Too Charming by Kathryn Freeman Page B

part of her aching to find out?
    ‘So, how was date number three?’ Ann popped her head around the door. ‘Or was it four? I forget, because I think you claim that the meal at your house shouldn’t be counted as a date.’
    ‘None of them were dates,’ she muttered darkly. ‘And if you want to hear the details, you need to come in. And close the door behind you.’
    Ann’s eyes lit up. ‘Ooh, details that require privacy. Excellent.’
    Laughing, Megan swivelled her chair round so she was facing her friend. ‘The details don’t require any privacy, but I do.’
    After pulling the door firmly shut, Ann crossed her arms and gave Megan the look she gave anyone she was about to interrogate. ‘Come on then, spill.’
    ‘He kissed me again.’
    Ann’s eyes widened in shock. ‘Again? Why didn’t I hear about the first time?’
    ‘Because it was nothing. It was when he came round to my parent’s house.’
    ‘You’re telling me the man looks like a God, but can’t kiss?’
    Megan fiddled with the pen on her desk. ‘Okay, maybe it was a lot more than nothing.’
    Suddenly Ann grinned. ‘I’d say, missy. Your bright red cheeks are rather giving that one away.’
    Unconsciously Megan’s hand went up to touch one of her, yes okay, distinctly warm cheeks. ‘All right, I admit, the man can kiss. Really, totally-lose-yourself-in-the-moment, kiss. The first time, we’d just climbed off his bike and he kind of swooped. I forgot I wasn’t meant to like him. Forgot my parents might be watching. Forgot everything.’
    There was an explosion of laughter from the other side of the desk. ‘Meg, honey, this has all the ingredients of a raunchy film. The bad-boy lawyer in his black leathers, sitting on his bike, snogging the uptight detective in front of her parents.’
    ‘I’m not uptight.’
    Ann cast an eye up and down Megan’s admittedly sensible work shirt and dark trousers. ‘So says the woman who’s been out with the dashing lawyer four times, kissed him twice and still insists they’re just friends.’
    Megan let out a sigh of resignation. ‘I’m being stupid, aren’t I? It feels like I’m trying to push back this giant wave, but in reality it’s going to roll over and suck me up anyway.’
    ‘Being caught up in a wave doesn’t have to be a scary experience, Meg,’ Ann told her, reaching out to give her arm a quick squeeze. ‘Not if you relax and give in to the thrill of it.’
    Perhaps, Megan thought. But once you’d been churned up and spat out by a powerful wave, it was pretty hard to relax at the sight of another one relentlessly surging towards you.

 
    Chapter Ten
     
    Running a concerned hand over Sally’s burning forehead, Megan shook her head. ‘I’m going to phone Scott and cancel.’
    But as she reached for the phone, her mother got there first, snatching it from her. ‘Don’t be silly. She’s running a temperature, that’s all. Your father and I are here to keep an eye on her. We’ll phone you if there’s any change. Besides, any minute now the paracetamol will start to kick in and she’ll sleep it off.’
    Megan was torn. Though she really didn’t want to leave Sally, she knew perfectly well her daughter was in good hands. If she was honest, the real issue here wasn’t Sally at all. It was her cowardly desire to find a legitimate way out of tonight. A genuine excuse to break off her date with Scott. For there was no denying that this time it was a date. Somehow he’d railroaded her into going out with him. Simply cancelling on him wasn’t an option. It would look like she was running scared, and she wasn’t. No way. Cool, steady, Megan Taylor wasn’t terrified to death of the way her heart seemed to flutter at the mere mention of his name. Of course she wasn’t. Still, cancelling their date because she didn’t want to be away from her poorly daughter was surely a reasonable move.
    ‘I’m fine, Mummy,’ Sally piped up, her pale face smiling at her. ‘You have to eat