“What’s so funny?” I asked.

  “Just something Morgan said.” She took another sip of her coffee.

  “Morgan is the one getting divorced, is that right?”

  Maya tilted her head on one side and grinned. “You remembered.”

  “I remember a lot about you and Saturday night.” And I did. Especially her perfume. I’d even looked it up on line but stopped short at buying it because that would just be weird. She was wearing it again, and I knew that it would be forever my favourite smell from then on.

  “Same here.” Beautiful green eyes shone over the rim of her mug. “How was your daughter’s sleepover?”

  I scrubbed a hand over my head, rubbing it, as if I could erase the thoughts and worries. “Boys were involved.”

  Maya raised her eyebrows. “Boys?”

  “Yeah, well, one boy in particular.” I grimaced. “He’s a nice kid, though, which makes it worse.”

  “Really? Oh dear.” She picked up her spoon and scooped some of the froth from the top. When she slipped it into her mouth, her tongue flicked out and seductively licked it before darting back behind plump, pink lips. “Handsome, is he?”

  I shrugged. “It appears my daughter thinks so. His dad is a surgeon and his mum and dentist.”

  “Good stock.” She winked at me. “So, what’s your problem?”

  “She’s my little girl. That’s the problem.”

  Maya’s laugh sounded out, mingling with the chat in the coffee shop. “Unfortunately, Will, Maddy has to grow up at some time. She can’t stay seventeen forever.”

  I was amazed that she remembered everything about my daughter. I could only hope that I’d been as memorable to her.

  “I know you’re right,” I groaned. “It just feels shit.”

  She laughed again and reached out her hand and patted mine. “It’ll all be okay, love, don’t you worry.”

  The smile I gave her was genuine because she’d made me feel a little bit better about things. Mainly because she was right. I couldn’t stop Maddy growing up. I couldn’t make her do anything, which was why her choice of university had to be exactly that, hers. All I could do was be there for her and hold her hand when she needed it.

  “So,” I said, pushing my mug away. “Are you free all day?”

  “I might be.” She curled her lips inwards, as if she was trying to hide a smile.

  “Maybe we could grab some lunch. You could show me around Leeds.”

  “I could, could I?”

  Nerves swirled in my stomach, wondering whether I’d misjudged the situation. “Unless you’d rather just stick to coffee?”

  Maya wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “No. I think that I like the sound of that.”

  I sighed with relief and sagged back in my chair. “Perfect. Now, what do you fancy to eat?”

  As we’d walked around the city centre, I couldn’t remember when I’d felt so relaxed. My mind had barely wandered back to the bar, all the bills that I needed to pay, Maddy and her future. I’d been fully invested in Maya, listening to her, talking with her, just watching her smile. Even the weather had done us a favour. A pale Winter sun had come out and almost fooled us into thinking Spring was already on its way. It was bright outside, and warm at our table next to the window of the small Italian restaurant we were eating lunch in.

  “I love the colder weather,” Maya said, looking through the window. “But you can’t beat the sun, can you?”

  “You can’t, not that I’ve felt any on my back for a couple of years.”

  Her gaze whipped back to mine. “You haven’t had a holiday?”

  “Not for…” I closed one eye and tried to figure out when it had been. “Seven years.”

  Maya’s eyes widened. “Seven years? That’s a long time.”

  I sighed because I couldn’t have agreed more. Once Covid hit I couldn’t justify a holiday, seeing as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep the bar. Instead, I’d concentrated on offering a takeout service, and an outside bar at the weekend if the weather allowed. We also served hot drinks and bacon baps outside during the day, and while it hadn’t made me a millionaire, it had all kept us ticking over.

  “The dreaded Covid,” I told her. “Maddy has been. Her friend’s parents offered to take her to Spain with them.”

  “That’s kind of them.” Maya’s face softened. “Has it been hard being a single parent?”

