The One You Really Want (13 page)

Blimey, where had
that
come from?

‘Believe me, I'd love to.' Joe looked longingly at her. ‘But I'd just feel so . . .'

‘I want to go to the ball.' Carmen couldn't quite believe she was doing this, but desperate situations called for desperate measures. ‘Please take me with you. Nobody else has to know who I am, if that helps. I'd just really like to go,' she concluded helplessly. ‘With you.'

There, now she'd made a complete and utter fool of herself. If Joe turned her down, there was nothing more she could do. Except maybe stick her head in the oven, if only it had had the common decency to run on gas.

‘OK.' Putting his hands up, Joe broke into a smile. ‘I'd like to go with you too. You've made my day.'

You've made my year, Carmen thought happily. He really had. Yikes, she had a date for Friday night!

Thank goodness Rennie wasn't here to tease her about it.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Similarly, you can introduce your daughter to your girlfriend but you can't make them like each other.

From the safety of his office, Connor watched Sadie head over to reception and ask Mia a question. Both of them were smiling - well, baring their teeth at each other - but the body language said it all.

Damn it, why couldn't his life be uncomplicated?

Connor lit a cigarette, which wasn't actually allowed, but this was his club so what the hell. Sadie Sylvester was twenty-six and he liked her a lot, although sometimes he wasn't entirely sure why. Her hair was a riotous mass of ringlets dyed a vivid shade of magenta. She was curvy, voluptuous and terrifyingly fit. When she'd started working at the Lazy B four months earlier, teaching aerobics and dance classes, he'd found himself drawn to her brash, devil-may-care manner and sexy, slanting eyes. Before long, they were seeing each other regularly. Sadie could be bossy at times. She knew her own mind. When she'd first set her sights on Connor, it hadn't occurred to her for one moment that she might not get him. She was hot-blooded, emotional and could be blunt to the point of rudeness, but she was never boring.

All in all, Sadie and Mia had quite a lot in common. It would have been nice if they could have hit it off. But this hadn't happened; they had decided to hate each other from the word go.

Connor shuddered at the memory of their first meeting on the very evening Mia had moved in. Mia had given him a blow-by-blow account of it. Sadie, having decided to drop round on a whim - he suspected she liked to check up on him - had rung the doorbell at ten o'clock. Her hackles had risen instantly at the sight of Mia, whose version of pyjamas was a skimpy white vest top and low-slung cotton shorts.

‘Who are you? What are you doing here? Where's Connor?'

Instantly offended by Sadie's unfriendly manner - and her hair was pretty offensive too - Mia bristled.

‘You must be my father's girlfriend. Nice to meet you too. Dad's having a bath.'

‘Oh, right. I'll come in. He didn't tell me you were visiting. ' Sadie followed Mia into the living room, took off her coat and handed it to the younger girl with a forced smile. Fastidiously brushing away digestive biscuit crumbs, she then made herself comfortable on the sofa where Mia had been sitting.

Sweetly, Mia said, ‘I'm not visiting. I've come to live with my dad.'

She watched with satisfaction as Sadie's lipglossed mouth dropped open.

When Connor arrived downstairs shortly afterwards, Sadie sprang up from the sofa and marched him into the kitchen.

‘What's going on? Is this really going to happen?' Incensed, Sadie had bombarded him with questions. Having a sixteen year old hanging around the place didn't fit in with her plans at all.

‘Hey, don't get worked up,' Connor told her. ‘It'll be fine, you'll see.'

‘How can you say that?' Sadie rolled her eyes in disbelief. ‘This is going to change everything. For a start, how are we supposed to have fun together? We won't have any privacy!'

Wearily Connor rubbed his forehead. At this rate the house was going to end up like Beirut, with sniper fire zinging in all directions.

‘It's all happened very suddenly. Once we've had time to get used to the situation, I'm sure things will settle down.'

‘Ha,' snorted Sadie, who knew perfectly well they wouldn't. ‘And what does she plan to do with herself all day? Go to school? Get a job? Laze around the place doing nothing at all, like most teenagers?'

‘She already has a job. At the club,' said Connor.

Sadie's nostrils flared. ‘At
our
club?'

