Instant Family (15 page)

"Daddy, I want to go with that girl." Stephanie pulled at Alex's
arm. He tore his gaze away from Chloe and looked down into her
upturned face.

"Her name is Katy. No, I think we'd better leave."

"But I want to staaaay." She released her grip and moved closer to
Katy, who'd stopped to glance back at Chloe uncertainly. Chloe's
eyes narrowed slightly, but she remained eloquently silent.

Simone said, "Why don't you let the girls get to know each other
while we have a cool drink on the verandah? Your little one's calmed
down now."

"I want a cool drink too, Daddy." Steffie ran to him. He squatted
down. Her face had resumed its normal color, and she'd stopped the
heart-wrenching sobbing.

"Do you really want to stay?" he asked softly, searching her eyes
anxiously. She nodded with vigorous enthusiasm.

"That's settled, then. You go with Katy, Stephanie. Come inside,
lovey." Simone slipped her arm around Chloe's waist as she passed and
drew her along. Their heads bent close as they stepped up onto the
verandah. Alex couldn't hear what they said. His once near-hysterical
daughter darted past him and followed Katy inside without a backward
glance in his direction. He sighed heavily. Women.

"Coming in again, Alex?" Seb's voice startled him.

"No, mate, don't think so." He looked toward the house, where
Chloe was sliding the screen door closed behind her with a stiff,
jerky movement. Her head was tilted at an unnatural angle, and she didn't glance his way at all. He bit his lip. Had he been too hasty in
condemning her? But Steffie was a relative baby still; she didn't understand how to adapt to new people's rules. And she had the added
confusion of two households-Lucy's and his.

"She'll be all right with Katy," said Julian. "Everybody gets on
well with Katy."

Alex firmed his mouth into a straight line as he considered the implications of Julian's comment. Did he mean that Steffie was awkward to get on with, or Chloe?

Alex turned. Julian and Seb were watching him expectantly. Both
sets of blue eyes almost implored him.

"Come on, you only just got in," said Seb. "It's too hot to stand
around."

Seb turned and took two running steps before launching himself
into the water, tucking his knees up to create the biggest splash possible. A shower of cool drops reminded Alex just how hot his skin
had become, exposed as it was in the afternoon sun. Julian followed
Seb in with a whoop of glee, and more water cascaded over Alex.

"Right, you asked for it." He sprinted to the gate, flung it open,
and leaped in after the boys.

In the kitchen, Simone dropped her straw tote bag onto a stool and
opened the fridge, carefully avoiding the postcards and paper strewn
on the floor. "I'll do the drinks. You sit down and compose yourself."
She removed the lemon cordial and the jug of iced water.

Chloe perched on a stool. "That child is the most obnoxious little
barefaced liar I've ever met," she hissed, conscious that the girls
were in Katy's room just along the corridor. "She knocked all that
stuff to the floor and point-blank refused to pick it up when I asked
her to. And I asked nicely."

"I'm sure you did, lovey."

"She never said one please or thank you. I don't think she even
knows the words, and if she does, she's never in her whole, spoiledrotten life used them. She's the Red Terror-like a plague or an invading horde of barbarians."

Simone put glasses on the counter. "Children that age can be truly
horrible if they put their minds to it."

"Katy was never like that. Neither were any of her friends." Chloe
sniffed. She reached for a tissue. "I can't believe I let her upset me
so much." She blew her nose and laughed self-consciously. "She's a
little kid, for heaven's sake"

"She's his kid." Simone took the ice tray from the freezer and began emptying ice cubes into each glass.

"So?" demanded Chloe.

"So you're extra sensitive. You want to like her, he wants you to
like her, and she isn't very likable at the moment, poor little thing.
It makes a difference, I think." Simone was wearing her inscrutable
sphinx face as she concentrated on her task.

"Who to?"

"Him, you, definitely to Stephanie."

"You think I'm overreacting."