  I shrugged. “Some days are worse than others. Some years have been worse than others.” I laughed, shaking my head. “She makes it worth it, though, or so she tells me.”

  Maya grinned. “When she’s not kissing boys.”

  My heart dropped. “I never said she’d kissed the boy.”

  “Oh, come on, if she’s as pretty as I’m guessing she is, then he’ll have kissed her.” She put a forkful of pasta into her mouth and raised an eyebrow.

  I rolled my eyes. “Now you’ve made me feel worse.”

  “Ah, don’t worry, she’ll be fine.” She nodded at my plate. “How’s the steak?”

  “Good. And the Carbonara?”

  She nodded and licked her lips, distracting me. Her lipstick had disappeared ages before, and she hadn’t reapplied it. She didn’t need it anyway; she had plump, pink lips that I was desperate to kiss.

  “Actually,” Maya said, pushing her bowl away, “you haven’t shown me a picture of Maddy. I’d like to see one.”

  “You would?” Most women I’d been with changed the subject whenever it moved to my daughter. There’d been a couple who had been desperate to meet her, but I’d soon figured out that was just a way to get me to like them. If they loved my daughter, then I’d love them. It didn’t work out like that, though. Yet with Maya, I did want her to get to know Maddy and not be freaked out that I had a seventeen-year-old daughter.

  “So?” she prompted. “Can I see one?”

  Putting my knife and fork down on my empty plate, I reached for my phone and flicked to the album of Maddy photos. I picked one taken a few weeks before when she was sulking and not talking to me. I wouldn’t let her go to a house party of someone she didn’t know. She’d given me the ‘I’ll be the only one not there’ speech, but I’d soon found out that was a lie. One quick call to Ana’s mum had confirmed she wasn’t allowed either.

  I turned my phone screen to Maya. “This is my Maddy.”

  She looked at the screen and then her fingers gently prised it from mine. “She’s beautiful.” Smiling, she tapped at the screen and zoomed in on the picture. “She looks like you around the mouth. It’s the pouty lip thing.” Maya looked up at me and grinned.

  That made my chest swell because mostly she was Andy, her mum. I also liked that Maya had obviously been studying my lips.

  She looked up at me. “Do you have any others?”

  I chuckled. “Hundreds, just swipe.”

  Maya spent the next couple of minutes looking at pictures of Maddy, oohing and aahing at the baby and toddler ones, and commenting on her beauty as she got to the teenage ones. Eventually, she passed the phone back to me.

  “That boy has definitely kissed her, and if he hasn’t, then he’s a nice boy who’ll treat her well.”

  “Is that what you think, he’s a good one if he hasn’t tried to kiss her yet?”

  She nodded and relaxed back into her seat. “I do.”

  “What does that say about me then? I kissed you.” I leaned forward, my forearms on the table. “Are you saying I’m not a nice boy?”

  She studied me and then also leaned forward, adopting the same position, our faces inches from each other. I was so close that I could see the tiny whisky coloured flecks in her green eyes and how her long eyelashes curled up. How smooth and perfect her skin was.

  “No, I don’t think you are.” She licked her lips, her voice a deep, sultry tone.

  Watching her watching me, it made me want things. Things that I didn’t think either of us were ready for, because I didn’t want it to be some sort of brief fling between us. She was worth more than a few bunk ups, plus if I rushed things with her then she might get the wrong impression of what I wanted.

  “However,” Maya continued, rousing me from my thoughts, “I never said I liked nice boys.”

  I grinned and reached for her hand, linking our fingers together. “I can be nice, very nice, in fact, for the right person. Besides, nice is such an inadequate word for what I could be.”

  Dragging in a shaky breath, she nodded. “That’s good to know because, to be honest, I’m so sick and tired of the not-nice men.”

  A shadow passed over her face, and it was clear there was a painful memory behind her words. When she exhaled slowly, like she was letting go of something, I knew for certain that we were most definitely not going to be a brief fling. I liked this woman a lot, and for the first time in ever, I wanted her to like me, too.