‘My club.' It occurred to Connor that this could signal the end of the line for Sadie and himself. Mia was here to stay, whether Sadie liked it or not. ‘I've started her on reception. I think she'll do well.'

Sadie's glossy upper lip curled with derision, but she didn't say what she was clearly dying to say. Instead, sensing a change of direction was called for, she ran her fingers lightly down the gap at the front of Connor's white towelling dressing gown. His chest, so brown from their holiday, was warm and still damp from the bath.

‘I came over here to see you. I thought we'd make love on the sofa in the living room.'

‘Well, we can't. Mia's watching a documentary about battery farming and it doesn't finish until midnight.' Since Mia was passionate about the welfare of farm animals, the programme was required viewing. Connor made a mental note to himself to go out tomorrow and buy another TV set for Mia's bedroom.

‘Fine. I'm adaptable.' Smiling for the first time, sliding both hands inside the dressing gown and raking her fingers gently down his sides, Sadie said playfully, ‘We'll go up to your room. Do it the old-fashioned way, use the bed.'

Connor shook his head. ‘We can't leave Mia down here on her own. It would look so obvious.'

‘For God's sake! What does it
matter
? You're single, you're allowed to have a girlfriend,' Sadie protested. ‘She can't stop you having a sex life!'

‘I know, but it would be embarrassing.' Gently removing her arms from inside his dressing gown, Connor said, ‘It's her first night here. Come into the living room and we'll all watch TV. Once you get to know each other, things will—'

‘Oh please, they
won't
get better. Sitting down together to watch a documentary about battery farming isn't my idea of a wild time. Sex is my idea of a wild time, but I'm not allowed to have sex with my boyfriend because even though our uninvited guest wouldn't be able to see or hear us, she might know what's going on and be embarrassed. No, don't worry about me. I'll go home, leave you and your daughter in peace. Enjoy your battery hens.'

When Sadie had left, even more furious to discover that Mia had dumped her coat over the back of a chair instead of hanging it up properly on the coat stand, Connor rejoined his daughter on the sofa.

‘Dad, I've got to say this.'

Thought you might, thought Connor. Aloud he said, ‘What, sweetheart?'

Mia tucked her arm companionably through his. ‘I'm an easy-going person. I like most people I meet. But that girlfriend of yours is something else, I'm telling you. You could do so much better.'

Connor was reminded of why he drank. In theory, he knew that alcohol was bad for you; it was a poison, it was capable of giving you diabolical hangovers, it did insidious things to your liver and, since he invariably smoked more cigarettes when he was drinking, would probably end up giving him lung cancer to boot.

The trouble was, he enjoyed drinking enormously. When he had a beer in his hand, he was happy. And when he had Sadie in his bed he was happy too. She was wildly sexy, so much so that, if he was honest, when they were in bed together, the less adorable aspects of her personality didn't trouble him at all. He was prepared to overlook these minor defects. What man wouldn't, when she had so much else to offer?

‘We'll see,' he told Mia. ‘She's not as bad as you think.'

Mia made a
tuh
sound under her breath. ‘Dad, I think you'll find she is.'

‘Anyway,' Connor decided he had to remind his daughter who was the parent around here, ‘that's just your opinion. It's my life, not yours, and I'm not going to be running it to suit you. I'm not planning to dump every girlfriend you decide you don't like, either. So give Sadie a break, OK? She wasn't expecting you to be here tonight, but she'll get used to the idea.'
I hope
. ‘You never know, you may end up the best of friends.'

Now, watching them square up to each other across the reception desk, Connor acknowledged that this was unlikely to happen. Perversely - and much as he loved his headstrong daughter - it only made him fancy Sadie all the more. She was wearing a midriff-baring violet Lycra sports top and violet and pink striped cycle shorts. Every inch of her tanned, super-toned body was beyond criticism. Sadie's thighs would never entertain the concept of cellulite. She worked like an Olympic athlete to keep her figure flawless, and equal attention was paid to her make-up. He had witnessed her spending forty minutes doing her face. Connor, who thought she didn't need it, wondered if this was another cause of Mia's distrust of Sadie. Mia thought there was something obscene about the idea of spending twenty pounds on a designer lipstick. Sadie, on the other hand, belonged to the Nancy Dell'Olio school of thought when it came to cosmetics: more wasn't nearly enough.

