Marriage Reunited. Jessica Hart

spices, which made it difficult to come up with ideas sometimes, but this menu had seemed safe enough. Shame it was all so…brown.

      Georgia wrinkled her nose and closed the oven door. Too late to do anything about it now. She would just have to hope that it tasted better than it looked.

      Leaving Geoffrey in charge of opening a bottle of wine, she went upstairs to say goodnight to Toby. Rather to her surprise, she found him sitting up in bed and chatting to Mac.

      She paused, unnoticed, in the doorway, struck by the animation in Toby’s face. He never looked that happy and interested when he was with her, she thought sadly, and her eyes slid of their own accord over to Mac, who was lounging on the other bed, arms behind his head and long legs crossed, careless of his boots on the coverlet, and looking utterly relaxed.

      He looked up just then and caught sight of her. ‘Uh-oh,’ he said to Toby. ‘Looks like your time’s up!’

      ‘I’m in bed,’ Toby declared, somewhat unnecessarily.

      ‘So I see,’ said Georgia, coming into the room and trying not to notice how inviting the space on the bed next to Mac looked. ‘Good boy!’

      ‘Mac said I should. He said it would be…what was that word again, Mac?’

      ‘Politic,’ said Mac with a grin.

      ‘…he said it would be politic if I was in bed before you came up,’ Toby finished guilelessly.

      Georgia suppressed a smile at the earnestness in his face as she sat on the edge of his bed. ‘Did he explain what that meant?’

      Toby screwed up his face in an effort of memory. ‘That it would make life easier for me if I did what you wanted?’

      ‘Sounds like good advice to me,’ she agreed, and glanced at Mac, who had swung his legs on to the floor and was watching her, amusement glinting in his navy blue eyes. ‘It’s made life easier for both of us.’

      ‘Maybe you should take my advice more often,’ said Mac with mock smugness.

      ‘Oh, you’re an expert on childcare now, are you?’ said Georgia, keeping her tone light in front of Toby.

      ‘I’m an expert in making life as easy and as comfortable as you can make it under the circumstances,’ said Mac. ‘It’s called making the best of things.’

      Yes, he’d always been good at that, thought Georgia. He was good at living for the moment, at living each day as if it might be his last. He didn’t do worrying and planning the way she did. He didn’t agonize about what people thought, or waste any time feeling torn between conflicting demands.

      He would have made a lousy woman.

      Georgia turned back to Toby and tweaked his nose affectionately. ‘You might as well make the best of things now and go to sleep. You’ve got school in the morning.’

      ‘I’m not tired,’ said Toby automatically. It was a point of honour never to admit that he was tired, but he seemed quite happy tonight to snuggle down under his duvet.

      ‘Goodnight, Toby,’ said Mac, reaching down to ruffle his hair gently, and Georgia had to close her eyes for a moment against the tantalising effect of his nearness.

      It was a relief when Mac moved away. Leaning forward, she kissed Toby gently on the cheek. He didn’t kiss her back, but it was a big step even to get this far, and Georgia was always very careful not to push it.

      ‘Sleep well,’ she said.

      Mac watched her from the doorway, touched by the combination of tenderness and awkwardness she showed with Toby, and shaken by a contrasting memory of Georgia sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling as she leant forward to kiss him. She acted so cool, but her lips had been so soft, her body so warm.