The Kathryn Freeman Romcom Collection

She blinked. ‘Looks like we both over-reacted.’

Her attention moved over his shoulder and she gave Tabby and Penny a wide smile. The one that made everything inside him sit up and take notice of her.

The one he wished she’d direct at him.

Going over to them, she gave them both a quick kiss on the top of their heads. ‘Be good for Seb.’

‘I’m always good,’ Tabby protested, making them all laugh, and thankfully defusing the remaining tension.

‘Okay, well.’ Maggie glanced back at him. ‘Thanks again for taking care of them.’

‘No problem.’ He nodded down to the sheet of paper in his hand. ‘Thanks for making it easy by giving me such a comprehensive list.’

For a split second he feared she’d take his joke the wrong way, but then her mouth curved, and her eyes lit up with silent laughter. Damn if it wasn’t one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen.

She was late. Maggie parked in the youth centre car park and ran up the steps. Her job often overran – people needed time to talk to their doctor, not be herded through the system like cattle. It was fine when she had Hannah, a friend whom she paid to stay with her children. It hadn’t been fine with Paul.

She didn’t know if it was going to be fine with the man helping her out simply because she’d asked him to. A man who’d had to bring two children to his first shift in his new job. Bugger, bugger, bugger.

Feeling breathless, she marched down the corridor, pausing to look through the open doors. He wasn’t playing pool in the games room.

Nor in what looked to be a computer room.

The double doors at the end had a glass window, and after a glance through them, she exhaled in relief. It was a large multi-purpose hall/gym and Tabby and Penny were at one end of it, trying to throw a ball through a hoop.

Seb was at the other end with a group of around ten kids in their early teens, showing them how to dribble with a basketball.

Edging the door open, Maggie slipped inside. Immediately the girls saw her and ran over. ‘Hello, darlings, sorry I’m late.’

‘’S okay. We did our homework and watched some telly and then Seb brung us here in his new car which isn’t really his car and we played trying to get the ball in the hole.’ Tabby’s words tumbled over each other. ‘And he called me Tabs again, and Penny Penelope ’cos he can’t call her Pens.’ She sniggered. ‘That was well funny.’

Oh dear. Maggie gave her eldest, and at times rather sensitive, daughter a hug. ‘Do you want me to tell him not to?’

Penny shook her head. ‘It’s fine.’ She shrugged, twisting her hands. ‘In a way, I kind of like it.’

‘Me too,’ Tabby piped up.

Maggie glanced towards the man who seemed to have won her daughters over. Wearing a hoodie and scruffy jeans, laughing and mucking around with the kids, from this distance he looked like he was barely older than they were. She, on the other hand, in her prim work skirt and blouse, felt old and straight-laced.

He looked over and waved when he saw her, saying something to the group before jogging over, his loose-limbed style a dead giveaway that he was physically fit. As if the athletic body wasn’t enough of a clue.

And yes, now he was standing in front of her, six foot something of virile male, flashing that grin, he no longer looked like a kid. He looked like a man who made her knees weak.

‘I’m really sorry I’m late.’ The more his eyes danced in amusement, the more flustered and defensive she felt. It was one thing being in his debt. Another finding herself embarrassingly attracted to him. ‘I try not to be but it’s not always in my control. Sometimes patients—’

‘Hey, do I look annoyed? Worried?’

She bit into her lip, feeling like the up-tight woman he must have her down as. ‘No, but when I asked you, I fully intended to be home in time. I didn’t want to put you out even more by having to bring them to work.’

‘Then it’s lucky they’re not bad company, for a couple of ankle biters.’ He winked at the girls. ‘Remember your bags, kiddos. You left them in the games room.’ In a flash, before Maggie could ask them to wait, they’d all go together, they were off. As she followed them, Seb held the door open for her. ‘Don’t worry. They know where they’re going.’

‘I wasn’t worried.’

He shrugged, leaning on the door. ‘Okay.’

Damn, why did she always do this? Put up the defensive wall, when he was only trying to be kind? ‘Right, well, thank you for today. It meant a lot to know they were in good hands.’

His mouth curved. ‘Good hands, eh?’

‘Yes.’ She looked him straight in the eye. ‘My daughters like you, and that’s important to me.’

He nodded, folding his arms across his chest. ‘The boy in me wants to ask if you like me, but the man in me thinks it’ll make me sound like a prat, so instead I’ll ask if you’re okay for childcare tomorrow?’

A smile hovered across her lips. He seemed to have a knack of bringing it out of her. ‘Thank you, but I spoke to Hannah on the way over here and she sounds better so you’re off the hook.’

Silence descended between them. Oddly, it wasn’t awkward. More of a tingling silence that crackled with awareness. It made her realise her worry hadn’t really been whether he’d be cross she was late – that would almost have been a relief, because then she could have dismissed him.

Instead he’d made everything so easy: asking him the favour, pushing her luck with the timing so much he’d had to take them to work. Even the niggle about the list he’d smoothed out and turned into a joke. It all meant that this inconvenient attraction, instead of dwindling the more she got to know him, flared brighter and hotter.

Relieved to hear the girls clatter out of the room two doors down, Maggie gave Seb a quick smile and sped after them. Away from his lazy grin, his too blue eyes, and his chilled yet very powerful appeal.

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