Mmm,
how innocent, exactly
…?
He didn’t want to know. All right, maybe he did—virgins of her age were a bit like unicorns: the things of fables.
‘So what have you got against Charlie Latimer?’ The guy was successful, solvent and as far as he knew had no major vices like drink, drugs or gambling, yet her animosity had been toxic in its intensity.
‘So you don’t know he’s been having an affair with my mum for years? That makes you something of a rarity.’ Could you sound any more bitter, Eve?
‘I don’t listen to gossip, but I do know that relationships are complex and it’s hard to judge what makes one work from the outside.’
‘They didn’t have a
relationship
. She was his bit on the side. She doesn’t
have
to marry anyone, let alone him! I’d have looked after her. I
wanted
to look after her.’
‘You’re very possessive.’
‘Protective,’
she flashed back, angry at the inference and his sardonic expression.
‘Don’t you think that maybe your mother has earned the right to make her own decisions and her own mistakes…?’
She cast a simmering glance up at his lean face. ‘What business is it of yours anyway?’
‘None at all. I thought you wanted my input.’
‘Well, I don’t!’
‘I stand corrected.’
She pulled herself up to her full height and, bristling with dignity, looked pointedly at the route to the door he was blocking. ‘If you don’t mind…? And don’t worry.’ She flashed him a wide insincere smile, her eyes shooting daggers. ‘I will smile, but I’d prefer not to be seen coming out of the ladies’ room with you.’
‘It might make the world look at you in a different light.’
She narrowed her eyes and said with fierce distaste, ‘You mean people will see me as a tart.’
‘No, I mean they might think you actually have a life.’
She sucked in a breath of outrage. ‘I have a perfectly good life already and I don’t give a damn what people think.’
‘If that were true you wouldn’t give a damn what people think if we walk out that door together.’
Teeth clenched in sheer frustration, she glared up at him. He couldn’t have looked smugger if…if… No, he simply couldn’t have looked smugger. ‘Just wait here.’
‘Shall I count to a hundred?’
Responding to this with a disdainful sniff, she tossed her head and pushed through the doorway, pausing only to fling a ‘Thank you!’ over her shoulder.
He didn’t count to a hundred. Instead he thought about what had just happened. Running the scene through his head, little snippets of the conversation making him frown, others smile. It had clearly hurt her to say thank you, and Draco felt a faint twinge of guilt as he knew he didn’t deserve it. The only cry of help he’d responded to was his daughter’s. He’d only come in here for Josie, because he wanted her to think he was a good guy, but in truth he wasn’t. If he had seen an hysterical woman crying in the bathroom, his instinct would not have been to wade in and help, it would have been to walk in the opposite direction very fast.
He had his life streamlined so that he could focus on what was important—he did not get involved.
The women standing outside reading the ‘out of order’ sign that was pinned to the door looked at him wide-eyed when he emerged.
Ignoring their astonished stares, he unpinned the sign written in the pink lipstick his daughter was wearing and nodded.
‘Everything is back to normal.’
Which was a good thing. Eve Curtis had even more issues than he had imagined; the man who got her would need a medal and a degree in counselling.
CHAPTER FIVE
D RACO JOINED HIS DAUGHTER , who was sitting at an empty table beside the dance floor. ‘The notice on the door was a nice touch.’
‘Is everything all right, Dad?’
‘Fine.’ He reached out a hand to ruffle her hair but Josie got to her feet
‘She’s available; I checked.’
Draco looked down, not so very far now. Over the past ten months his
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