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“Oh no,” Maya said, laying her long, elegant fingers on top of my hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you, but we weren’t together at the time. In fact, I didn’t even know that I had a daughter.” I looked at the sympathy in Maya’s eyes and let out a chuckle. “Bloody hell, I’ve known you about a minute and I’m already giving you my life story.”
“I must have one of those faces,” she replied. “The kind that makes someone want to spill their guts.”
Maybe she did, but for me it wasn’t her face. It was just her. I felt like I wanted to talk to her about everything and keep talking and talking until we were hoarse. I had no idea why, but I felt like I knew her but not enough. It wasn’t that comfortable feeling you had with old school friends, but it was exciting, like I was discovering a whole new world. It was new and strange, but good. I’d liked lots of women over the years but had never seen myself having anything other than a sexual relationship with them. But this girl, this woman—she already had me wondering, ‘What if?’ Ten minutes in, and I was hooked.
“What about you?” I asked. “What about your family?”
“Where to start.” She rolled her eyes. “Brief history is, they’re big and brash. My grandpa was Scottish and came to Leeds sixtyyears ago when he was twenty-two. He met my grandma two days later and a month after that they got married. Ten months later, they had my dad. He was followed by three more sons and two daughters. My mum and dad have been married for thirty-five years and I have an older brother Jack, and a younger brother, Charlie. Jack has three kids, and Charlie probably has about ten but officially none.”
“He’s a party boy?”
“Yes, he bloody well is. Well, he was, he’s now mettheone and is engaged. Mum even booked him into a sexual health clinic a couple of years back because she was so worried his dick might drop off. He didn’t speak to her for a month because of that.”
“She was just looking out for him.”
“I know.” Maya banged her hand down on the table. “That’s exactly what I said. I told him, ‘Charlie Mackenzie you are one big slut and Mum only wants to be sure you don’t have genital warts or some such.”
“Like Gary,” I added.
Maya grinned and her green eyes lit up. “Just like Gary.” She narrowed her gaze on me. “He doesn’t really have genital warts, does he?”
“No,” I said around a laugh, “he doesn’t have any sexual disease of any kind. At least none that I’m aware of, not that I inspect his genitals regularly.”
“When does he get married?”
“Three weeks on Friday. To Amy, she seems lovely, although I don’t know her well. Gary is more Sam’s friend than mine.”
“Really? That’s exactly a week before my brother.” She wriggled down in her seat like she was getting comfortable. “Anyway, so tell me about your daughter. What’s she like?”
“Amazing.” I didn’t need to think about it. “Sweet, funny, smart, opinionated.”
“Aren’t all teenagers?”
“I guess so. She also knows how to wrap me around her little finger, so sometimes,” I winced, “she gets too much of her own way.”
“That’s what dads are for. Mine still spoils me.”
I sat back in my seat and watched her carefully. I bet with everything in me that she deserved to be spoiled. She looked like the sort of woman who should be treated like a queen. The sort that you cherished every single day.
“Do your brothers spoil you too?” Linking my hands in front of me, I relaxed back into my seat, getting comfy just like Maya was.
“Oh my goodness,” she cried. “You have no idea.”
She was right, I didn’t, but was anxious to find out. “Hold it there, and I’ll grab us some more drinks.”
She sat up straight and smiled. “Great.”
As I walked to the bar, I hated that it was time wasted. Time away from the woman who appeared to already have me tied in knots.
Chapter Nine
Maddy
Everyone was asleep. Liv was snoring, Ana was sucking her thumb like a toddler, and Emma was muttering about unicorns and Harry Styles. Whereas I couldn’t shut my eyes because there was far too much going around in my head.
My conversations with Zak. How Zak laughed. How he held his head to one side as he listened to me. How when he left Emma’s house, he walked backward down the driveway, talking to me until he disappeared around the corner.
