Alex grinned at the thought of Max tossing someone out on the street. He was easily big enough to do that too, he was built like a house. She liked Quinn’s cousin. He had six of them. The Wild brothers. All big man mountains who were ridiculously handsome. Some of them lived in this area or the next town, but she’d met all of them at Violet’s Big Christmas Day Lunch everyyear where almost all of Quinn’s extended family were in attendance. Xander, Max’s brother, worked here in the town too, much to Immy’s annoyance, although maybe it wasn’t so annoying after all considering Immy had now slept with him. Alex wondered if Violet was right and Max had a soft spot for Cleo. She watched them for a moment as they moved around each other. There was a definite spark there, like a secret hanging in the air between them, but was that spark just from two friends working well together or was it something more?
‘Is it going to be awkward having a date with your ex-mother-in-law in situ?’ Cleo muttered.
‘A little,’ Alex said. ‘I love her dearly and she says she’s OK with me dating again but I’m not sure I need her this close to the action.’
‘Leave it with me,’ Max said, cracking his knuckles. ‘I’ll ask her to make some changes to her famous Christmas Day lunch. That should set the cat among the pigeons.’
Alex laughed, knowing Violet’s Big Christmas Day Lunch, as it was called, was sacred. No one was allowed to mess with the recipes.
Max walked over and engaged Violet in conversation, simultaneously blocking Violet’s view of the rest of the café with his enormous frame.
Alex picked up her drinks and then carried them over to a spare table in the corner, sitting facing the door so she could see Dave when he arrived. At exactly one o’clock, the time they’d agreed to meet, he walkedthrough the door. At least she thought it might be him. But it looked like an older, hairier version than the one she’d seen in his photos. She waved tentatively and he came over.
‘Alexandra?’
‘Alex, yes hi.’
To her surprise Dave offered out a hand to shake. It felt very formal but what did she know, she wasn’t used to this dating game. Maybe that’s what people did on a first date. She shook it and gestured to the seat in front of her.
Over his shoulder she saw Violet peering round Max and giving Dave the once-over and whatever she saw clearly didn’t meet with her approval. But as much as she loved Violet, she didn’t need her approval for who she should date. Although it would be nice.
‘I bought you a drink,’ Alex said, cheerfully.
He looked at it distastefully. ‘Oh, I’m not sure whether to drink that or get a knife and fork and try and eat it. I think I’ll just stick to a glass of water.’
He went to the counter to order a water and Alex plucked out his flake and quickly ate it before he came back. She wondered if it was too early to start playing with the tassels of her scarf.
He came back to the table and sat down, eyeing the hot chocolate with some annoyance. ‘I thought for a moment you’d brought your daughter to our date, which would have been an instant dealbreaker.’
Alex frowned in confusion. ‘Dealbreaker? How so?’
‘Well I don’t like children.’
‘Then why would you agree to date a single mum?’
‘I presume the kid will be with her dad at least half the time, which would leave us in peace.’
She didn’t like the disdain in his voice. ‘Her dad’s dead so no, she’s with me all the time. Apart from when she’s at school or with friends.’
‘Oh.’
She was surprised that he didn’t offer his condolences but he was clearly trying to work out how this unwelcome child would impact on his chance of getting lucky. Maybe she should start bringing Zara on dates, then at least she could weed out the men who didn’t like children right from the off. Except she wouldn’t want to expose Zara to people who didn’t like her.
‘But you can get babysitters or… have you thought about boarding school?’
Alex rubbed her head with a sigh. She’d heard of the expression you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince but, while she certainly hadn’t been expecting to find her prince on her first date, she hadn’t expected him to be such a slimy toad either.
‘Excuse me for a second.’ She stood up, picking up both hot chocolates and moving over to the counter. ‘Cleo, can I get these two to go?’
Cleo’s eyes widened. ‘Is the date that bad already?’
‘Yep.’
Cleo quickly poured the chocolates into two takeaway cups and passed them back. Alex turned back to Dave who was watching her in confusion.
‘My daughter is my entire world so this clearly isn’tgoing to work.’ She pulled her coat on and wrapped her scarf round her neck. ‘But I wish you good luck.’
She picked up her chocolates and started walking out but Violet stopped her.
