Page 5 of Prognosis Christmas Baby

Nash shrugged. ‘Well I’m easy—’

‘Clearly,’ she interrupted.

Nash grinned and continued. ‘I can fit in with you.’

Maggie shook her head, exasperated by his persistence. His elbows rested on the table, emphasising his wide shoulders and he was big and broad, looming at her from the opposite side, taking up all the space. ‘You don’t like to take no for an answer, do you?’

‘Why ignore what’s going on between us, Maggie? I’m attracted to you.’ He watched her pale and her wide brown eyes practically double in size. ‘I’m pretty sure you’re attracted to me. Why should we pretend otherwise?’

Maggie stared at him. Was he insane? He reminded her of a kid expecting instant gratification in that infantile egocentric way of theirs.

But they weren’t kids.

They were grown-ups and adults were supposed to be a little more cautious. There were rules and etiquette.

‘How old are you, Nash?’

Ah.‘I don’t care about the age difference.’

‘How old?’ she insisted.

‘Just turned the big three zero.’

Maggie nodded — just as she’d suspected. She wished for a brief second she was thirty again. But then reality invaded. She’d been a mess at thirty. She’d been dealing — very badly —with the heartbreak of her infertility and the ink had still been wet on her divorce papers. She was in a much better place now.

‘And how old do you think I am?’

Nash looked directly at her. ‘Twenty-six.’

Maggie burst out laughing. She had to give him his due, he hadn’t batted an eyelid. She knew that she looked good but no one would ever mistake her for twenty-six. ‘Does that line work with everyone?’

Nash laughed with her. ‘Never had to use it before. No one’s ever knocked me back.’ His eyes crinkled at the corners and it was very, very sexy.

‘Oh, dear. Do you think your ego can stand it?’

‘It’s pretty robust.’

Maggie grinned despite herself. She did not want to be charmed by him but his easy charisma and self-deprecation made an irresistible combination. ‘I’ll just bet it is.’

Nash watched as she returned her attention to her lunch. Her teeth bit into the pastry of her pie and flakes stuck to her lips before her tongue darted out to remove them. It shouldn’t be erotic — she was just eating, for crying out loud — but it was.

God knew, he wanted to lick off every damn flake.

For his own sanity he moved his gaze upwards. Her short brown hair with chunky blonde streaks looked salon perfect, the layered fringe sweeping across her forehead from a side parting. The rest of it fell in fashionably shaggy layers and feathered down her nape into fine wisps.

She finished her pie and patted her mouth with her serviette. If she hadn’t seemed so totally oblivious to his reaction, he’d have suspected she was deliberately trying to provoke him. He certainly would have expected it from any other woman.

‘Well?’

Maggie had tried to ignore him as she’d eaten but his intense blue gaze had made it impossible. She sighed. ‘I’m forty, Nash.’

He shrugged. ‘So?’

‘So? So I’m a whole decade older than you.’

‘So?’

‘I was in high school when you were still running around in nappies.’

---