  “So,” I said, reaching up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, “how about after this we do something else?”

  She narrowed her eyes on me. “Like what?”

  As much as I wanted to ask her if we could go back to her house, I wouldn’t. “I don’t know bowling, cinema, shopping, a walk?”

  Her nose wrinkled and she shuddered. “Ugh, not shopping. I hate it.”

  “That’s a relief.” I blew out a breath and smiled. “I hate it, too.”

  “Yet, you’d have gone for me?”

  “Told you, I’m nice.” I winked at her and was rewarded with a beautiful, bright smile. “So, if not shopping, what?”

  Her shoulders shrugged up to her ears as she asked tentatively, “Could we go bowling? I haven’t been since I was a teenager.”

  “Good for me. Although,” I said with a groan, “I’m not sure I like the idea of wearing those shit shoes.”

  “I promise not to take any pictures of you wearing them.” She giggled and the sound went straight to parts of my body that I shouldn’t have been thinking about.

  “Okay, bowling it is.” I looked around and caught the attention of the waiter, indicating for the bill. “And lunch is on me.”

  “No, I’ll⁠—”

  “Maya, it’s just me being nice, so no arguments.”

  She patted the table. “Okay, but I’m paying for bowling.”

  “We’ll see.” No way was she paying for anything, because I was determined to treat her well—treat her well and show her how nice a man I could be, because, for some reason, I felt like she hadn’t had one before.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Maddy

  Iwas annoyed with my dad. He had sent me a message to say he wouldn’t be home for dinner, but there was curry in the slow cooker, and I had to make sure I ate some.

  It wasn’t that I was mad that he wasn’t home, but that he hadn’t messaged me until I was walking through the door. I could have said yes to Zak’s invitation to McDonald’s. I could have been enjoying a bloody burger with him instead of my dad’s curry, alone. It wasn’t like I could call him and say my plans had changed. That would have looked desperate.

  At least dad not being home meant that I could get ready without him questioning me every five minutes. Or him hanging around the front door when Zak arrived, or even worse, asking Zak a thousand and one questions about the evening and warning him to take care of me.

  Annoyance, though, was soon replaced by nerves as I realised the time. It was almost five to seven and Zak would be arriving soon. Unless, of course, he stood me up. My stomach dropped at the thought. What if he did? Maybe he’d changed his mind? What if it was just a joke and he didn’t like me at all? What if Liam had dared him?

  “Shut up, Maddy,” I muttered to myself. “You’re being stupid.”

  When, just seconds later, there was a loud banging on the door, I knew I hadn’t been stood up. At least I hoped it was Zak. With one last look in the mirror, I ran down the stairs, took a quick breath at the bottom and then pulled open the door.

  Zak was standing very straight, with his hands behind his back, grinning. “You look good.” He looked me up and down. “Gorgeous, in fact.”

  My heart beat erratically as I stared at him. I wasn’t used to boys being so confident and saying what they thought. Most of the boys I’d talked to, or had dates with, liked to mess around with a girls’ head. Talking in some sort of stupid boy code and expecting the girl to understand. And never had one told me that I looked gorgeous as soon as I’d opened the door. One boy, Toby Jacobs, who had since left our school, told me once I looked quite nice, but only after I told him that I liked his jacket.

  “Thanks. I like your jacket.”

  Shit, I was an idiot. Who told a boy they liked his jacket? Me apparently, to two different boys.

  He gave his sexy grin again. “Cheers.” When he held his hand out to me, I gasped, and he smiled. “I won’t bite.”

  I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks as I tentatively took his offer and let him curl his fingers around mine.

  “I borrowed my mum’s car, so sorry if it’s a bit…” Zak shrugged his shoulders.

  I looked past him to see a Mini parked at the curb. “I like it.”

  “Yeah,” he said, rolling his eyes. “It’s great, but not the best when you’re six foot two.”

