Small talk. Yes, I could do small talk.
I opened my mouth to speak but was immediately distracted by the arm he slid along the back of the booth we were sitting in. I felt surrounded.
What the hell did he just ask?
Work! Right, work. “Good.” I took a quick sip of my wine, hoping the alcohol would help me relax a little. “It’s busy and stressful, but I love teaching.”
“And you were always good at it.”
Not wanting to take another trip down memory lane so soon after our last one, I shrugged and then smiled coaxingly into his handsome face. “You seem to be doing well. Adam speaks highly of you. Says you’ll be a site manager one day.”
“That’s the goal. You work hard, you learn, you get there.”
I smiled softly. “You say you’ve changed, but you had that attitude when we were kids. You took those classes when you didn’t need to. You were always challenging yourself to be better.” Except when it came to me.
“Not always,” he replied pointedly, as if he’d just read my mind. “In that way I’ve changed. I go after what I want now, no matter what.”
I looked away before we ventured into dangerous territory. “How’s your aunt Gabby?”
“She’s good. Real good. Gio eased up on me a lot over the last few years and I know it’s mostly because of Gabby. I’m pretty close to her. It’s nice having family over here.”
“Do you still talk to your family in Chicago?”
“Sure. Magic of the Internet.”
“Of course. I’m glad for you. I’m happy that, for whatever reason, you’re not carrying around all that stuff your grandfather piled on you.”
“Thank you.” His eyes did that intense roaming of my face thing again and I had a sudden vision of throwing myself at him. I mentally slapped my wrist. “And what about you? How’s your family?”
“Really good. Ellie had a little boy, William. She’s pregnant with their second child. “
Marco raised his eyebrows. “Full house, huh?”
I laughed. “You have no idea. Joss and Braden have two kids now, Beth and Luke. My parents’ house is a zoo every Sunday.”
He grinned. “It sounds nice.”
“It is.”
“And your parents and Dec? How are they?”
“They’re well. At least I know my parents are. I wouldn’t know about Dec. He’s eighteen now and spends most of his time in his room with his girlfriend.”
“He’s got a girlfriend. He’s ahead of the curve.”
“Yeah, don’t tell him. He’s brainy and cute and an arrogant little bugger.” I groaned, but Marco smiled at the obvious affection in my voice.
“You always had a nice family, Hannah.”
“Yeah,” I agreed softly.
Marco tensed suddenly. “And Cole?”
I glanced up at him in confusion. “Cole?”
“The guy you were at the wedding with.” Marco shrugged. “Anisha told me who he was.”
“You certainly did your homework,” I murmured, taking another sip of wine. “Cole is Jo’s little brother. He’s my best friend. He’s… been there for me.”
Marco frowned at my answer, not seeming to like it much. “But you’re not together.”
“No, it’s not like that between us.” I put my glass down, my gaze on the table. “Maybe we should steer clear of relationship talk.”
“That’s fine with me.” He tilted his head to the side, eyeing me through his narrowed gaze. “Is Finding Nemo still your favorite movie?”
I laughed at the randomness of the question, relieved by the subject change. “You remember that?”
“Of course.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what my favorite movie is anymore.”
“We’ll need to do something about that.”
“I don’t know. I quite like not having an exact favorite. Is Training Day still yours?”
“Nah, that movie Lawless. Now that is a f**king movie.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen it.”
He smiled and even before he said the words I knew I’d just fallen right into his agenda. “Thursday night, your place, me, you and Lawless.”
I opened my mouth to shoot him down, but stalled when I saw the glimmer in his eyes. He was expecting me to say no, and it suddenly occurred to me that my refusal might reinforce the idea that I was scared of spending time with him. And he could only assume that my fear of spending time with him stemmed from my attraction to him.
I jutted my chin out defiantly. “It’ll need to be later on in the evening. I teach an adult literacy class on Thursday after school.”
Marco chuckled. “I know that. And there’s no need to sound so excited about spending time with me, by the way.”
“Spending time with you doing what?” a familiar voice asked.
I whipped my head around, tilting it back to stare up at Suzanne. I hadn’t seen her since our last night out together, but I wasn’t surprised to bump into her out on the town on a work night.
She raised an eyebrow. “Hi, stranger.” Her eyes moved quickly to Marco and lit up. “So who’s this then?”
“Suzanne.” I hurried to think of something to get her to leave. She was the last person I wanted around Marco. She had no filter whatsoever. “Uh… aren’t you with someone?”
“Date.” She jerked her head in the direction of the bar and I saw a good-looking blond guy watching us. Her gaze was still fixed on Marco as she leaned across the table, deliberately showing off as much of her cl**vage as possible. Holding out a hand for him to shake, she said in a faux husky voice, “I’m Suzanne.”
Marco quickly shook her proffered hand. “Marco. I’m an old friend of Hannah’s.”
I stiffened as Suzanne froze at the name.
Right then I cursed our nights at university together, especially the night we got rip-roaring drunk and Suzanne asked me if I was a virgin because I hadn’t slept with any boys at college yet. Drunk and overly emotional I told her about my night with Marco and how I never wanted to let myself be vulnerable with the wrong guy again.
Suzanne’s gaze swung back to me, surprise in her pretty eyes. “No f**king way.”
“Suzanne.” I pleaded silently for her to shut the hell up.
But did she pick up on my signals?
Nope.
She shot Marco a dirty look. “You’ve got a lot to answer for. My girl has so many issues because of you.”
Floor, open up and swallow me. Please.
“Suzanne,” I leaned forward, my voice thick. “Now’s not —”
“No, he should know.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, my God, is he the reason you’ve been such a complete and utter boring bitch lately?”
