Maggie had just started her car when a silver Fiesta screeched round the corner and parked up outside her house. She hoped it wasn’t someone to see her. She had a dance class to get to. With a man who’d told her she was attractive – no, what was it, the most attractive woman I’ve ever met. The butterflies re-awakened in her belly. His words were such a massive, much-needed ego boost, but a level head was needed. The compliment had to be taken the way it had been intended, in the spirit of friendship.
Yet for all her talk, as she watched the tall blonde man climb out of the car and walk up the drive towards her, the butterflies began to flap in earnest. Putting the car back into park, she opened the door. ‘What are you doing here?’
Seb placed one hand on the roof, one on the top of the door, and grinned. ‘I’m picking you up.’
‘But… why?’
‘Because I figured it was about time I drove you. And because I thought we could go for a drink afterwards.’
More flapping in her stomach. ‘Right.’ Come on, you can do better than that. Find more words with more syllables. ‘Hannah will be expecting me back after the class.’
‘No problem.’ He clasped her hand and helped her out of the car. ‘You can phone her on the way.’
Thrown off balance, Maggie walked with him to the Fiesta and sank into the passenger seat. Instead of calling Hannah though, she stared down at her phone. She didn’t do this: rush about, changing things round at the last minute. She planned in advance, that way everyone knew where they were.
‘Everything okay?’ he asked as he pulled off into the road.
It’s just a drink. You dance together, why wouldn’t you socialise a little? Stop being so anal. Hannah won’t mind. And you have a late start tomorrow. ‘Yes, fine.’
Before she could talk herself out of it, Maggie tapped out a text to Hannah.
Forgot to say, dance class is going for a drink after. Sort of Christmas-get-to-know-each-other session. Are you okay to stay a bit later? M x
She wasn’t sure what stopped her from telling her friend the truth. Embarrassment that she’d jump to the wrong conclusion and assume she and Seb were becoming more than friends? Yet why should she be embarrassed if they were? If Hannah had been asked to go out for a drink with a sexy twenty-seven-year-old man, she’d be gleefully telling them all about it in a group chat.
But Hannah was young, bubbly, and outgoing. Maggie was none of those things.
Her phone dinged with a reply.
No problem, be as long as you like. Hope you avoid the guys with bad breath and BO :)
Maggie smiled, pushed the phone back into her bag and told herself to stop overthinking everything. ‘Hannah’s fine staying later.’
He flashed her a smile. ‘Good.’
Maggie picked at a stray hair on the dashboard. It was blonde. The owner, or Seb’s last passenger? ‘I didn’t think you had a car.’
‘I bought her a few days ago.’ There was a brief hesitation before he added. ‘The bus was doing my head in.’
She could understand that, but buying a car when he was only in the country temporarily seemed an odd decision. ‘Was the owner blonde?’
‘What?’ She held out the hair. ‘Crap, I thought I’d got rid of them all. Owner was bald, but his canine friend was a golden retriever.’
‘Ah.’ She didn’t want to think about the wave of relief she felt at the explanation. ‘Well, I appreciate the lift tonight, though a few seconds later and you’d have missed me.’
He laughed, a lazy rumble that made her hormones dance. ‘Yeah, we need to do something about this punctuality of yours or it’s going to become a bone of contention between us.’
And suddenly her belly was fluttering again. ‘I must have missed the part where we became an us.’
He cast her an amused look. ‘You’re my dance partner, Mags. From now until the competition we’ll be seeing an awful lot of each other. And at very close quarters. I reckon that justifies an us.’
She willed the butterflies to keep quiet, but they ignored her.
By the last dance of the evening, it wasn’t just Maggie’s belly that was reacting to Seb. It was all of her body parts. She couldn’t ever remember being so conscious of her partner before.
‘Mags?’ Seb’s bright blue eyes looked questioningly down on her. ‘You’ve gone all noodle arms on me.’
‘Damn, sorry.’ Maggie stiffened her elbows and tried to lose herself to the music, but there was no denying the flush of heat she felt every time the hard lines of his thigh pressed against hers. What would he feel like without the barrier of their clothes? That muscular thigh between her legs, soft blonde hairs brushing the sensitive skin of her inner thighs…
She lost her footing and stumbled.
