Page 65 of The Bad Girl and the Baby

Chapter Sixteen

She’d been in a hurry when she dropped Lulu off the previous day. Lulu hadn’t wanted to leave the museum—she’d been totally captivated by the mummies—and had to be bribed with the promise of ice cream on the way home. Darcy always felt like a total failure when she resorted to bribery, but she’d been meeting Reganthat evening to go to the theater and was running late. She’d bet any money that the perfect Diana never needed to use the lure of ice cream.

It hadn’t helped that, as Matt had opened the door to them, Lulu had hurled chocolate ice cream all down his smart blue button-down shirt. Where was he going anyway? They’d both said they were going to be busy, but neither had asked the details. That wasn’t the sort of relationship they had. But he’d better not be out on a date with a suitable woman. She didn’t share. Even if they weren’t serious.

Luckily, Lulu’s regurgitated chocolate ice cream had managed to avoid Darcy—lovely child—and she’d handed Lulu over and made a hasty retreat, only to be stopped at the bottom of the driveway by Matt calling her back. She’d turned around reluctantly. Matt hurried toward her, still holding Lulu—he was usually so fastidious, but the vomit didn’t seem to faze him at all. It must be all his SAS training.

“Sunday lunch, tomorrow, here with my parents,” he’d said and disappeared back into the house before she could say yes, no, or what the hell?

This would be their first meeting. Matt had told her that his mother felt guilty about the whole Steven thing, and she wasn’t very good at dealing with guilt. But he’d wanted them to meet before his parents returned home to Australia in a week’s time.

So here she was. Dressed in her Sunday best. She’d actually been quite nervous when she was getting ready this morning—had even considered raiding Regan’s and Summer’s rooms for any garments they might have left behind. In the end, she’d sat herself down and given herself a talking to. It wasn’t as though she was meeting the future in-laws or anything. But she did want them to like her. Lulu didn’t have a big family, so the few people she did have owed it to her to get along. So while she hadn’t gone as far as pilfering Regan’s wardrobe, she’d done her best and was wearing an ankle length black skirt and a sleeveless white tunic, with flat black leather lace-up sandals.

Last night had been the first night she and Matt hadn’t been together since the evening of the horrible Angie’s birthday. And she’d hated to admit it, but she’d missed him. She tried to ignore the feeling.

Should she have brought something? Dessert. She’d stopped on the way and bought a bottle of white wine. Then she’d gone back and bought a bottle of red, just in case. She hoped they weren’t teetotalers.

Grrr.

Before the whole Steven thing, she’d never doubted herself like this. That failure had bitten deeply into her self-confidence. Her belief in herself. She stood on the front doorstep, took a deep breath, and rang the bell.

The door opened immediately, and Matt stood there. His normally immaculate hair was ruffled as though he’d been running his fingers through it.

“You’re late,” he murmured.

She glanced at her watch. “One minute.” That was because she’d gone back for the second bottle of wine. She held the bottles out to him, one in each hand, but he ignored them. Grasping her upper arm, he tugged her inside, kicking the door closed behind them.

“I missed you.” He lowered his head and kissed her deeply, his tongue thrusting inside, his hard body pressing her up against the closed door. She couldn’t do much; she had a bottle of wine in each hand. Raising his head, he stared down into her face. “Tell me you missed me, too.”

“Nope.” She glanced past him, expecting to see his whole family lined up watching them. Great way to meet her niece’s grandparents.

“Liar.” He kissed her again, and she melted.

“Matt?”

He stepped back at the woman’s voice and gave a rueful smile. “Later,” he mouthed.

Darcy peered past him. A woman stood in the doorway to the living room. She had a look of Matt about her. The same black hair and blue eyes. Tall and slender, in a floor-length flowery dress, she didn’t look old enough to be his mother. She must have had him very young.

Darcy cleared her throat and forced a smile, then took a step forward and almost banged into Matt, who hadn’t moved. He probably couldn’t without giving away the huge erection that had been pressed up against her only seconds ago. Not something you’d want your mother to see.

She took pity on him and edged around his unmoving form. After putting her bottles of wine on the table, she walked across and held out her hand. “Hello, I’m Darcy Butler, Lulu’s aunt.”

“I’m Jolene, Matt’s mom. It’s lovely to meet you at last. Lulu has told us all about you.”

She seemed genuine and nice. Darcy knew from the few things he’d said about his family that Matt didn’t really get on all that well with his parents. No doubt he had his reasons, but whatever they were, they weren’t obvious. Then again, this woman had also produced Steven. So she’d wait to pass judgment.

“Come in, and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the family.”

Darcy followed her into the sitting room. A man sat on the sofa, bouncing Lulu on his lap as she chuckled to herself and waved at Darcy. A girl was sitting opposite him, reading a book, though she put it down immediately and got to her feet. She studied Darcy closely. Darcy guessed she’d heard all about Lulu’s ex-con of an aunt. She came forward and held out her hand.

“Hi, I’m Hannah.” She took after her father, with no look of Matt. Her hair was dark blond, her eyes hazel in a pointed face. She was tanned and wore jeans and a tank top. Darcy took her hand and shook it.

“I’m Darcy.”

Hannah cocked her head to one side. “You look just like Lulu. Except for the tattoos, which are awesome, by the way.”

“Thank you. And yes, Lulu takes after me more than she did Emma.”

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