"Yes. But it's not about Stephanie. You'd normally handle her
behavior without any problems. It's about Alex."

Alex? He wasn't showing much in the way of parenting skills.
Stephanie, despite her outrageous carrying on, was only a small child.
A father should know how capable she was of getting her own way, and
her methods. Maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought.

"She didn't want to come swimming. She told me straight out she
didn't want to come at all. I actually felt sorry for her-for about
two minutes."

"Like I said, children that age can be impossible even without
their parents being divorced. Does she see him much? I expect she
just wants her dad all to herself."

"She can have him. I certainly don't want to take him away from
her." Chloe sniffed into her tissue.

"My daddy doesn't want to be with you, anyway." Stephanie,
with Katy close behind, appeared in the doorway. Her round little
face had twisted into a grimace of disdain. Chloe gripped the tissue
in tense fingers. Simone was right. Stephanie was a child, a child
with problems much too big for her to cope with and none of them
her fault. Alex needed to spend more time with her.

"You don't need to worry about that, Stephanie," said Simone.
"Now, how about picking up these cards you knocked onto the floor?"

"They're my postcards from when my friend Estelle went to
Fiji," cried Katy. "Did you throw them on the floor?" She glared at
Stephanie.

Stephanie looked from one distraught face to the other stern one
and must have decided she was outnumbered. She hastily bent to
pick up the postcards. "I was going to before, but she was mean to me,"
she said.

Katy took them from her fingers and studied them carefully.
"One of them's got a dirty mark." Her face drooped in dismay. "Did
you step on it?"

Stephanie peered at the offending card. "Sorry, Katy. I didn't
mean to drop them. I bumped them when I was just looking."

Chloe and Simone exchanged a glance. "Maybe Chloe deserves
an apology from you as well," suggested Simone.

"Sorry, Chloe." The singsong tone would convince no one.

"Thank you, Stephanie." Chloe couldn't bring herself to smile at
the smug face. She looked at Katy instead. "Would you girls like
lemon cordial?"

"Yes, please." Katy replaced the postcards carefully on the fridge.

"I like lemonade better," said Stephanie.

"We don't have lemonade, Stephanie." Chloe poured cordial and
iced water into a glass for Katy. "Would you like cordial, iced water,
or nothing?" Or perhaps a session in the Gardiners' long-unused
"naughty corner"?

Katy took a big gulp of her drink and tinkled the ice cubes against
the sides of the glass. Stephanie watched. "I want cordial," she said
suddenly.

"I thought I heard you tell your daddy you had good manners."
Simone stood with hands on hips, face stern.

"I'd like cordial, please."

"That's better. Shall we take this outside to the verandah, Chloe?"

Chloe handed Stephanie the full glass, staring at her so she was in
no doubt as to what was expected.

"Thank you." The fingers closed around the glass. She took several large gulps and put the tumbler on the counter. "Katy, I want to
go to your room again." Stephanie barely waited for a response from
Katy, who hastily followed her as she ran from the kitchen.

Poor Katy deserved a special treat after this solo barbarian invasion. Maybe they could all go and pick out another kitten from the
desperados at the RSPCA shelter. Chloe slid off the stool. "I'll bring
the lemon, lime, and bitters for the adults."

"Pity we don't have any vodka to go with it. It's getting to be
about that time. Where's a tray?"

"Beside the oven. I could sure do with a shot, and I don't even
drink." Chloe opened the fridge.

Simone arranged the remaining glasses, the iced water, and the
cordial on the tray. "How often is she with him?"

"Fortnightly, I think." The chill of the bottle clutched to her chest
helped cool her blood as the mention of Alex in connection with that
child sent another hot surge of rage through her body.

"So you won't cross paths much at all."

"Never, if I can help it."

Simone nudged Chloe's arm with her elbow as they headed for the
door. "He's very handsome. I've always gone for that dark-haired,
blue-eyed look. Good body too. You should work on him, Chloe."

