Читать книгу Marriage Reunited - Jessica Hart - Страница 10

PUNCTUAL to the minute, Geoffrey was standing there with—surprise, surprise—a bunch of flowers.

‘They’re lovely, thank you, Geoffrey,’ said Georgia, dutifully accepting the proffered tulips and a kiss on the cheek. ‘Come in.’

He followed her into the living room where, much to her surprise, Mac and Toby were on their knees, putting the last of the toys into the box.

‘Oh…thank you,’ she said, rather thrown by this evidence of helpfulness on Mac’s part. She was fairly sure Toby wouldn’t have done it on his own, but then Mac had never been able to comprehend the need to see the carpet before you walked on it, either.

‘I knew you wouldn’t relax until it was done,’ said Mac virtuously. Getting to his feet in a leisurely way, he offered his hand to Geoffrey, who had stopped dead at the sight of him. ‘Hello, there,’ he said.

Too late, Georgia realised that she should have thought how she was going to handle the introductions. ‘Um…you remember Mac, don’t you, Geoffrey?’

‘Mac…?’ Geoffrey looked at her in dawning dismay.

‘Mac Henderson,’ Mac reminded him helpfully, and quite unnecessarily. ‘Georgia’s husband.’

‘Ex-husband,’ snapped Georgia.

‘Husband?’ said Toby.

‘We met once at dinner at Georgia’s parents’ house,’ Mac went on, obviously enjoying Geoffrey’s consternation.

‘I remember,’ said Geoffrey stiffly, taking Mac’s hand and shaking it with obvious reluctance.

‘Husband?’ Toby asked again, looking from Georgia to Mac. ‘Does that mean you’re married?’

‘No,’ said Georgia, just as Mac said ‘Yes,’ and Geoffrey looked disapproving.

Georgia sucked in her breath crossly, furious with Mac for mentioning the subject in the first place, but reluctant to start an argument in front of Toby.

‘It’s a long story,’ she told him after a moment. ‘I’ll explain it to you later, but for now I think it’s time for bed.’

Toby’s mouth turned down at the corners. ‘But it’s not time yet!’ he said with a scowl.

‘It is time,’ Georgia insisted. The prickly atmosphere was making her edgy, and gave her voice a sharper edge than normal.

‘Oh, but Georgia…’ Toby moaned. ‘Mac hasn’t finished showing me his camera.’

‘I can do that upstairs.’ Mac stepped in, seeing that Georgia was looking frazzled. ‘Why don’t you show me your room, and we can take a picture up there? I expect Georgia would like to talk to Geoffrey on her own, anyway.’

Georgia would, but she didn’t like Mac calmly arranging her life for her. On the other hand, getting Toby upstairs was half the battle most of the time, and she didn’t want to embark on a big confrontation in front of Geoffrey, who thought Toby was too undisciplined at the best of times.

‘That’s a good idea,’ she said, managing a tight smile. ‘Why don’t you go up with Mac, and I’ll come up and say goodnight in a bit?’

‘What’s he doing here?’ Geoffrey demanded the moment they had gone.

‘He says he wants to talk about the divorce,’ said Georgia, conscious of a twinge of irritation.

She didn’t have to explain to Geoffrey. She’d made it very clear that for now they were simply friends, and that she wasn’t prepared to take their relationship any further until she had divorced Mac. She had every intention of doing that, but until then Geoffrey had no right to disapprove of anyone she chose to invite to her home.

‘He turned up out of the blue this afternoon, and I thought it would be better to talk about things over supper. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be civilized about this.’

‘You might have warned me!’ said Geoffrey, still huffy.

‘I tried, but Ruth said that you were busy.’

‘I was with a client, hence I couldn’t come to the phone.’

Irritation flickered again at Geoffrey’s fondness for the word ‘hence’. He used it a lot and it always grated on Georgia, although she wasn’t usually as exasperated by it as she was today.

That was Mac’s fault, she thought darkly. Geoffrey had hardly irritated her at all until he turned up. He had just been kind and helpful and friendly—as he still was, Georgia reminded herself guiltily. She could put up with ‘hence’ if it meant having a steady, reliable friend like Geoffrey by her side.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said penitently. ‘I wish I had been able to warn you that Mac would be here tonight. It was a bit of a shock to me too when he turned up, but perhaps it’s not a bad thing. Now that he’s here we can talk properly, face to face, and sort things out. With any luck Mac will sign the papers while he’s here, and then I’ll be able to move on. I did explain that I didn’t want to start a proper relationship with you until I’d done that.’

