Page 28 of A Manny for Christmas

I clamp a hand over my mouth. ‘Fuck,’ I say through my fingers. ‘I’m so sorry. Come on—sit down.’

I steer him to the first table I see and practically push him into the chair. ‘Can I see?’

He removes the tissue from his nose and I lean in to get a closer look. Phew. It’s not as bad as I thought—bruised and a bit bloody, but nothing more. Definitely not what he needed first thing this morning, though. I wince as I imagine how things must have gone with the kids.

‘It doesn’t feel broken, does it?’

He gives a little laugh and rubs his hand over his eyes. He looks utterly exhausted. ‘Nah. It’ll be fine. Honestly.’

‘Good.’ I blow out a breath. ‘I can’t believe she kicked you in the nose. Little beast.’

‘She didn’t do it on purpose. She just lashed out—I couldn’t get the damn things on properly. They were all twisted, and she wasn’t having it. So I ended up handing them to the teacher to put on her.’ He’s still rubbing his eyes, massaging his sockets with his fingertips.

‘Are you okay, otherwise?’

‘Yeah. I don’t know. I feel a bit traumatised.’ He looks up. ‘I realise that’s ridiculous. But it’s stressful, trying to get them processed and out of the house with that time pressure. I didn’t leave enough margin for error, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.’

I grimace. ‘It really is stressful. And it’s horrible being outnumbered, and basically being totally at their mercy. Especially Daze. If she decides she doesn’t want to play ball, then you’re fucked.’

‘Exactly. And she did not want to play ball this morning. The poor kid was exhausted. And Toby was getting more and more anxious—I could feel it rolling off him in waves, which made me more stressed, and—ugh.’ He buries his face in his hands. ‘Is it normal to feel like you need a drink after the school run?’

God. I feel awful. Just awful. It’s like I threw him to a pack of lions with zero preparation.

‘I’ve been there a million times.’ I put a hand on his arm again. ‘And not only have I craved booze many, many times, but there was this one time that was so bad I actually went home andhad a glass of wine. Isn’t that awful? Daisy had such a bad tantrum, and she wouldn’t put any clothes on. Not a single thing.

‘So I handed her over to her teacher in just her vest and pants, with her dressing gown kind of wrapped around her shoulders as best as I could get it, and I had tears streaming down my face. I went home and had a glass of wine. I’m amazed no one’s ever called social services.’

‘Jesus. That’s horrific.’

‘Yep. And the most annoying thing was that the minute she saw her teacher, she was absolutely fine. All smiles. Meanwhile, I was traumatised for the rest of the day.’

‘Un-fucking-believable.’

‘This is the part where you sayI told you so.’

He stares at me. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You told me not to have kids.’

‘Jesus, Mol. I wasn’t thinking that at all.’

‘But you were thinkingthank fuck this is temporary.’

He grins tiredly, his hazel eyes crinkling in that trademark Rutherford style, and I let my gaze sweep over his face. He really is gorgeous, damn him.

‘You got me there.’

I smile stupidly at him before coming to my senses and looking around for a server. I call Remi over.

‘An Irish coffee for this fine gentleman, and a nice big bacon bap. Oh, and an icepack please, my dear. He’s been in the wars today.’

‘So I see,’ Remi croons, giving Max an appraising once-over. ‘Coming right up.’

‘I bet he has that Irish coffee ready in seconds,’ I remark. ‘You’ve got that whole wounded hero thing going on.’

‘That’s exactly how I feel,’ he grumbles. ‘Just don’t tell anyone the enemy was a four-year-old girl. And I lost.’

I press my lips together to stop myself from laughing. I am one hundred percent Team Max in this situation. ‘Daisy can be a piece of work. It’s worse when she’s tired, and it’s so hard getting them out of bed at this time of year.’ I pause. ‘And I hate to admit it, but her behavioural issues have been worse since her dad walked out. I’m sure it’s textbook attention-seeking, but that doesn’t make it any easier.’

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