Page 9 of The Six-Week Single Dad
“I said I would.”
“And here was me thinking we’d order pizza.”
“I’m pretty sure that after tomorrow, we’ll be ready to do that.”
A look of confusion crossed his face as if, for a moment, he’d forgotten that he’d be collecting Alfie in the morning.
“Let me go and get out of these clothes. I’ll be back in a minute.”
I tried to stop thinking of Hayden getting close to naked in his room as I served up the thrown-together dinner. There was a bottle of Spanish red on the side, and I placed that in the centre of the table, before setting it for the two of us. All it needed was a candle and some romantic music. I shook that thought away as I sat down. I was here to look after Alfie while Hayden was at work. That was all.
A couple of minutes later, Hayden reappeared, looking refreshed in a pair of skinny jeans and a tight-fitting T-shirt. It was the complete opposite to his business look and I didn’t know which one I preferred.
If I was honest with myself, both.
Chapter Five
Hayden
She really was incredible. I sat down at the table and inhaled the rich, spicy, tomato flavour that was coming from the chicken. There had been no mention of cooking, and yet she’d created this amazing concoction from whatever there was in my refrigerator.
“We’ll need to do a proper shop,” said Bea. “I don’t know what Maddy already has for Alfie, but we can’t live on leftovers.” She blew on some chicken to cool it down before popping it into her mouth.
“We can do that. Maybe we can do an online one after dinner? Saves us the bother of either going out early or trying to shop with Alfie.”
We. Us.
I was talking about us as if we were a couple.
We had to be a team.
We had to get through this next six weeks together.
“There’s all that furniture to build too. Unless you think Alfie would be happier in one of the boxes.” Bea laughed.
“He’s not a cat, although a cat might be easier to look after.”
“How was your day?” Bea reached for her glass of wine. “You said you were in a meeting?”
“Yeah, it was just a team meeting. They told us about Maddy coming back, then heading straight out to Paris. I tried to look as taken aback as everyone else, but my acting skills aren’t that great.” It was true. When it had been announced, I tried to keep a straight face. Those on the team that knew me well weren’t surprised by my reaction. In fact, a couple of them had come up to me afterwards and asked what was going to happen with Alfie.
“I noticed your acting skills, or rather lack of them, when you came in, and saw the utter devastation I’d caused.”
The box carnage lay behind me and I glanced at it. “We’ll sort it out after dinner.”
There I went again with the ‘we’. I took a large gulp of wine, although maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do the night before my son was going to be coming to live with me. Having a hangover in the morning probably wasn’t the best idea.
We finished dinner, chatting about Tom and Laura and work. Bea said she was looking forward to starting her job, and I realised I hadn’t spoken to her about her future plans. Not that there had been any real reason to before; she was only Tom’s little sister, after all. Now, though, I wanted to know everything. I wanted to know about her trip, who she’d met and made friends with, why she’d chosen to go into PR, everything.
“Right, we should make a start on this.” I stood up, a little unsteady after the wine. Had we really got through almost two bottles?
“Do you want a coffee?” Bea asked as she cleared the table and put the dirty plates and cutlery in the dishwasher. “That might be a good idea.” I reached down for one of the sheets of instructions. Where I’d perhaps skimped on the furniture in the spare room—Bea’s room—I’d gone all out for Alfie, getting a cot that converted into a toddler bed, a dresser/changer and matching wardrobe. Looking at it now, in situ, I realised that there might not be enough space for everything. Why hadn’t I checked the measurements?
Bea handed me my coffee, and I gratefully took a sip. “Shall we make up the cot first?” she suggested.
“Good idea.”
We shifted the boxes into the currently empty room, and as we did so, I caught a glimpse of her bedroom through the crack in the door.