‘Yes, you did,’ Geoffrey agreed. ‘And you know I think you’re worth waiting for. I’ve waited a long time, and I don’t mind waiting a bit longer.’ He smiled. ‘But you can’t blame me for getting impatient sometimes!’

Georgia kissed him impulsively on the cheek. ‘Thanks for understanding, Geoffrey.’

How different he was to Mac, who would never have stood patiently by and given her the space she needed to sort out another relationship! With Mac it was always all or nothing.

Which only went to show that Geoffrey was a much better man for her.

Geoffrey followed her into the kitchen as she checked the meal. She had never been a very enthusiastic cook—OK, she was a terrible cook—but Geoffrey liked home cooking, so she was trying to make more of an effort.

After all, he was making so much more of an effort for her. He was holding back when he could have been pushing, giving her time when he could have been issuing ultimatums, offering support when she needed it most. Trying to follow a few recipes seemed the least she could do in return, although there were times, like now, when she was tired after a day at work and dealing with Toby, that Georgia wished she could just pop into the supermarket on the way home and buy something easy.

Tonight she was making pork with prunes followed by plum crumble. Geoffrey wasn’t fond of garlic or spices, which made it difficult to come up with ideas sometimes, but this menu had seemed safe enough. Shame it was all so…brown.

Georgia wrinkled her nose and closed the oven door. Too late to do anything about it now. She would just have to hope that it tasted better than it looked.

Leaving Geoffrey in charge of opening a bottle of wine, she went upstairs to say goodnight to Toby. Rather to her surprise, she found him sitting up in bed and chatting to Mac.

She paused, unnoticed, in the doorway, struck by the animation in Toby’s face. He never looked that happy and interested when he was with her, she thought sadly, and her eyes slid of their own accord over to Mac, who was lounging on the other bed, arms behind his head and long legs crossed, careless of his boots on the coverlet, and looking utterly relaxed.

He looked up just then and caught sight of her. ‘Uh-oh,’ he said to Toby. ‘Looks like your time’s up!’

‘I’m in bed,’ Toby declared, somewhat unnecessarily.

‘So I see,’ said Georgia, coming into the room and trying not to notice how inviting the space on the bed next to Mac looked. ‘Good boy!’

‘Mac said I should. He said it would be…what was that word again, Mac?’

‘Politic,’ said Mac with a grin.

‘…he said it would be politic if I was in bed before you came up,’ Toby finished guilelessly.

Georgia suppressed a smile at the earnestness in his face as she sat on the edge of his bed. ‘Did he explain what that meant?’

Toby screwed up his face in an effort of memory. ‘That it would make life easier for me if I did what you wanted?’

‘Sounds like good advice to me,’ she agreed, and glanced at Mac, who had swung his legs on to the floor and was watching her, amusement glinting in his navy blue eyes. ‘It’s made life easier for both of us.’

‘Maybe you should take my advice more often,’ said Mac with mock smugness.

‘Oh, you’re an expert on childcare now, are you?’ said Georgia, keeping her tone light in front of Toby.

‘I’m an expert in making life as easy and as comfortable as you can make it under the circumstances,’ said Mac. ‘It’s called making the best of things.’

Yes, he’d always been good at that, thought Georgia. He was good at living for the moment, at living each day as if it might be his last. He didn’t do worrying and planning the way she did. He didn’t agonize about what people thought, or waste any time feeling torn between conflicting demands.

He would have made a lousy woman.

Georgia turned back to Toby and tweaked his nose affectionately. ‘You might as well make the best of things now and go to sleep. You’ve got school in the morning.’

‘I’m not tired,’ said Toby automatically. It was a point of honour never to admit that he was tired, but he seemed quite happy tonight to snuggle down under his duvet.

‘Goodnight, Toby,’ said Mac, reaching down to ruffle his hair gently, and Georgia had to close her eyes for a moment against the tantalising effect of his nearness.

It was a relief when Mac moved away. Leaning forward, she kissed Toby gently on the cheek. He didn’t kiss her back, but it was a big step even to get this far, and Georgia was always very careful not to push it.

‘Sleep well,’ she said.

Mac watched her from the doorway, touched by the combination of tenderness and awkwardness she showed with Toby, and shaken by a contrasting memory of Georgia sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling as she leant forward to kiss him. She acted so cool, but her lips had been so soft, her body so warm.