Page 41 of Single Dad Christmas

“But you will go home eventually?”

Subtle, as a brick, she thought. “My plans aren’t really set in stone.”

Taylor frowned. “So, you might stay in Australia?”

Louisa glanced at Noah, then across at Taylor. “I really haven’t thought it through.”

“Aren’t you a little old to be doing the working holiday thing?”

Noah’s laugh was a spontaneous eruption, which he stifled behind a napkin quickly. “Taylor, that’s incredibly rude,” he said, his eyes still twinkling. “Though, you’re right. Age is a relative concept.” He winked at Louisa though, who caught a darkening of Taylor’s expression.

If the teen was trying to drive a wedge between them, she was failing miserably.

“It’s just, I thought you had a serious relationship back there,” Taylor insisted. “With the King and everything.”

Louisa’s heart turned over at the unexpected mention of Ares.

“Taylor,” the sparkle had died from Noah’s eyes and the thunderclouds were back. “Don’t say another word.”

“It’s no secret. You’re all over the internet. I just had to google your name and you came up. Hundreds of pictures of you and King Ares. He looks nice.”

Louisa’s pulse was rushing; she felt ambushed, but she refused to give the younger woman any indication of that. Because she wasn’t a young woman at all, she was still, in many ways a child.

“He is very nice,” Louisa said calmly, slipping back into Queen-in-waiting mode. “We remain good friends, but there is no longer a relationship between us. That was my decision, and it was the right decision.”

Taylor ate some pasta, nodding obnoxiously. “But you were together ages, and the break up’s kind of fresh. So, you must still be kind of into him, right?”

Louisa looked at Noah, who shook his head once. “Taylor, listen?—,”

“I’m into your father,” Louisa said, point blank. “I like him, a lot. So even if I were to go to Moricosia for the holidays, it would be to see my parents and sister, not myex-boyfriend.”

Taylor definitely hadn’t expected to be one-upped. It was clear to Louisa that she was unused to having her rudeness challenged directly—something Noah really ought to be doing more regularly. It wasn’t normal for a fifteen-year-old to rule the roost like this, no matter what she’d been through.

“Whatever. Can I eat in my room?”

“May I eat in my room,” Noah corrected. “And no. We have company.”

“No,youhave company. I have a headache. I think it might be hormonal.”

Noah ground his teeth but stared at his daughter for several beats before nodding. “Fine. You can come back out for coffee later.”

Taylor scraped her chair back and stormed off, leaving them in peace.

And silence.

And more silence. Which stretched and stretched and stretched until Louisa, finally, laughed. A laugh that was borne of the ridiculous of this situation, by how terribly Taylor had behaved, and how utterly at a loss Noah was to explain it.

“She’s awful,” Noah admitted, burying his face in his hands. “Except, she’s really not. She’s just hurting…”

“Yeah, she’s hurting,” Louisa conceded, keeping the rest of her thoughts to herself. Not because she didn’t feel it was her place. Strangely, with Noah, she felt as though nothing was off limits. But she wanted to take some time to think and get some perspective. She was more than a decade older than Taylor; she could barely remember the nuanced emotions of that stage, and she knew she didn’t go through anything like a lot of kids did. Her sister being a prime example.

“That was a bust,” he said, shaking his head. “It will get easier.”

She lifted her shoulders. “I still get to share dinner with you. So, it’s not a total bust.”

His eyes landed on hers and the air between them seemed to hum with something magical and perfect.

“I’m sorry she found out about Ares.”

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