More Than Just One Night (The Selwood Sisters Novellas) Read Online Free Page B

woman I want to spend time with after dinner is more difficult. I enjoy talking to you, and you have a great laugh
once you relax. I like that. Is it so hard to understand?”
    Flattered in spite of herself, she said, “I
understand that we got on well—”
    “I think that’s putting it mildly.”
    “Okay, I get that we were drawn to each other,
that there was some sort of… thing between us, but it was meant to be
just one night. In private, not like this.” She gestured around the restaurant.
“Doesn’t it bother you that people will look at us and wonder what you’re doing
with someone so old?”
    “You’re not old, but if they want to wonder
about us, let them. You didn’t worry about what people thought in Sydney.”
    She gasped, then reached for her water glass
again.
    “Sorry. That was—”
    “True.” She looked up, and broke into a reluctant
smile. “You were a bad influence on me.”
    He grinned. “I hope so. Coralie—”
    “Cora, remember?”
    “Cora. Sorry, you’ve been Coralie in my
dreams. You have no idea how glad I am to have found you again.”
    She coughed as her water went down the wrong
way. “Let’s get one thing clear, Alex. I agreed to have dinner with you, and
that’s all I’m going to do. This isn’t Sydney, and things are different here.
My daughter will be expecting me home tonight.”
    “You have a daughter?”
    “Yes.”
    “How old is she?”
    “Twenty. Her name’s Fern. She normally shares
a cramped little house near the uni with friends, but she comes home often
because most of her clothes and shoes are at home. No room for them there, you
see. She’s home tonight. Well, not right now — she’s gone out with a friend
because I said I wouldn’t be home to cook dinner.”
    And if Fern knew why she wasn’t home to cook
dinner, she’d be shocked and horrified, or at the very least, would disapprove.
It would be hard for any daughter to discover that her mother was out with a
man she didn’t know. It would be particularly difficult for Fern who had
idolised her father and clearly believed that Cora would be single for the rest
of her life.
    “I have a daughter too,” Alex said.
    “Oh no!” She straightened. She would never
forgive herself if she’d helped him to cheat on his wife. “Please tell me
you’re not married.”
    “I’m not. I’m divorced.”
    She expelled a long breath, relieved that she
hadn’t stumbled into the role of the other woman. She shook her head. “I can’t
believe that I didn’t even ask before...well, you know.”
    “I’m glad that you didn’t think you needed
to.”
    No, she hadn’t needed to ask. She’d known
that he had integrity; she’d felt it in her bones. Relaxing a little, she said,
“So, how old is your daughter?”
    “Four.” He took out his wallet and showed her
a picture of a cute little girl. Red-haired, not dark like him.
    “She’s gorgeous.”
    “I know. She looks like her mother.”
    Ouch. Why
should that bother her? It shouldn’t, but it did.
    “What’s her name?”
    “Sophie.”
    “Couldn’t you have made the marriage work for
her sake?”
    He shook his head. Closing the wallet he
said, “Don’t get me wrong, I would have tried, but my wife was the one who
decided to end it. She had other ideas about what she should be doing with her
life.”
    “Why did she marry you, then?”
    “Who knows? I don’t think she realised that
work was such a big part of my life. She probably envisaged us jetting off on
holiday whenever she felt like it.”
    Cora snorted. “Not many people can do that.”
    “Exactly. But she had a privileged upbringing
and life with me was a let-down. She wanted to entertain all the time too.
Parties are her idea of relaxing.” He sighed. “But not mine, I’m afraid.”
    “Oh, I’m with you there. What about your
daughter, though? Do you see her often?”
    He grimaced. “It’s not easy. Her mother
usually manages to find a reason not to let me see Sophie at the