  Swallowing, I looked up the full length of him, finding everything about him hot. He was gorgeous to look at, but I liked him as a person too. So far, he seemed like he was nice and wouldn’t do the usual dickhead boy things. What did I know, though; he might be the biggest player in the world.

  “Anyway, let’s go,” he said, tugging on my hand. “I’m starving.”

  “You haven’t eaten yet?”

  Pulling me down the path to the car, he groaned. “No. Mum made this awful lentil thing because she thinks we eat too much meat. Even Dad wouldn’t eat it, and he eats everything.”

  I thought about his parents and how slim his dad was. He didn’t look like he ate everything. He was nothing like my dad; he was older and had been wearing suit trousers and a white shirt—something you’d never see Dad in. Mr Hoyland’s hair—Mister, not Doctor, because he was a surgeon—was greying at the temples, and he had a short beard also speckled with grey. He was also very tall, which was obviously where Zak got his height from, because his mum was tiny, not much taller than Amelia.

  When we reached the car, Zak opened the door for me. He didn’t do it with flourish or make it cheesy; he just did it like it was a normal thing for him to do. Not at all like the other boys my age, who let a door swing back in your face without caring.

  “Thanks.” I flashed him a smile and got into the car, and when he leaned inside, I felt my breath rush from my lungs.

  “I’ll just fasten you in.” His breath whispered against my ear, making me shiver. “Make sure you’re safe.”

  “Is your driving that bad?”

  His face was inches from mine, and I could smell the mint of his toothpaste on his breath as it mingled with his aftershave. When he smiled and showed his perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth, I had to hold back a moan. He was beautiful.

  “Nope, I’m a great driver. In fact, my dad says I’m a little bit slow at times.”

  “My dad will be pleased,” I breathed out.

  “Where is he, by the way?” he asked, clicking my seatbelt into place. “I expected him to be out here warning me about being safe and getting you home on time.”

  “He’s out. He went to meet a supplier.” And he had no idea that I was out with Zak. Otherwise, I was sure he’d have made sure to get home as soon as he could.

  “That explains it.” I got another flash of teeth, and then he disappeared before closing the door.

  I watched him run around the front of the car and then open the driver’s door, folding himself into the seat. It was all done with confidence, and I wondered if I could handle him. His long fingers wrapped around the steering wheel, and he bounced in his seat.

  “Right, let’s go.” He grinned at me again, and as soon as we were on our way, I opened my WhatsApp and messaged Ana.

  MADDY

  Zak just picked me up to go to McDonalds!!!!

  ANA

  WHAT!!! Like a date?!!

  MADDY

  I don’t know. I think so. He asked me at school. I’m scared!!

  ANA

  Why! Has he done something to scare you?

  MADDY

  NO! He’s just so…beautiful.

  ANA

  Do you look good?

  MADDY

  What do you think?

  ANA

  Of course you do! What was I thinking!! Just enjoy it and make sure you message me later. I want all the gossip on how he kisses and whether he uses the right amount of tongue.

  Smiling, I put my phone back in my pocket and glanced over at Zak, who was concentrating on the road. If he did kiss me, I’d probably pass out before I had time to figure out what his tongue action was like.

  “Put the radio on if you like,” Zak said, nodding at the dashboard. “Or you can go through my playlists. My phone’s hooked up.”

  With his eyes still on the road, he reached into the console, and, taking hold of his phone, handed it to me.

  “Passcode is one, two, three, four.”

  I burst out laughing. “That’s not very safety-conscious.”

  Zak shrugged and chuckled. “I wouldn’t remember anything else.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind me knowing it?” I asked, looking down at the screen, trying to decide whether to open it or not.

  “No. Why would I? I don’t have any secrets. Everything else is Hoyland123.”

  “Wow, okay then.” I licked my lips and tapped at the screen. Once I opened the music app, I scrolled. “How many playlists have you got?”