Chapter 25
She was nervous, which was ridiculous. Olivia Davies didn’t do nervous. But as she walked with Connor toward Jessica’s house,
Ellie happily skipping ahead of them, plaits bouncing, Olivia’s heart was galloping. It didn’t help that Connor—currently
rocking a leather jacket—seemed tense too. Didn’t help either that they’d not seen each other since last Sunday. It had been
a good day, a really good day, so when her sister had mentioned bringing Connor to Mia’s party on Saturday—today—she’d not hesitated. Now, with
her sister’s house in view, she wondered if this was a step too big for their embryonic relationship. Sure, her family had
all met him in Nantucket, but he was no longer the guy who’d persuaded her into a holiday fling.
He was the man she was dating.
“You okay?” Connor gazed at her quizzically and she nodded vigorously, causing him to frown. “You’re sure? And use your words
this time, because I’m worried your head might fall off if you keep nodding like that.”
“Are you okay?”
“Uh-huh.” He scratched the back of his neck, and her eyes flew to where his T-shirt lifted, following the sexy arrow of hair
that disappeared beneath the waistband of his Calvin Klein boxers.
Her lower belly performed a slow, languid flip. Yep, it also didn’t help that she was sexually frustrated, her core guitar
string tight. Sure, they’d fooled around on his sofa last Sunday and had phone sex twice this week, but it was like eating
fast food when she’d had a taste of haute cuisine.
“Stop looking at me like that,” he told her roughly.
“Like what?”
“You know.” He slid his hand into his jeans and unobtrusively adjusted himself. “I love having those hot eyes on me, but not when I
can’t do anything about it.”
“Then stop raising your damn arm.”
He gave her a bemused look and raised his arm again.
“There.” She gestured toward the mouthwatering slice of male stomach. “You need to buy longer shirts.”
He chuckled. “Nah, I like watching you watch me.” With a groan he pulled his jacket farther down. “Just maybe don’t do it
when I’m about to meet your family.”
Nick opened the door to them, greeted Connor with a handshake, Ellie with a sweet high five, and Olivia with a hug.
“The gang are in the family room.” He smiled at Ellie. “Mia is excited to see you again.”
As soon as they’d stepped into the hall, Jessica and Ashley dashed over to meet them and hugged Connor like he was already
part of the family. The two girls were shy at first, but the ice was quickly broken when Ellie opened her backpack and handed
Mia a parcel wrapped in pink paper dotted with unicorns. “You didn’t need to get her a present,” Olivia whispered to Connor,
touched.
“What, come to a kid’s birthday party empty-handed?” Connor looked at her like she was mad. It took a few seconds before she
realized that this was hardly the first child’s party he’d attended.
The gift. a toy horse complete with fully bendable parts, proved a great hit, and the two girls began to talk like old friends.
“I like your hair.” Mia pointed to Ellie’s neat plaits.
“Dad did it. He can do it for you if you want.” She turned to Connor. “Can’t you, Dad?”
The utter adoration in her eyes made it abundantly clear that while Connor beat himself up about not being an organized dad
or a rich dad, he was actually the best dad of all—a dad who was loved.
“Sure, if Mia would like that.”
Mia nodded and Connor dropped to his haunches, aware of how intimidating his towering six-foot-three frame was to a child.
“Have you got a brush and some hair ties?”
Jessica darted into the bathroom and came out with a rainbow-colored brush and some matching bands. “I’m a useless mum because
I can’t do fancy French plaits.”
Connor winked. “Just takes nimble fingers.”
He strolled over to the sofa, sat down, and carefully shifted Mia so she was standing in front of him, facing away. Then he
began to slowly sweep the brush down her hair.
Jessica let out a soft groan. “I think my ovaries just melted.”
“I . . .” Olivia watched as Connor, face etched with concentration, wove half of Mia’s hair into a neat plait like Ellie’s.
“I wondered what the mushy feeling was.”
Jessica turned to her. “You’re starting to fall for him, aren’t you?” Her mouth curved in a knowing smile. “It was never just
about sex. You like him.”
“I do.” Olivia swallowed to clear the lump from her throat. “I like him a lot.”
“Good,” Ashley remarked, appearing on her other side. “Because we like him too. He’s exactly what you need.”
But was he? Because he seemed exactly what she didn’t need at this point in her career.
She glanced to Connor and found his eyes on her, his expression watchful. You okay? he mouthed.
She nodded. She could do this. Before, she hadn’t wanted the relationship enough, so it had suffered. This time, she wanted
the relationship so much, she’d been miserable without it, and her work had suffered.
Somehow, she had to learn to juggle both.
Connor wrapped a band around Mia’s second plait and tapped her on the shoulder.
“All done.”
She smiled shyly at him, then grasped Ellie’s hand. “Come with me. I want to see what they look like.”
The pair of them dashed off, presumably to a mirror. With nothing else to focus on now, he scanned the room. As his gaze fell
on the different groups chatting animatedly, the nerves he’d felt earlier returned, knotting his stomach. On holiday, her
family had been on his side, keen for Olivia to have a bit of fun.
Today he was here as her boyfriend. With his daughter in tow.
Did they see him as a gold digger, after her money? A single dad after a mother figure for his daughter? His gut rolled.
