Kate Hardy - A Modern Cinderella

‘Of course it’s nothing like this. This is artificial. And temporary.’ Cassidy tried to figure out why that felt so bad and couldn’t seem to find an answer. Maybe being alone for so long had affected her more than she’d realized? She started pacing again. ‘This isn’t sharing space. It’s temporary. A charade.’

‘A charade?’ he repeated dryly.

She glanced sideways at him again as she changed direction. ‘Oh, come on. It’s miraculous enough that we’ve managed to work together this last while…’

‘We shared space before and it was never this much of a problem…’ Will reached for his mug and frowned when he discovered it was empty. ‘You want coffee?’

He didn’t wait for an answer, reaching across the large desk for her empty mug and pushing his squeaky chair back. ‘I don’t think this has anything to do with sharing space with me. I think trying to keep me at arm’s length is starting to take its toll on you.’

When he left the room her feet immediately followed him. ‘And what exactly is that supposed to mean?’

‘I think you know what it means.’

How dared he assume he knew her every thought? Just because nine times out of ten he was in the ballpark area, it didn’t mean he could read her damn mind.

She followed him across the living room. ‘So if I’m not throwing myself at you it means I’m fighting some inner battle, does it? How do you get that head of yours through doors?’

Setting their mugs down on the breakfast bar, Will went about refilling the coffee-maker, replacing the filter and spooning in coffee granules. ‘Doesn’t have anything to do with throwing yourself at me. You’re determined not to allow yourself to even be friends with me again. It’s childish, frankly. We’re both adults.’

Placing her hands on her hips, she stopped dead at one end of the breakfast bar, speechless.

With the coffee set to percolate, Will turned around, leaning nonchalantly against the counter-top on the opposite side of the kitchen from her and calmly folding his arms across the studio logo on his T-shirt. ‘You’re different. The Cass I met in the Beverly Wilshire just over a week ago isn’t the girl I knew in Dublin. The girl I knew in Dublin was open-minded and honest to the point of bluntness, and she would never have let something brood in her the way you have since you got here. So let’s just clear the air and get it over with, shall we?’

Cassidy opened her mouth to tell him to go straight to—

But he looked her in the eye and knocked the air out of her lungs by saying, ‘You blame me for our break-up, don’t you?’

He wasn’t done, either. Not content with opening the can of worms, he then twisted the knife she felt she had in her chest by adding, ‘Maybe you should just take a minute and remember who it was that did the breaking up before I left…’

The sharp gasp of air hurt her already raw throat.

Then a muted doorbell sounded, and the door at the top of the stairs was flung open. ‘Hello? Anybody home? Time to put down the keyboard!’

Cassidy had a brief glimpse of the frown on Will’s face before she snapped her head around to watch with wide eyes as Angelique appeared. If it wasn’t surprise enough finding out that the woman had a key to Will’s house, there was then a thundering of footsteps and a small blonde-haired ball of energy ran down the stairs, across the wooden floor, and launched itself into Will’s waiting arms.

‘Uncle Will!’

Uncle Will? Cassidy couldn’t help it; her jaw dropped. Not just at the sight of the little girl throwing her small arms around the column of his neck. What really amazed her was Will’s expression as he held her. He was transformed. Gone was the intense, unreadable, pain-in-the-rear Will, and in his place was a man who looked as if he’d just shed five years. Light danced in his eyes, he grinned broadly, and there was the sound of deep, rumbling, happy laughter before he made an exaggerated groan and leaned his head back to look down at her.

‘Hey, munchkin.’

‘We brought a picnic!’

‘Did you, now?’ He lifted his dark brows as he looked in Angelique’s direction, ‘Did I know we were having a picnic?’

‘It’s a surprise, silly!’ the little girl informed him.

‘Indeed it is,’ he answered dryly.

Angelique had made it to Cassidy’s side. ‘This is what happens when you two stand me up for dinner. Script or no script, you still have to eat.’

Will looked up as he bent to set the child on her feet. ‘We have managed to feed ourselves on our own. Ever hear of a little thing called a phone, Angie?’

‘Ah, but if we’d phoned ahead it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?’

‘Remind me to ask for my key back some time.’

Cassidy was rapidly putting two and two together. She even found her gaze sliding across to the little girl who was tugging on Will’s jeans to see if she could see any similarities between them. Having had such vivid images of miniature Wills in her mind since she’d arrived in his gorgeous house, she felt the ragged edges of her heart grate painfully at the thought of finding any. She didn’t want Will to have any children she might be forced to look at. The thought of him having them with any woman who wasn’t her was apparently painful enough.

Which made no sense whatsoever, considering how much she currently disliked him and how close they had been to a major argument not five minutes earlier.

‘Uncle Will?’

He hunched down to look the little girl in the eye; the thoughtfulness of the simple act made Cassidy’s heart hurt all over again. ‘Yes, munchkin, what can I do for you?’

‘The picnic’s for the beach.’

‘Is it indeed?’

She nodded enthusiastically. ‘And I brought my swimsuit and my bodyboard.’

‘Ah.’ Will pursed his mouth into a thin line and frowned almost comically at her, before taking a deep breath through his nose. ‘We’d better go check the sea is still there, then, hadn’t we?’

The little girl giggled, and Cassidy found herself smiling at them as Angelique linked their arms at the elbow and lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘Sometimes I wonder who has who wrapped around their little finger. I hope you’ve brought a bikini with you?’

The thought of publicly displaying her body on a Malibu beach next to the goddess that was Angelique Warden made Cassidy want to curl up in a ball and die. That was not happening in this lifetime. Not that she owned a bikini to begin with, but still…

‘Will could give you a surfing lesson while he’s helping Lily bodyboard.’

Cassidy’s gaze shifted sharply and crashed into Will’s as he stood to his full height. Then her troublesome imagination revisited the image she’d had of him emerging from the surf and she swallowed hard. For a moment she even thought she could hear herself making a gulping noise.

Thick lashes blinked while he stared at her. The intensity returning to his gaze was even fiercer than before. Oh, please, please don’t let now be one of the times when he can read my mind, she silently pleaded. There was only so much humiliation she could take.

Then he nodded. ‘You’ll need sunscreen. Beach towels are in the laundry room. Angie knows where everything is.’

Before Cassidy could protest, he turned his attention to Lily. ‘Right, then. While Cass and I get changed, you and your mom can go get this picnic we’ve been promised. Are there cookies?’

‘Duh, Uncle Will.’

Despite many, many, many carefully worded protests, Cassidy found herself on the beach—thankfully in a swimsuit rather than a bikini. Even that was covered by a thigh-length light shirt. Smothered in the highest factor sunscreen she’d packed, she also had the large-brimmed straw hat Angelique had left behind on her last visit to Will’s house on her head. She had the prerequisite sunglasses on, and had bent one knee as artfully as she could manage as she sat on the large blanket beside the bikini-clad Angelique. If people squinted Cassidy reckoned they might look like nineteen-fifties movie star next to modern-day goddess. Hopefully. After all, women had been adored for their hourglass figures back then—which meant, as always, her timing was severely off. Not that it made her feel any more comfortable in her own skin.