I was suddenly very disappointed in my taste in friends.
“Watch it,” Marco growled, and Suzanne and I both snapped to attention as if we’d been bitten by the crack of a whip. Marco’s eyes had darkened. I could feel the irritation vibrating from him. “We’re in the middle of a private conversation. You should leave.”
Affronted, Suzanne’s lips parted. Her eyes flew to mine, as if she expected me to stick up for her.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take too kindly to being called a boring bitch in public or in private. In my teacher voice I said, “I’ll speak with you later, Suzanne.”
She made a small harrumph sound, then turned sharply on her five-inch heels and marched toward her date, grabbing his arm and hauling him out of the bar.
“She’s a friend?” Marco asked quietly, incredulously.
“We met at uni. I grew up. She didn’t.”
He pushed his half-empty pint absentmindedly away from him. “Issues?”
I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Anisha told me she didn’t think there was a guy in your life and that you haven’t spoken about any from the past. Maybe that’s what she was talking about?”
My blood was suddenly hot with anger. I took a moment to calm. The last thing I wanted him to believe was that he’d done such a number on me I hadn’t been able to move on. I hadn’t been with anyone else by choice.
Sort of.
I exhaled slowly. “No guy at the moment.”
He appeared to relax at my reply.
I stared at him, letting my eyes connect with his and I felt the power of my attraction to him take hold. He was beautiful in a masculine way, sexy, charismatic. There had to have been many women in his life these last five years. The thought depressed me. “I’m guessing with the way you’ve been with me these last few weeks that there’s no one special in your life at the moment, right?”
Still holding my gaze, Marco’s lips turned up at the corner and I realized I wanted to kiss them right there on that seductive spot. “There’s someone. I just have to convince her of that.”
Yup. Definitely wanted to kiss him.
I narrowed my eyes on him, doing unimpressed convincingly. “I thought I told you we’re just friends.”
His eyes dropped to my mouth in a way that made me squirm. “I heard you.” His heated gaze returned to meet mine. “But I don’t think you heard me.”
CHAPTER 12
That Thursday evening Marco did come over to my flat with takeout and the film Lawless and we did sit and watch the film together and it was brilliant and Marco’s company was fantastic and I was already weakening in my resolve to keep him at arm’s length.
Breathe, Hannah.
“I don’t know.” Ellie shook her head at me. “I can see the resolve still there in your eyes. We need to chase that off.”
That following Saturday I ignored my pile of marking to hang out with my sister, Jo, and Liv at Joss and Braden’s town house on Dublin Street. They used to live in a flat downhill from the house, but when Joss fell pregnant with Luke, Braden bought and renovated a larger home a few doors up from the old place. We had the house to ourselves – Braden had taken the kids out for lunch – and I’d pretty much been ambushed with questions about Marco as soon as I walked in the door.
I grimaced at Ellie. “I’m guessing you’re on Team Marco?”
“I think we all are.” Joss handed me a cup of tea. “We haven’t heard you talking about a guy like this since… well, since Marco. That’s got to mean something.”
“He’s been back in my life three weeks. I can’t just give it to him.”
“No one is saying you have to,” Jo assured me. “But at least admit to us that you’re considering it.”
“Am I?” I argued. “Does my weakening of resolve mean that I’m considering it? No. It means I’m horny.”
“Ew.” Ellie put her hands to her ears. “Big sister still in the room.”
She really should know by now that only made me want to torment her more. “Seriously,” I continued, “I’ve worn out, like, three vibrators.”
“Meanie!” She threw me a horrified look.
“Meanie?” I snorted. “Ellie, that kid growing in your belly is depleting your brain cells.”
“Stop torturing your very pregnant sister,” Liv told me. “And answer this: Putting aside the attraction to him, would you consider really giving him a second chance?”
I gazed around at them all as they waited. Finally, I sighed. “I’ve already admitted to myself I would. But I’d be plagued with doubt every step of the way, so… it would be doomed from the start.”
“You don’t know that,” Joss replied quietly. “You’ll never know that until you take the chance. I was your age when I took the chance on Braden. And sure, there are days I want to kill him, but more often than not, I kind of like having him around. And the kids he gave me aren’t bad either. You should take the chance, Hannah.”
From the expression on Ellie’s, Jo’s, and Liv’s faces I could tell they agreed with Joss. Knowing her dry wisdom, and how she adored Braden and her kids, I didn’t doubt her or her words of experience. But still, I doubted Marco.
Thankfully we moved on to the topic of Beth and school.
We were discussing the fact that Christmas was now less than seven weeks away when the doorbell rang. Joss got up to answer the door, returning with Nate.
Liv’s eyes widened with pleased surprise at the sight of her hot husband, and, honestly, I didn’t blame her. “What are you doing here?”
He slouched against the doorjamb, grinning at her with those sexy dimples of his. “I just dropped the kids off at Mum and Dad’s. I thought you and I could do date night. Starting now.” He smiled at us. “If that’s okay with you, ladies?”
“Uh, they don’t get a say.” Liv shot to her feet. “No offense.” She threw us an apologetic look. “But no kids and a hot husband? You cannot blame me for ditching.”
We snickered. No, we could not.
Liv grabbed her purse after pulling her boots on. “Nate” – she glanced over at him thoughtfully – “remember that time you broke my heart but then proved yourself to me with your perseverance and I gave you a second chance?”
Nate gave her a droll look. “Yes. And thank you for bringing it up. Good times.”
I laughed and shook my head at Liv. “You’re subtle.”
Nate sighed from the doorway. “Was there a point to revisiting a painful time from my past?”