Her dark eyes were flashing now, her magenta corkscrew ringlets starting to bounce ominously. As their voices began to rise, Connor left his office and headed over to the desk.

‘Ah, good.' Spotting him, Sadie said frostily, ‘Back me up here, would you? Just tell your daughter to do as she's told and stop making a fuss about nothing.'

‘Excuse
me
.' Mia had no intention of being intimidated. ‘What's more important, the members who pay good money to come to this club, or your fake nails?'

‘Girls, shhh.' Luckily the reception area was empty, but Connor was keen to avoid a squawking match. ‘Tell me what this is about and let's sort it out, shall we?'

‘She's sixteen,' Sadie exploded. ‘She isn't going to boss me around like—'

‘I'm not bossing you around, I'm protecting our members' interests!' Turning to Connor, Mia said, ‘Sadie wants to change the time of tomorrow's six o'clock advanced aerobics class. She's got an appointment with her nail technician, ' her lip curled with derision as she enunciated the words, ‘so she asked me to ring everyone in her class and tell them we'd be starting at five-thirty instead. So I phoned the first three people on the list but they all say they can't get here that early because they don't finish work until five-thirty. And now she's getting stroppy with me because I won't ring the rest of the numbers. It's just ridiculous, why should I? They're not going to be able to get here either, are they? Because bunking off early from the job you're being paid to do isn't professional!'

‘Says the sixteen-year-old who has held down a job for all of three days,' Sadie sneered. ‘And how did you get this job? Oh yes, that's it, your daddy gave it to you.'

‘Right, stop this.' The time had come for Connor to put his foot down; the trouble was, he didn't know where to put it. ‘Why don't you change your nail appointment?'

Sadie rolled her eyes at his stupidity. ‘It's the only one I can get. Marco's flying over to LA on Saturday morning. He's an A-list nail technician, booked up for months ahead. God, I was so lucky to get this appointment at short notice, you have no idea.'

Clearly, as far as Sadie was concerned, missing out on her stint with Marco would be on a par with cancelling a private audience with the Pope.

‘How about swapping classes with Leila then?' said Connor. Leila was the other aerobics instructor.

‘I already asked her.' Sadie shook her head. ‘She won't do it. Her parents are throwing a surprise party for her brother and she has to be there by eight thirty.'

Connor nodded, remembering Leila telling him about it. The party was being held at a hotel in Hertfordshire and she'd been fretting about catching a train because track repairs were causing delays.

‘OK. You answer that,' he told Mia as the phone began to ring. Turning to Sadie he added, ‘And you get back to the gym. I'll see if I can sort something out.'

The way Mia and Sadie narrowed their eyes at each other said it all. In the office, Connor rang Leila and did his persuasive thing on her.

‘I would swap,' Leila protested, ‘but I have to—'

‘I know, I know.' Connor was sympathetic. ‘It's that business with the trains. How about if I organise a car to pick you up and drive you to the party?'

Leila, who was a sweet-natured girl, accepted his offer. Connor hung up with relief. He was a fool, he knew. The car would cost a fortune. On the one hand, it was worth it to have the problem solved. On the other, Mia was going to give him grief when she found out what he'd done, while Sadie would feel she'd won their battle of wills.

God, nightmare. Why couldn't he have been attracted to gentle, thoughtful, eager-to-please Leila instead of fiery, sexy, eager-to-cause-havoc Sadie Sylvester?

Life was never that simple though, was it? Leila might be angelic but she did nothing for him.

Whereas Sadie did . . . well, quite a lot.

Connor leaned back in his chair and lit another much-needed cigarette. Having Mia and Sadie both working here was, he already knew, a big mistake. But Sadie was a damn good instructor with a devoted following. And Mia was attacking her job with relish, impressing everyone - apart from Sadie - with her enthusiasm, cheery manner and eagerness to learn. At this rate she was shaping up to be a dream employee. Her plan was to work her way up to club manager. She was probably fantasising already about giving Sadie the sack.