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Kids Included
Caroline Anderson
When Jack met Molly again on vacation with their respective children in tow, it brought home two things–the fun and fiasco of their last meeting and just how much they wanted each other!Their holiday certainly brought them closer. But what woman would want to take Jack on with four children–especially when she already had two of her own?But those children realized something their parents didn't–that five plus three equals the ideal family!
“Idiot,” Jack muttered
Nicky tipped her head back and peered up at him from the toddler seat in the trolley.
“Not idiot,” the young girl protested indignantly.
“Not you, darling, me. I’ve forgotten something,” he explained, and with a sigh he shoved the trolley around the corner, nearly crashing into someone. Someone small and blond and—
“Molly?”
She froze, then turned in slow motion. Her eyes were wide and wary and beautiful, and her lips were working slightly. He had an insane urge to kiss them….
Caroline Anderson has the mind of a butterfly. She’s been a nurse, a secretary, a teacher, she once ran her own soft furnishing business, and she has now settled on writing. She says, “I was looking for that elusive something. I finally realized it was variety, and now I have it in abundance. Every book brings new horizons and new friends, and in between books I have learned to be a juggler. My teacher husband, John, and I have umpteen pets, two horse-mad daughters—Sarah and Hannah—and several acres of Suffolk, a county in England, that nature tries to reclaim every time we turn our backs!”
Kids Included!
Caroline Anderson
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE (#uffbf496c-24fd-53a4-8baf-58afd4420c32)
CHAPTER ONE (#u554155d2-da57-52c7-8990-47e4205cbfc1)
CHAPTER TWO (#ued534b9e-49fc-580f-8287-4f82401590ae)
CHAPTER THREE (#u41510396-9d02-5285-bf22-ae94d6d735b1)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE
‘ABRACADABRA!’
The coins vanished from one hand and reappeared magically in the other, to the amazement of the children sitting cross-legged in front of her, watching her every move with wide-eyed anticipation…
At least, that was the theory.
In practice, the coins fell out of her hand, rolled across the floor and wobbled to a halt just in front of the first row of straight-faced and sceptical little monsters. They laughed and scrabbled for the coins, the magic hopelessly blown away, and Molly sighed.
Darn Sandy and her wretched wrist—
She dredged up a smile.
‘Ah. Well, how about this trick?’ she suggested, and waved Sandy’s wand again. Her fingers disappeared up her sleeve, hunted around for a moment, then came out with a stream of brightly coloured handkerchiefs.
In theory.
She looked at the single yellow square in disgust. Obviously her knots left something to be desired…
She rootled around in her sleeve again for the rest of the colourful string, and the children tittered and giggled and nudged each other. In the back corner a man sat, watching her steadily as she poked about for the elusive end. He was the host—Jack something. Hallam? Haddon? He would have made a good poker player, she thought crossly as she rummaged. Totally po-faced, he was the man who, if she pulled this off, would pay her for her services.
Hah. The only thing she was going to pull off was the lining of the jacket, and as for being paid for this fiasco—!
Molly’s face flamed, but she persevered, and they began to laugh louder. ‘I know they’re up here somewhere,’ she muttered, and the laugh grew to a crescendo. The man was still watching her intently. His mouth twitched, and she could have hit him, or strangled him with the brightly coloured silk squares—if she ever found them.
She could feel them tugging over her shoulder, so she stuck her hand down the back of her neck and pulled, and, yes! Out they came!
The children roared their approval, laughing and clapping, and to her astonishment Molly realised that they were enjoying it. They thought—bless their little cotton socks—that she meant to camp it up! And the man with the money was laughing, too!
Thank God for small mercies, she thought wildly, and plunged on with the act.
Everything went wrong. She didn’t mean it to, but she didn’t really have to try. Sandy made it look so easy—just wait till she caught up with her!
‘Help me out—my wrist is so bad I can’t possibly do the tricks—’
Well, Sandy wasn’t the only one who couldn’t possibly do the tricks, but at least the children seemed to be on her side now. The rings steadfastly refused to come apart, the disappearing balls under the cups kept appearing again, the card trick ended with cards scattering like confetti—and through it all they laughed like little drains.
Only one more trick to go, and that was sure to get them all going. She set the top hat on the table, flicked the catch and put her hand in. Yes, she could feel it; she had its little silky ears—
‘Ouch!’
She leapt back, the hat and table went flying, and the star of the grand finale headed off across the floor of the hotel function room at a flat-out hop.
Molly, sucking her bitten finger, swore silently and violently for a moment, then, hitching up Sandy’s baggy magician’s pants, she squeezed and wriggled her way through the crowd after Flopsy.
The children were all scampering about chasing the rabbit, and Molly saw it make a run for it towards the corner with That Man. If she headed it off—
She leapt over a table, scooted across the room and dropped to her knees, skidding the last two yards into the corner. Arms outstretched for the rabbit, she dived after it as it headed for the safety of his chair.
Almost—
She stretched out her hands, toppled forwards and grabbed, and ended up with her hands fastened firmly round the rabbit—and her shoulder propped against his thigh. His firm thigh. Oh, help.
Victorious, and not a little flustered, she sat back on her heels and smiled up at him witlessly. Her hair was on end, her cheeks were flushed and she was laughing. So was he—except she had the distinct and uncomfortable feeling he was laughing at her.