“Thanks for doing Mia’s hair.” With a start, he looked up to see Jessica smiling down at him. “I think you just made her birthday.”
“No worries.” Awkwardly he lurched to his feet. In Nantucket he’d been able to talk to her easily. Here he felt like he didn’t
belong. “Ellie used to get picked on for having unruly hair and begged me to plait it. I was so ham-fisted, they fell out
before she’d got to school.”
“Sounds like one of your attempts, Jess.” Ashley smiled and his stomach settled a little. She knew him, didn’t she?
But then Olivia came into view behind her, and that feeling of being unbalanced, of everything inside him fluttering, returned
in full force.
“Well, you’ve definitely perfected the art of plaiting now. How did you learn?” Jessica asked.
“Watching YouTube videos.” He felt his face grow hot and shoved his hands in his pockets for something to do. “And practicing
on one of her dolls.”
He didn’t dare look at Olivia.
He’d never know what they, what she thought of that, because the sound of a crying baby blasted through from the baby monitor.
Jessica sighed. “I’m afraid that’s the end of our peace.” She glanced speculatively at Connor, “Don’t suppose you can work
your miracles on grumpy babies too? Tabby used to be such a sunny little thing, but I swear she’s started teething early.”
He was being too sensitive—blame years of his parents sniping at him—but it felt like he had a giant spotlight on him. He knows this stuff because he had a daughter when he was too young to care for her properly. “Ellie would gnaw on my fingers.”
Jessica laughed. “Well, I might ask you to help out if the paracetamol doesn’t kick in.”
“Happy to.”
The doorbell sounded, announcing more arrivals—Sophie and Steve, plus Linda, Olivia’s mum. As everyone hugged and caught one
another up on their news, he felt more and more isolated. The virtual stranger who shouldn’t be there. Across the sea of faces
he watched Olivia talking with her niece. Different to the focused career woman, this was the Olivia who loved her family.
It was hard to square this woman with the one who insisted she didn’t want a family of her own.
She caught his eye and motioned for him to join her, but he gave a little shake of his head. Family time was precious and
he wasn’t going to get in the way of hers by being a needy boyfriend. No matter how desperately he wanted to sit on the sofa
and draw her onto his lap.
He slipped out of the living room and meandered into the kitchen, where he found Nick and Jessica. They looked frazzled, Nick
trying to bounce a clearly miserable Tabby on his shoulder while preparing jugs of homemade lemonade, Jessica taking things
out of the oven, her cheeks as flushed as Tabby’s.
“Put me to work,” he told them as he stood in the doorway. “I can be chef, barman, or babysitter, take your pick.”
Jessica burst out laughing. “Oh my God, you can too. I want to say yes to everything.” She waved a hand at Nick. “But maybe
if you take Tabby for a bit?”
Nick looked pointedly at his wife, his reluctance to leave his precious daughter with the playboy from Nantucket perfectly
clear.
“It’s okay,” Jessica assured him. “Connor brought up Ellie single-handedly. He knows his way around a cranky baby.”
Nick looked again at Connor, who nodded, man-speak for I’ve got this. Carefully Nick peeled the fussing Tabby off his shoulder and handed her to Connor. Connor arranged the little girl in his
arms, and his throat locked up as memories flooded him, good and bad. Bad because he’d been a clueless twenty-year-old in
charge of a baby who, at times, looked so unhappy. He’d lost count of how often he’d had to swallow his pride and phone his
mum to check if the red cheeks and temperature were normal when teeth came through or that the nappy rash really wasn’t meningitis,
the cough not whooping cough. He’d felt so out of his depth, so utterly useless, and also so alone, his mates not interested
in staying in with a baby.
But the good memories far outweighed the bad. First smile, first word, first steps. Ellie blinking up at him with her trusting
blue eyes. Each time, love had swamped him, and nothing else had mattered.
“Hey, Tabby.” He smiled down at the baby girl, who stopped crying for a moment to stare up at him. Probably wondering who
the bruiser was who’d suddenly taken hold of her. Snuggling her into his left side, he walked over to the sink, ran his other
hand under the cold tap, popped a finger into her mouth, and gave her bottom gum a little massage. “There you go, chomp on
that.”
Tabby stopped fussing, her little gums gnawing away at his finger.
Jessica smiled warmly at him. “You’re a natural.”
He laughed, feeling a little more settled. Like maybe he wasn’t being judged after all. “Absolutely not. But I guess if you
make enough mistakes, you eventually learn from them.”
With Tabby nestled in his arms, he wandered into the hallway, looking for a quiet room. He found a small study, pushed open
the door, and stepped inside. A second later he caught a whiff of expensive floral scent.
Olivia came in. Her expression softened as she gazed down at Tabby. After a moment, she looked up at him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded and their eyes caught, hers curious. “What is it?” he asked.
“I’m still trying to get my head around this version of you.”
His heart gave a hard thump. “What’s the verdict so far?”
“There you are!” Ellie burst into the room before Olivia could reply. “I was looking for you. Can we go outside and play?
Mia said she has a climbing frame and it sounds dead cool.”
As he spoke to Ellie, Olivia pressed a gentle kiss to Tabby’s head and slipped out of the room.
He was left wondering if they’d both had a lucky reprieve.