’ She let out a tired sigh and snuggled under the duvet. Just as Anna thought she was going to sleep, Maisie blinked up at her. ‘Is Dan your boyfriend now?’
She’d known the question was coming. Maisie wasn’t daft, and this weekend Dan hadn’t held back from reaching for her hand, or putting his arm around her when they’d been out and about.
He’d even dropped the occasional light kiss on her lips.
‘Yes,’ she replied softly. ‘I think you could say he’s my boyfriend. ’
Maisie seemed to consider this. ‘Does that mean he’ll be my dad?’
And oh shit, she should have guessed this question would come up too. ‘No.’ Anna fought to keep the emotion from spilling over. ‘You remember your dad, don’t you?’ Maisie nodded. ‘Well, he will always be your dad, even though he isn’t with us any more.’
‘But Priti’s mum married her boyfriend, and Priti says he’s now her dad.’
Anna reminded herself she was a teacher.
She was supposed to be good at talking to children.
‘He’s probably Priti’s stepdad, but if her real dad isn’t around then maybe she thinks of him as her dad.
And that’s fine, because a dad is someone who loves you, protects you, looks out for you.
Encourages you. If he does all that for Priti, then there’s no reason she can’t call him her dad. ’
‘Maybe one day, if you marry Dan, he could be my dad, as well as Max’s.’ She let out a giant yawn, her eyes drooping. ‘I think he’d be a sick dad.’
Emotion caught in her throat, making talking difficult. ‘I imagine that’s how Max thinks of him, yes.’ Carefully she bent to kiss Maisie’s forehead. ‘Good night, sweetie.’
‘Night.’ Anna had just reached the door when Maisie spoke again. ‘If Dan’s your boyfriend, why does he sleep in a hotel when he comes up here? When we go to see him, we sleep in his house.’
Thankfully Maisie didn’t seem to need a reply because her eyes drifted closed.
Still, her words circled Anna’s mind as she stepped into her own bedroom and stared at the huge wrought iron bed. An extravagance she’d bought with Chris when they’d first got married, even though it had cost far more than their allocated bed budget.
Maisie was right. It hadn’t seemed right to wave goodbye to Dan when he’d dropped them off a few hours ago, knowing full well he was going to spend Sunday night alone in a faceless hotel.
But as she went to sit on the bed, she knew it also wouldn’t have felt right to let him stay here, in this bed.
A few moments later, her mobile went off. Checking her watch, Anna smiled. Faith and Gabby had scheduled a three-way call with her, keen to hear the details of, in their words, Anna’s second dirty weekend in London.
Settling onto the bed, Anna prepared herself for the interrogation.
Fifteen minutes later, after Anna had diligently taken them through most of the weekend — the delights of Dan’s bedroom were going to remain her business — Gabby asked quietly, ‘Is everything okay?’
And that was all it took for Anna to burst into tears. ‘Oh, my God, ignore me,’ she spluttered. ‘I don’t know why I’m crying.’
‘Because you’re happy?’ Gabby ventured. ‘And a small part of you isn’t sure you should be?’
Anna wiped at her eyes, staring up at the ceiling.
‘Maisie asked me all these questions tonight about Dan, whether he was my boyfriend, did that make him her dad. I guess it brought everything back, emphasised how much Chris has missed and the whole bloody unfairness of it all. He’d have been so proud of her.
’ She dragged in a breath. ‘Then, just as I thought she’d finished with the hard questions, she goes and asks why Dan sleeps in a hotel when he comes up and not with us. ’
‘And why does he?’ Faith this time, but with the same careful concern in her voice.
‘At first I thought I was sheltering Maisie, but you know what, she wouldn’t bat an eyelid if Dan was here in the morning. In fact she’d like it, because he cracks her up. So I think it’s actually because this bed has too much history.’
‘Then the solution is very simple,’ Faith replied.
And together her and Gabby shouted down the line, ‘It’s time to buy a new bed.’
* * *
Tuesday, 18 December
Dan was in his second favourite place. No, not the damn school hall, with its stage set up depicting a stable scene, complete with a giant glittery star above it that had been taped to the climbing frame.