"Simone, for heaven's sake! The man's not interested in me, I'm
not interested in him, and even if I was, he's got Stephanie for a
daughter, and she's guaranteed to put off any prospective girlfriend.
No thank you!"

Simone waited while Chloe slid the screen door open. "Yes, yes,
yes," she said. "But he's handsome, single, and he likes the boysKaty goes without saying-and he is interested in you, despite what
you say."

"He is not." But was he? She'd thought so yesterday and most of
last night. Deep down inside she did, despite all her cogitations and
prevarications and thoughts that she was kidding herself. Was Simone's assessment accurate? She often made pronouncements on
subjects she didn't know much about, and Chloe usually dismissed
her opinion as a sort of over-the-top rant. But this time she wasn't
sure.

Simone knew a lot about falling in love. She'd had two husbands
and, if her stories were true, many affairs. She was more experienced
with men than Chloe, that was for certain. On the other hand, she'd
been angling for Chloe to find a man, any man, for ages. Maybe she
based her opinion that Alex was interested in her on one aspect onlyhe was there, and he was available.

"You'll see." Simone began unloading the tray onto the wooden
table. "You wouldn't mind if he was, would you?" She grinned
shrewdly at Chloe.

"Did you see his face when he looked at me after that Oscarwinning performance by his child?" Chloe snorted derisively. "Believe me, any interest he may have had was flushed straight down the
gurgler."

"Oh, Chloe." Simone flapped a hand. "That won't put him off"

"It put me off." Chloe plopped down onto the nearest chair. "When
Katy's old enough, I want my life back. I don't want to be continually
skirmishing with that little horror, or one like her."

Simone cupped her hands to her mouth and called to the boys.
"Drinks!"

The three swimmers hauled themselves out of the water, tanned bodies sleek and shining, hair plastered to their heads, faces alight
with laughter.

"Tell me you don't think that's worth fighting for," said Simone,
staring blatantly as Alex walked around the edge of the pool to the
gate.

If physical attraction was the only issue, they wouldn't be having
this conversation at all. What woman could deny that Alex had a
very sexy pair of legs beneath slim hips, an even sexier flat stomach
and broad chest? And there was something about the way his cheeks
crinkled when he smiled, and the way his eyes bored into hers, as
though he could see right into her mind.

Except attraction wasn't the only issue, and if he could see into
her mind, he would have seen the truth about the showdown with his
daughter instead of automatically assuming she'd been deliberately
nasty to his precious. She couldn't afford to let her thoughts veer
that way at all. That way lay heartache. That way lay shoals and rocks
for the unwary traveler.

"Here be dragons," she murmured.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing." Chloe grabbed the cordial and poured measures for
the boys, topping the glasses with ice and chilled water.

Alex walked slowly toward the verandah where Chloe sat with Simone, pouring drinks. He dried himself as he walked and wrapped
the towel around his waist before he sat down on the steps.

"Sit here, Alex." Simone indicated the empty chair between Seb
and Chloe.

"I'm all wet."

"So are we. Who cares? You'll be dry in a minute" Seb yanked
the chair away from the table. Chloe kept her face averted and
appeared to take no interest at all in the seating arrangements.

"Where's Steffie?" he asked.

Simone answered him with calm assurance. "With Katy in her
room. They're fine. I told you, these little storms pass quickly. Doesn't
do to make too much of them."

Alex heard the veiled rebuke. Had he overreacted? Judging by that
comment and Chloe's manner, he had. "I'm not sure how to handle
her sometimes. She's growing up so fast."

"You need to lay some ground rules and stick to them"

"It's difficult when there are two households with different ideas
involved."

"True"

"And I only see her on alternate weekends." At least Simone was
sympathetic. Chloe still hadn't made any sort of conciliatory gesture.
Surely she wasn't that upset by the incident. Even Steffie appeared to
have gotten over it.