‘Whoa.’ Immediately his arms tightened around her, and she was crushed against him; breasts against the muscles of his chest, hips snug against hips.
‘Oh God, sorry. Again.’ Embarrassed, she tried to pull away, but his grip wouldn’t allow her.
‘No apology needed.’ He eased them back into the frame position, his eyes alive with both amusement and something darker, hotter. ‘I’m a huge fan of you falling into my arms, Mags.’ Angling his body, he whispered into her ear. ‘You can do it anytime.’
She laughed, flustered, turned on, and… yes, happy. Somehow he managed to do that, turn embarrassment into fun, while still maintaining an edge of sexual tension that left her hormones on full alert.
Thankfully for her equilibrium, Belinda chose that moment to end the class. Within seconds, Seb had placed his hand on the small of her back and was hurrying them out of the door.
‘Wow, are you really that thirsty?’ she asked as she struggled to keep up with his long strides.
He gave her a baffled look. ‘What?’
‘All this sudden urgency to get to the pub?’
‘Ah.’ He grasped her hand as they crossed the road, the gesture so natural she hardly noticed. Until she did. Then, just like when they danced, the feel of his warm, slightly calloused palm was all she could think about. ‘I figured if we escaped early, they wouldn’t follow us.’
‘You have something against having a drink with our class?’ She smiled as she said it, because she wasn’t in the mood to be sociable either.
‘I do if it means I have to share you.’
Her stomach did that squirmy thing again as he ushered her into the King George, which was exactly like pubs were supposed to be. Warm, inviting. Dark wood, open fire, a Christmas tree decorated in red and gold baubles. ‘What would you like? And bear in mind as I’m driving, you need to drink for both of us.’
A few minutes later, Maggie found herself in a quiet booth, drinking a deliciously smooth merlot, on a school night. It felt wonderfully… rebellious. And yes, she was aware how sad that sounded, but she hadn’t been to a pub during the week in years.
She’d also never been to one with a seriously good-looking man with overly long, sun-bleached hair, an easy, sexy smile, eyes the colour of the ocean. Oh, and ten years her junior. Go her.
‘That’s a smile I’ve not seen before.’ Seb cocked his head to one side, appearing to study her. ‘It’s kind of secretive. Like you’re thinking of something a bit naughty.’
‘Me?’ She settled back against the booth. ‘This, having a drink in a pub, is about as naughty as I get.’
‘I don’t believe that.’ Maggie watched as he lifted the Pepsi glass to his lips. Why was she starting to find everything, even the way his throat moved when he swallowed, utterly fascinating? ‘Tell me what ten-year-old Maggie was like.’
She tried not to think about the fact that he hadn’t been born then. ‘Honestly, she was a bit of a swot. Even at that age I conformed to the rules, did as I was told. It was more than that at school though. I wanted to learn, especially about science.’
‘Are your parents doctors, like you?’
‘No. Dad was a finance director and Mum a lawyer.’
‘A family of
high flyers, huh?’ For a fraction of a second, his smile seemed to slip. ‘Are you close to them?’
‘No.’ Grateful he’d insisted on the wine, she gulped down a mouthful. ‘They weren’t what you’d call natural parents. I’ve got a younger sister, Emily, and I think we were more a tick box exercise than anything else. High earning career, check. Large house, check. Two children, check.’
He winced. ‘Sounds pretty cold.’
‘It does in hindsight, but as a child I didn’t know anything else. It’s only now I’m a mum I realise there was something missing.’ Love. A small slice of their precious time. Acknowledgement that while Emily was the prettiest, the funniest, Maggie deserved the occasional compliment. A tiny bit of their interest. ‘Being the eldest, I took care of Emily a lot.’ Because the childminder was lazy and their parents were always distracted. Maggie raised her eyes to Seb’s. ‘That probably explains some of my more annoying traits.’
Sandy eyebrows scooted upwards. ‘Annoying by whose definition?’
