All She Wants For Christmas. Annie Claydon

was there with you and I could see he was all right. And my wife wasn’t knocked down by a car. She’d been working away from home for a week and was driving back to London on the Friday evening when her car skidded on a patch of ice on the motorway.’

      Beth’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘I’m so sorry. That she never got home.’

      She hadn’t been on her way home. She’d been on her way to a hotel, with her lover. Matt swallowed the truth, but couldn’t bring himself to offer up the usual lie. ‘Thank you.’ He opted for a brisk change of subject. ‘It’s getting late. I’d better get this little guy up to bed.’ He rose and lifted the sleeping boy out of Beth’s arms, briefly scenting her hair before he managed to put some space between them again.

      Jack stirred and rubbed his eyes. ‘Story, Dad.’

      ‘You bet. Let’s get you upstairs and we’ll have a story there.’

      ‘Why not down here?’ Matt knew what Jack was angling for. He wanted Beth to tell him a story.

      ‘No, mate.’ He retrieved the copy of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men from where Jack had dumped it that morning and tucked it against his chest. ‘Beth probably doesn’t like Robin Hood.’

      He could see from her face that she wouldn’t have minded reading Jack’s bedtime story one little bit. He minded, though. Having Beth read to Jack, when his mother had made so little effort to be home in time to do so, would have been like rubbing salt into open wounds.

      ‘Okay. Just you and me, Dad. The two musketeers.’ Jack snuggled into his chest and the familiar, overpowering need to protect him surged through Matt. He couldn’t risk the possibility of his son going through the pain of abandonment for a second time. He couldn’t take the risk for himself either. As far as Beth was concerned, friendship wasn’t just the best option, it was the only option.

      Regret hung in the air for a brief moment, before dispersing under the relentless pressure of his resolve. As if to prove to himself that he could do it, Matt wrenched his gaze away from Beth and then turned, making for the stairs.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      LEFT alone, Beth collected the mugs and plates from the table by the fire and took them into the kitchen, washing them and putting them away. Walking back into the sitting room, she realised what had seemed odd to her about the place. It was comfortable, practical and quietly stylish but all the furniture seemed new and everything was arranged just so. Apart from a mess of toys and books to one side of the hearth, there were none of the quirky, out-of-place bits and pieces that were collected over time, and which made her own cottage seem like a home.

      Almost the only personal things in the room were a group of picture frames grouped on the dresser, and Beth paused to look at them. Matt and Jack. Matt with an older man and woman, and a young woman who was so like him she had to be his sister. She picked up a third picture, one of Jack with a different woman, his arms flung around her neck. The woman was dark, well groomed and looked into the camera with a self-possessed smile that seemed vaguely familiar.

      This must be Matt’s wife. The woman who ought to be here with him and Jack, while Beth should be at home, where she belonged. Her fingers trembled as she went to replace the photograph and she started guiltily to find Matt standing beside her.

      ‘Oh. I’m sorry.’ Once again he had surprised her snooping.

      Matt shrugged. ‘What for?’ He picked up the photo and looked at it thoughtfully. ‘That’s Jack’s mother, Mariska.’

      Mariska Sutherland. The name rang a bell, too. ‘She was very beautiful.’ She wished that she was not wearing clothes that were at least four sizes too big and feeling unbearably dowdy in comparison.

      Matt nodded absently. ‘She was a journalist, and she travelled a lot for her work.’ It was like a well-rehearsed answer to a question she hadn’t even asked.

      Beth remembered now. ‘I’ve seen her show. I don’t usually catch daytime TV but I recorded the programme she did on cochlear implants. I thought it was very good—very clear and even-handed.’ All of the air seemed to have been sucked out of the room and she was struggling to breathe, let alone find the right words to say. ‘It must have been a terrible shock to lose her so suddenly.’

      Matt gave her an odd look that she couldn’t quite fathom. ‘Yeah. Although she was away from home a lot. In many ways Jack and I were used to being on our own.’ He fixed his eyes on the floor, studying it intently. ‘He went to sleep straight away tonight, though. Stayed awake long enough to ask if you’d be here in the morning and then he was out like a light. I didn’t even get as far as Robin Hood.’

      Beth grinned. ‘I don’t have anywhere else to go. Not till tomorrow, anyway.’

      He nodded and for a moment their eyes locked. She felt as if she was falling towards him, into him, stopping only to brush the softness of his lips. Beth broke free with an effort and took a step back from him.

      He made no indication of having noticed. ‘It’s been a tough day for all of us. I’m ready to drop. Make yourself at home here and sleep well, I’ll see you in the morning.’

      He turned abruptly, not waiting for her answer, and made for the fireplace, raking over the ashes to make sure that they were properly extinguished and closing the damper to conserve the heat in the room. He paused only to issue a curt ‘Goodnight’ in Beth’s direction and then he was gone.

      Mariska’s portrait drew her attention back over to the sideboard. She’d been accomplished, beautiful and successful. This was the kind of woman that someone like Matt could love—that he had loved. If Beth had needed any proof that her reaction to Matt’s smile and the brush of his fingers was strictly one-sided, then here it was.

      A stab of regret gave way to a grin. Could she be any more perverse if she tried? One minute she was willing Matt to be out of reach and the next she was regretting the fact that he was. Beth rolled her eyes at her own foolishness, collected her handbag and padded up the stairs to the room that was to be hers for the night.

      It appeared that father and son were working as a team the following morning. As Jack helped Beth fold her clean clothes into a pile, ready to take back with her, Matt disappeared into the garage, reappearing again with a workmanlike toolbox and a length of copper pipe, which he loaded into the boot of his car along with the rest of her possessions.

      From the way that they were both dressed, jeans, heavy jumpers and in Matt’s case a pair of thick-soled boots, it looked unlikely that he intended to simply drop her off at her cottage. As Matt produced a pair of red Wellingtons and a second pair of socks, insisting that Jack put them on, Beth wondered what he was intending to do with his morning, and when he intended to inform her about it.

      Her cottage looked deceptively cheery from the outside, but inside it was a very different matter. The place was already beginning to smell damp and everything was cold and wet, including the walls. Matt dumped his toolbox in the hall and peered up the stairs at the loft hatch. ‘I’ll just go and take a look in the loft. Have you got a ladder?’

      ‘Please, you’ve done enough already. I texted Marcie this morning and she and her husband should be here in a couple of hours.’

      He gave her a hurt look. ‘I’m pretty handy with a wrench. Learned all I know from my father—he’s a plumber and electrician by trade and has his own contracting company. He was very upset when I failed to follow in his footsteps and went to medical school.’

      Matt’s lopsided grin gave the lie to any disappointment on his father’s part. A vision of what else Matt might be handy with flew into her head and she turned to Jack, trying to ignore the heat that was spreading through her. ‘Is there any end to your dad’s talents?’

      ‘Well, as Jack points out, I’m pretty deficient when it comes to signing. So I’ll just leave you two down here to send a few secret messages to each other while you’re mopping up.’ He gave her a wink, and suddenly he became an essential part of the