Page 23 of Special Delivery
He was like a hostile battleship: all steel and muscle and latent missiles beneath the surface.
‘Fine.’ Poppy shoved the bag into the base of the pram. Maeve stuck her hands out to catch the dog’s thumping tail. ‘But don’t think we’re doing this again. You have to walk ahead of us. Maeve should be looking at the trees and nature and stuff. She needs to learn there is more to life than dogs.’
A muscle ticked in his jaw. ‘So we walk separately and put up with the screaming and the barking, despite having an obvious solution?’
‘Yes.’
James’s lips pressed into a thin line but he began pulling Eileen away.
Maeve—who was clearly too astute for her own good—noticed the ploy first. ‘Waaaah!’ she cried as the kelpie drifted ahead.
‘Keep going!’ Poppy commanded. ‘They’ll get over it.’
James strode ahead as the barking continued and Maeve’s screams reached fever pitch. Poppy glanced at her daughter who was now screaming so hard she was turning a shade of beetroot.Character building. There were only three and a half kilometres to go, after which Maeve would be hopefully cured of her canine fixation. They would get through this.
Suddenly there was a choking sound from the pram. Poppy slammed on the brakes, instantly prepared to administer the Heimlich manoeuvre.
Hic!Maeve giggled, and suddenly James and Eileen were beside them again.
‘I thought I heard her choking,’ he said.
Poppy narrowed her eyes at her Machiavellian daughter. ‘I think she screamed so hard she gave herself the hiccups.’
‘Right,’ said James. ‘And you want us to leave again?’
The tiny smile in his eyes was like napalm to her bones. Her chaos was a joke to him, and now she was being forced to choose between walking with him or having her daughter choke and die. With a furious huff, she moved the pram fractionally to the right. Eileen skipped straight into the space and wagged her tail. Maeve made a gesture that looked suspiciously like an air punch.
Poppy marched ahead, her eyes fixed on anything but the figure beside her. The undulating path was lined with poplars and evergreens. Birds tweeted, butterflies flew, a lone rabbit gambolled across the green, and with every metre they strode the silence intensified like steam whistling in a kettle. Were they really going to pretend James hadn’t just bought her a one-hundred-and-fifty-dollar top? Were they really going to pretend it was normal to walk around a golf course with someone you despised? The pine trees creaked in the breeze until Poppy couldn’t take it any longer.
‘What is wrong with you?’ she exploded. ‘Why can’t you be a normal person andspeak? You’re making this horrible!’
James raised an eyebrow. ‘No I’m not.’
‘Yes you are!’
‘You’re being dramatic.’
‘I’m allowed to be dramatic!’ She was almost yelling but the douchebag hath brought the fury and the lady doth give no fucks. ‘I’m a single mum with no clue what I’m doing. My life is already at diabolical levels of crap without your attitude getting in my grill!’
James looked at her sideways. To her satisfaction, he looked vaguely startled. ‘I’m just walking,’ he muttered.
‘Yeah, well …’ Poppy’s eyes blazed at the pavement. She couldn’t look at him. It was the tension in the jaw and the confidence of his stride. It was how arrogant his shoulders looked under that vest. It washim. He was too much. They walked a few more paces in a deafening thunderstorm of silence.
‘Okay,’ James conceded gruffly.
‘Okay what?’
‘Okay, I get this is not ideal for you.’
Poppy’s eyes jerked to his. Something unreadable flashed across his face and his grip tightened on the leash.
‘Good,’ she said abruptly, equal parts confused and mollified.
They continued on. After a few minutes of awkward silence, he cleared his throat. ‘Read any good books lately?’
Poppy glared at him. ‘Are you quoting Mark Darcy?’
‘Um … not intentionally?’