Damn, she hadn’t meant to go down such a downbeat path. Then again, Paul would say it was all part of her personality, too. ‘I just meant that I grew up having to be the sensible, responsible one. The annoying older sister who made sure Emily did her homework, brushed her teeth, went to bed on time. I guess it made me organised.’ Attributes that had helped her become a GP, and then to juggle that profession with being a mum. So why did she sometimes feel boring? Because next to Emily, you were. Unwilling to speak about it any further, she threw the question back. ‘What was ten-year-old Sebastian Armstrong like?’
He laughed. ‘You can safely say I was the exact opposite. I wasn’t planned, and by the time Sarah and Alice had gone off to uni, I think it’s fair to say Mum and Dad had done with parenting and took a step back. It meant nobody was bothered when I didn’t do my homework or got in detention for skipping lessons.’ He gave her a dry smile. ‘Being neither responsible or sensible, I made the most of it, so I guess you could say ten-year-old Seb was a teacher’s nightmare.’ A cloud passed over his face. ‘By the time Mum and Dad cottoned on to the fact I was failing, it was too late. I scrambled enough grades to get on a degree course, but I missed out on the courses and universities they’d blithely assumed I’d go to.’
‘What about what you wanted?’
‘That’s the thing. I didn’t know what I wanted. Still don’t, really.’ His eyes dropped to his glass before lifting back to hers. ‘Did you always want to be a doctor?’
‘Will it sound obnoxious if I say yes?’
‘Not unless you add that Imperial was your first choice and you got there with a grade to spare.’
She mimed zipping her mouth closed and he laughed. ‘Wait, how did you know I went to Imperial?… of course, Alice and Sarah went there.’ For a while she’d forgotten the connection. She’d been talking to a hot guy in a pub. Not the brother of her best friends.
‘Beautiful, bossy and smart.’ His eyes found hers and he gave her a small, sexy smile. ‘You do realise you push all my buttons, don’t you?’
Oh God. Her heart lurched, and her brain scrambled for a reply. ‘I don’t know what to say to that.’
As luck would have it – or bad luck would have it, she wasn’t sure which – she didn’t have to say anything because Seb’s expression had turned from flirty to… appalled? As he muttered ‘For fuck’s sake’ under his breath, Maggie heard a familiar voice behind her.
‘Well, look here, Pauline. It’s the lovebirds.’ She turned just in time to see Shirley pat her hair and smile at Seb. ‘We’re not cramping your style if we join you, are we dear?’
Not giving him a chance to reply, Shirley and Pauline squeezed their generous frames onto the padded benches, one on either side.
Chapter Fifteen
For fuck’s sake.
Seb said the words again, though this time only in his head. He’d just worked up to asking Maggie out on a real date, not this poor excuse for one, cobbled together at the last minute with his sister’s words of warning jamming through his head. Now he found himself thwarted – effectively cock-blocked – by a couple of OAPs.
When he’d gone to pick her up, Seb had fully intended to heed Sarah’s words. That was before he’d seen Maggie sitting all cool and collected in her snazzy car, on the drive of her classy home, and he’d decided to screw being sensible. It wasn’t in his nature.
If she was willing – a big if – why couldn’t they have some fun? She was far too savvy to fall for him, but he liked to bet he could make her laugh, give her a taste of the spontaneity she seemed to have missed out on. Maybe even give her back some of that confidence her ex had snatched from her.
Now he had the Ugly Sisters to contend with. And yeah, that wasn’t fair, Pauline and Shirley weren’t ugly and they weren’t nasty, but by God, he didn’t want them here. He felt out of his depth as it was. He didn’t needed a pair of witnesses to his seduction attempt. Which reminded him, note to self: when trying to impress a smart woman, don’t bring up your ropey education and lack of career goals.
Shirley – of course it was her – broke the awkward silence. ‘So, this is where you two hide after class, eh?’
He wanted to slide down the bench, under the table and right out of the pub. Holding tight to Maggie’s hand.
‘No.’ Maggie cleared her throat. ‘That is, it’s the first time we’ve come here.’
‘And we’re hardly hiding,’ he felt compelled to point out. ‘If we were, you wouldn’t have been able to find us.’ Next time – please God there would be a next time – he’d make sure of it.
Shirley chuckled. ‘Well, we don’t blame Maggie for sneaking off with you. We’d do the same, given half a chance, wouldn’t we, Pauline?’