The rabbit wriggled, and she dived forwards again. She wasn’t letting go of that damn rabbit for anyone. Just another inch—
She lost her balance, what little was left of it, and slowly, like an action replay on the television, she toppled over and ended up face-down in his jeans-clad and very masculine lap. Heat scalded her cheeks, and she wriggled backwards, digging her chin into his thigh to lift her head.
‘Ouch!’
Firm, strong hands cupped her shoulders and lifted her away before she could do any lasting damage. His eyes were sparkling, his lips twitching with amusement and something else—something very male and distracting that took the last of her breath away.
‘I know the advert said the show had a wonderful climax,’ he murmured, laughter threading his voice, ‘but never in my wildest dreams…!’
CHAPTER ONE
‘BUT I want a lolly!’
‘Later, darling.’
She scanned the shop anxiously. He couldn’t be here! Of all the places, and of all the people to run into all these miles away, it would have to be him!
If it was him, of course. It might not be—if she was lucky. If she wasn’t—and just recently her luck had been running somewhat thin—she could only imagine what it would do to their holiday!
Heat scalded her cheeks. The last time they’d met—the only time they’d met, in fact—had been a disaster. She could still vividly remember the embarrassment, the chaos, the pandemonium—
‘Mummy, please!’
‘Pretty please, with a cherry on top, an’ loads of juicy cream?’
‘You did promise us.’
She closed her eyes in defeat. Cassie was right; she had promised them— ‘All right, then, just this once. Go and choose, then come and find me. I’ll carry on.’
And hopefully Haddon and his handful of hooligans wouldn’t see her…
It was her. He was sure—certain of it. She’d made enough of an impact, after all, he thought with grim humour. He hurried round the corner, pushing the trolley round the aisles of the little supermarket, searching for another glimpse.
She was so damn small, of course—five foot in thick socks, and as skinny as her rabbit.
Well, perhaps not skinny, he amended, remembering the soft curves pressed against him as she’d chased the rabbit under his chair and cornered it finally, with her breasts forced against his shins and her chin resting in his lap in a very tantalising and inviting way.
She’d been flushed to the roots of that lovely natural blonde hair, her dazzling blue-green eyes wide with laughter and apology and something else—something he hadn’t had time to investigate but which had played havoc with his sleep pattern for weeks.
He hadn’t been able to contact her. The real magician—the proper one that he’d booked for the kids’ party—had been most evasive when he’d rung. He’d been offered a refund, but that wasn’t what he had wanted.
What he’d wanted, however, had been too difficult to explain—if he’d even known himself. So he’d been forced to give up.
And now here she was, more than a year later, in the same adventure holiday village as them.
With someone?
He felt a stab of disappointment, and squashed it with a silent chuckle. ‘Idiot,’ he muttered, and Nicky tipped her head back and peered up at him from the toddler seat in the trolley.
‘Not idiot,’ she protested indignantly.
‘Not you, darling, me. I’ve forgotten something,’ he explained feebly, and with a sigh he shoved the trolley round the corner, nearly crashing into someone.
Someone small, and blonde, and—
‘Molly?’
She froze, then turned in slow motion. Her eyes were wide and wary and beautiful, and her lips were working slightly. He had an insane urge to kiss them—
‘Do I know you?’ she asked with commendable cool.
Jack stifled a chuckle of admiration. He’d been a cop for too many years to mistake someone at this range—especially this someone. He smiled at her over Nicky’s head. ‘Jack Haddon—you did a party for my son Tom a year ago.’
Her eyes flared with panic, but she kept her cool. ‘There must be some mistake,’ she began, but then Seb and Amy and Tom came charging round the corner and slithered to a halt, staring at her in delight.
‘It’s Molly the Magician!’ Tom yelled, and the colour in her cheeks slid up into her hair and darkened to a fetching crimson.
‘Hi, kids,’ she said weakly, and he met her eye and waited. She swallowed and smiled feebly. ‘Um—yes, I think I remember now.’
‘You brought a rabbit, and it ran away under the seats,’ Amy reminded her.
‘And we all chased it, and you caught it under Jack’s chair, but it got frightened and wee’d on you,’ Tom added.
She gave a breathless little giggle and bit her lips to trap the laugh. ‘So it did. Well, nice to see you again.’ She edged away, her eyes flying up to meet Jack’s and then flying away again. ‘Have a nice holiday.’
‘You, too.’ Then he added, because he was suddenly very curious, ‘Are you here all week?’
‘Um—yes.’
His heart, unaccountably, soared, and his mouth quirked into a smile of its own accord. ‘Good. I’ll see you round.’
Molly returned the open, friendly smile a little distractedly, and made her escape. She couldn’t believe he didn’t hate her. It had been the most dreadful party.
She gave a little moan of anguish at the memory, just as her kids came running up. ‘We’ve got orange lollies,’ her son said. Her daughter gave her a keen look.
‘Are you all right? You made a funny noise, and you’re a very strange colour.’
She pasted on a smile. ‘I’m fine. Come on, guys, we’ve got to find out where you need to be in the morning, and we have to go back and unpack, and then maybe we’ll have time for a swim—’
She was gabbling, running off at the mouth a mile a minute, but it was all his fault. He just turned her inside out with that knowing, sexy smile and those laughing eyes—
‘Damn.’
