Holding Strong. Lori Foster

but it was usually one of Joey’s regular customers who had simply left their purse at home by mistake.

      ‘Look, I’m really sorry about this,’ the man apologised, dark colour staining the hardness of his cheeks. ‘Is it OK if I drop the money in first thing in the morning?’

      ‘Fine,’ Joey answered, sure she wasn’t going to see this man—or the money—the next day.

      Not that she was a cynic, exactly; it was just that life had a habit of throwing unexpected curves at her. Being taken in by this man was just one more thing to add to an already lengthy list!

      ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’ he realised slowly as he studied her with narrowed eyes.

      Joey gave him a quick smile. ‘I said it’s fine.’ After all, it had been her own time she had been wasting! Time, she realised after a second glance at her watch, that she no longer had to waste.

      ‘I hope I haven’t kept you from anything?’ He had obviously seen that second glance at her wristwatch.

      ‘Not at all,’ she assured him lightly. ‘And please don’t give paying for the haircut another thought.’ She waved a dismissive hand.

      ‘I’ve said I’ll pay you in the morning, and I will,’ he assured her grimly. ‘I should lock this door after me, if I were you,’ he advised firmly.

      Come-to-bed eyes and a caring nature…! Quite an attractive combination.

      No way, Joey, she immediately reproved herself. There were enough complications in her life already—finding new premises for her salon, as well as fending off Daniel Banning’s attempts to disrupt the life she had painstakingly built for Lily and herself—without finding herself attracted to a man who had a ‘heavy date’ this evening—and who didn’t even have the money to pay for his haircut!

      ‘Thanks.’ She followed him over to the door.

      He turned in the doorway. ‘I really will be by first thing in the morning to pay you,’ he repeated.

      ‘Of course you will.’ She nodded, unconvinced.

      His mouth tightened at her obvious scepticism. ‘What time do you open?’

      ‘Nine-thirty. But, as I’ve already said, don’t worry about it—’

      ‘Oh, but I will,’ he cut in softly. ‘It will probably keep me awake all night,’ he teased, before striding off to get into the dusty pick-up parked outside.

      Joey gave a derisive snort as she watched him drive away; he might not get any sleep tonight, but she had a definite feeling it would have more to do with his ‘heavy date’ than it would worrying over the fact that he owed her eight pounds fifty!

      ‘OK, Daisy, we’re home,’ Joey told her young charge drily. The two young girls seated in the back of the car were talking so much that she was sure neither of them was aware they had reached Daisy’s home.

      Joey wouldn’t mind, but the two girls saw each other every day at school, and for a couple of hours afterwards, but as soon as tea and homework were over Lily would be on the telephone to her best friend, talking away as if the two girls hadn’t seen each other for weeks!

      Had she ever been like that? Joey wondered ruefully. She didn’t think so. But, for all her faults, her mother had at least been waiting at home for her every day when she came home. Both being children of single mothers, neither Lily or Daisy had that…

      ‘Thanks.’ Daisy grinned at her before scrambling out of the back of the car.

      ‘Tell your mother I’ll be here to pick you up at eight-thirty in the morning,’ Joey told her automatically, returning Hilary’s wave as the other woman came out of the house to greet Daisy.

      Both on their own, the two women shared the responsibility of their two daughters while they juggled the careers they needed to support them—Joey driving the girls to school in the morning, Hilary picking them up in the afternoons and keeping Lily with her until Joey picked her up after work. The arrangement had worked very well so far.

      ‘Did you have a good day, Mummy?’ Lily asked interestedly as they drove the extra mile to their own home. She was a tiny replica of Joey—thank goodness Joey could see none of her father in her!

      Joey frowned. Until five-thirty it had been like all the other days she had had recently—busy, and dusty. Until she had been taken in by that—But there was no reason to bother Lily with that.

      ‘It was fine, darling,’ she responded lightly. ‘How about you?’

      Her daughter’s face was screwed up when Joey glanced at her in the driving mirror. ‘I’ve brought my spelling test home for Friday.’

      Joey held back a smile; the trouble with schoolwork was that it got in the way of Lily’s social life!

      ‘I’m sure we’ll cope,’ she promised, straight-faced. ‘Now, what do you fancy for tea today?’

      ‘Pasta and chicken nuggets,’ her daughter answered predictably—she very rarely willingly ate anything else.

      Joey smiled indulgently. ‘I think we’ll put a few peas with that, don’t you?’ she teased—Lily’s aversion to vegetables was universal in children her age.

      ‘If you have to,’ her daughter allowed grudgingly. ‘I—Oh, look, Mummy, there’s a car parked outside our house,’ she said excitedly.

      Joey frowned as she looked at the blue car parked at the roadside; visitors were few and far between to the tiny end-terrace house the two shared in a quiet residential part of town. Between work and caring for Lily, with all that entailed, there was very little time for a social life of her own.

      ‘Perhaps they’re visiting next door,’ she dismissed, parking her own car behind the blue one before getting out and opening the back door for Lily, deliberately not paying too much attention to the parked car. Just because they rarely received visitors that was no reason to stare at the car as if it were a vehicle from outer space!

      Her daughter felt no such inhibitions, openly ogling the car as she held on to Joey’s hand and they walked to their front door. ‘There’s a man sitting inside, Mummy,’ she told Joey in a stage whisper.

      Joey winced at the loudness of her daughter’s voice, sure the ‘man sitting inside’ the car must have heard her. After all, the car engine was switched off, and it was a warm evening, so the man probably had the window down too.

      She unlocked their front door before pushing it open. ‘Come on, Lily’ she encouraged as her daughter still hung back curiously.

      ‘He’s getting out of the car, Mummy,’ Lily informed her even as she pulled on the sleeve of the light jacket Joey wore over a pink T-shirt and black trousers.

      Joey could see that for herself, her gaze narrowing against the evening sunshine as she watched the man slowly unfolding his long length from inside the car.

      Tall and blond, with a smoothly handsome face dominated by a pair of analytical blue eyes that raked over her in cool assessment, before moving down to stare openly at Lily. Joey felt as if she had had all the breath kicked out of her as she instantly recognised him.

      Lily’s father.

      The ominous feeling that had dogged her for the weeks following her terse letter in reply to his own came back in full force.

      Because Joey knew, as she put a protective arm about Lily and pulled her daughter close against her, there could be only one reason why Daniel had come here…

      CHAPTER TWO

      ‘GO INSIDE and hang up your school blazer, Lily,’ Joey told her daughter shakily. ‘I’ll join you in a few minutes.’

      ‘But, Mummy—’

      ‘Go inside, Lily!’