Page 4 of The Six-Week Single Dad
“I wish.” Laura sighed. “It’s like talking to a brick wall sometimes, and then he’ll do something like this.” She pointed at the free wine. “And what about you? Did you meet anyone?”
I shook my head. There had been a couple of one-nighters, nothing to write home about, and no one I saw a long-term future with. That was fine though. I was only twenty-three. There was plenty of time to settle down.
My phone buzzed with a message. It was Tom. “My brother’s coming down for a drink, so can we stay here for a bit longer?”
“Hon, if we’re getting free wine, we’re staying here all night!”
We chatted while waiting for Tom to arrive. He was never the best at being on time and when he did finally get there, the bottle was empty and turned upside down in the bucket.
“Shall I get you another one?” He raised his eyebrows. “It is a school night.”
“Hey, I don’t have a job and Laura’s not at work until tomorrow afternoon.” I fluttered my eyelashes at him. “So if you wanted to treat your little sister to something, that would be lovely.”
Tom grunted and went to the bar, denying Laura another session of flirting. Unsurprisingly, he was a lot quicker at getting the drinks than she had been. He replaced the empty bottle with a full one, then put two pints down on the table, before he pulled up a stool to make four spaces available.
I frowned. “Is there a two-for-one on beers or is someone else coming?”
“All in good time, Bea. I might just have found you something to do for the next six weeks.”
Oh fuck. I shouldn’t have said that I was bored. He’d probably found me a dull temp job in one of his friend’s recruitment offices. I’d be scanning passports and checking timesheets before you knew it.
“Where is it?” I asked with trepidation.
“Hang on, he’ll be here in a minute. He was going to run it past someone else first.”
Ugh. It really was going to be photocopying, wasn’t it?
The moment Hayden Kinsella stepped through the door I was thrown. It had obviously been over a year since I’d last set eyes on him. He hadn’t changed all that much, although his dark hair was cropped closer to his head with cute little spikes, and his eyes were still that same clear, deep blue I’d always loved staring into. When he wasn’t aware, of course.
My breath hitched.
Hayden Kinsella was still gorgeous.
But he was also still my older brother’s best friend.
I plastered on a fake great-to-see-you, friendly smile. “Hi, Hayden, long time no see.”Seriously, how lame was that?
His mouth curved up at one corner. “Good to see you too, Bea. How was the trip?”
Was he really interested or making conversation? I babbled on for a while, telling him the edited highlights of New York, LA, and some of the great places I’d been to in Canada.
“Sounds amazing. And now you’re back.”
I nodded and sipped my wine, trying to get some moisture back into my mouth. I always ended up feeling like an idiot when Hayden was around. The cool, older guy who was my brother’s friend and wouldn’t look twice in my direction.
“Tom said you’ll be starting a new job soon.”
I nodded again, feeling like one of those stupid dogs you saw on the parcel shelf of cars. “That’s right, in about six weeks.”
“So you’re at a loose end until then?”
That’s not quite how I would have put it. I would have said ‘preparing for my working life’ or ‘taking some time to myself until I had to join the ranks of the working people’. Instead, I said. “Yep, guess so.”
“Then I might have a proposition for you.”
Here it comes—the offer of checking right-to-work documents and chasing errant contractors for their weekly hours. I can’t wait.
“I, um, need some help looking after Alfie while Maddy’s in Paris for work.”