Well, okay, he was in the hall, but it wasn’t the place he loved.
It was being in Anna’s arms. And again, if he was pedantic, she was probably in his arms, but the way they were dancing it was definitely a bit of both.
Of course his favourite place was in a naked Anna’s arms, but that would have to wait until after the final dance lesson of the year.
That’s if she’d asked her in-laws to put Maisie to bed.
He winced, the thought of her dead husband’s parents taking care of her daughter while she sloped off to have sex with him in a hotel still didn’t sit well with him.
God knows how it sat with them, though of course they probably didn’t know about the sex part.
At least he hoped not.
He stumbled, and Anna’s arms tightened on him as he found his footing again. ‘That’s usually my trick.’ She frowned. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Yep, totally.’ He bent to whisper in her ear. ‘Found myself thinking of you, naked, in my hotel bed.’
‘Ah.’ Her tongue creeped out and she licked her lips. Conscious, or unconscious, he didn’t know, but the action went straight to his groin. ‘I won’t be coming to the hotel tonight.’
Disappointment crashed through him and he found himself mucking up the next few steps.
‘Okay.’ Of course it wasn’t, but what the hell could he say?
‘I mean, it’s a shame, but that’s fine. I’ll just have to find some other entertainment.
’ The moment he said the words, he groaned.
‘Damn, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.
I meant like watching something on Netflix. ’
A small smile played around her delicious lips. ‘Netflix and chill?’
‘Whoa, what? That’s some teenage shorthand for something, isn’t it?’
‘It is.’ It was her turn to whisper into his ear. ‘It’s a euphemism for having sex.’
He groaned again. ‘Please don’t talk about sex while Sid is dancing only five feet away from me. I really don’t want to associate the words sex and Sid together in my head.’
Her sexy laughter slid down his spine and caused him to shudder. ‘How about you come round to mind when we finish here instead. We could watch Netflix.’ She breathed into his ear. ‘And chill?’
He stumbled again, causing Bridget to look over at him. Giving her an everything is just hunky-dory smile, he stared down at the woman in his arms. ‘Are you asking what I think you are?’
She smiled, a touch of mischief in it. ‘You’ll have to come over and see for yourself.’
* * *
As he walked into Anna’s sitting room, Dan gave Bob’s hand an awkward shake.
He had to stop thinking of them as his .
. . girlfriend’s . . . lover’s . . . neither sounded right.
But nor did thinking of Val and Bob as Anna’s in-laws.
If he did, he’d only ever be a monosyllabic, guilt addled mess in front of them, and as they were clearly closer to Anna than her own parents, he desperately needed to make a better impression than he’d done so far.
‘And you met Val last time.’ Anna smiled fondly towards the tallish lady with the blonde-silver hair and the interested green eyes who stood to greet him. Maisie’s eyes, so clearly Chris’s eyes, too.
Usually Dan would know what to say to ease the slightly strained atmosphere, but his charm button seemed to have got stuck. Yet Val was smiling at him warmly, so maybe the strained part was all in his head.
Thankfully Maisie, who’d been sent upstairs to brush her teeth, chose that moment to dash into the room like a mini tornedo. ‘Was the dancing good?’
The eyes might be Chris’s, Dan thought as he took in Maisie’s wild curls and her big smile, but she was definitely Anna’s daughter.
And he was falling for her just as hard as he was her mum.
‘My dancing was excellent, as usual.’ Slowly he felt his natural ease return.
‘And your mother only scrunched my toes four times tonight, so while I can’t call her good, I can say she’s no longer as bad as when we started. ’
Maisie, as expected, erupted into giggles. It wasn’t that he was particularly funny, Dan knew that. Just that Maisie was a pint-sized pot of laughter, exuberance and happiness.
‘I seem to remember you stumbling a few times this evening,’ Anna reminded him, the devilish gleam in her eyes telling him she remembered what had caused him to stumble.
He cleared his throat, murmuring that even genius’s take a misstep now and again, which caused Maisie to roll her eyes at him. ‘You’re so bad. I bet Mum’s way betterer than you say she is.’