‘Given any chance.’ Pauline winked at him before taking a big swig from the glass she was holding. A brown liquid, it could have been sherry. Or brandy, rum, tequila, whisky. One thing it clearly wasn’t was alcohol-free. ‘Are there any more versions of you?’
He nearly choked on his drink. ‘Sorry?’
‘Do you have brothers? Friends?’ She let out a hearty laugh. ‘Me and Shirley, we like a bit of male company.’
Good God, was this really happening? He glanced across at Maggie and was surprised to find her eyes brimming with laughter. The realisation she was amused by the ambush and not annoyed, brought his own frustration down a notch. Maybe she was right. If he couldn’t beat these two young-at-heart crumblies, he’d have to join them. ‘Sorry, ladies, no brothers, only a pair of pain-in-the-arse sisters. As for friends, most of them are back home, in Australia.’ The words didn’t sound as natural on his tongue as they had before. Was Australia still home? Or was he settling back here again, many miles from the sea, in a country even colder and damper than he remembered?
‘Ooh, Australia.’ Shirley picked up the conversation. ‘I told you, Pauline, didn’t I? Told you this man was exotic.’
His expression must have mirrored the holy fuck he was thinking, because Maggie started to giggle. A real, honest to God snorter of a giggle that, once she’d started, she couldn’t seem to stop. ‘Sorry,’ she squeezed out, wiping her eyes. ‘It’s just, the word exotic.’ It set her off again. ‘I started to imagine Seb in a G-string, with peacock feathers in his hair, doing some shady dance routine on the beach.’
He didn’t mind having the piss taken out of him. Especially if it meant seeing a glimpse of the real, uninhibited Maggie. The one not dragged down by responsibility, or dimmed by divorce. ‘I can totally bring that image to life for you.’ Shifting to his feet, he started to roll his hips suggestively, giving Maggie a big wink. ‘Don’t judge too harshly. If the table wasn’t in the way, you’d be spontaneously combusting by now.’
‘Oh heavens, I think I already am.’ As Maggie pealed into further giggles, Shirley started to fan herself. ‘You really shouldn’t do that in front of women of a certain age. You’ll give us palpitations.’
‘Not to worry.’ Parking his backside
back on the bench, he threw a wink in Shirley’s direction. ‘Maggie’s a doctor.’
‘Ooh, are you, dear?’ Pauline gave Maggie a thorough inspection. ‘You don’t look old enough.’
That started Maggie laughing again. ‘I’m thirty-seven.’
Shirley tutted. ‘That’s no age at all, love. Wait till you turn the numbers the other way round. Then you’ll have something to complain about.’ She leaned towards Seb and whispered in a voice louder than her normal speaking voice. ‘Have you asked her yet?’
‘Asked me?’
Maggie looked over at him, wide-eyed, and Seb had to stifle a groan. Why had he decided to confide in a chatterbox? Before he could get a word in though, the chatterbox was off again, a wicked twinkle in her eye.
‘Yes, dear. This exotic young man and I had quite an illuminating conversation when we smooched together last week.’
‘Smooched? We were attempting the waltz.’ Seb swallowed down his horror at the idea of him and Shirley in a smouldering embrace, and gave her his best flirty smile. ‘Trust me, if we smooched together, you’d know about it.’
While Shirley guffawed with laughter, Maggie looked at him in amusement. Seb only hoped she was still looking at him like that by the time Shirley had finished her tale…
‘Careful, I might hold you to that, and we both know I’m not the woman you want to smooch with.’ As Seb held his breath, Shirley glanced over at Maggie. ‘This young man’s smitten with you, dear. He wants to ask you out.’ Then, as if she hadn’t just detonated a ruddy great bomb into the conversation, she blithely added. ‘I told him, a lovely thing like you is going to be snapped up by someone else if he doesn’t pull his finger out.’ She gave Seb’s ribs a sharp dig. ‘Didn’t I say that?’
‘You did,’ he said soberly, not daring to look at Maggie. ‘But then you say a lot of things, Shirley. It’s not always easy to pick out the important stuff.’
Strictly Come Dating (The Kathryn Freeman Romcom Collection, Book 3) Page 13
