Page 1 of Riding the Waves

CHAPTER 1

Sitting in the beer garden of the Anchor Inn with his two best friends, Damian couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Friday evening. He had a baby sleeping peacefully in the crook of his arm and a pint in the other hand. Even better, the baby wasn’t his, so when he left in an hour he’d pass sweet little Alice back and go home for a full night’s sleep.

“I feel as though I’ll never get a good night’s sleep again,” Leo said beside him, continuing his rant about his daughter’s tendency to keep him awake all night.

“I thought she’d started sleeping better,” Hugh remarked across the picnic table.

“We had a few decent nights, then she started teething.” Leo yawned widely. “Why didn’t you tell me how difficult being a single parent is?”

“I can tell you why Hugh didn’t mention it,” Damian said, then looked to the end of the table where Hugh’s eleven-year-old daughter sat with her eyes sweeping back and forth over the pages of the thick novel in her hands. “Emmy’s never given him a moment’s trouble in her life. She slept like a champ from day one, eats whatever you put in front of her, she decided to forego toddler tantrums—”

“They’re childish,” Emmy said, without looking up from her book and despite the fact she hadn’t shown any hint that she’d been listening to the conversation.

Damian raised an eyebrow at Hugh. “You got lucky.”

“I agree,” Emmy said, one corner of her mouth quirking to a shadow of a grin.

“I won’t deny that,” Hugh said. “But having things relatively easy doesn’t make it easy. I had a fair few sleepless nights and there have definitely been tantrums over the years.”

Emmy eyed him with contempt before going back to her book.

Damian pushed his sunglasses up onto his head as the late afternoon sun headed for the horizon. Gently, he rocked Alice back and forth. “I’m fairly sure I warned you about the nightmare that is being a single parent.”

The look that Hugh and Leo exchanged didn’t go unnoticed.

“You also have it pretty easy, by the way,” Damian went on, ignoring them. “Imagine doing all this with two babies.”

Again, his friends exchanged a look, but neither said anything as they both took long swigs of their drinks.

“What?” Damian demanded. “If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”

“They don’t think you’re really a single parent.” Emmy rolled her eyes and set her book down in her lap. “The longest you ever look after Billy and Marty is a couple of weeks. You have fun with them and then their mum takes them back. It’s not the same as having a kid all the time.”

“Thank you for your honesty,” he said to Emmy, then glared at his friends. Hugh and Leo only looked amused.

“When do the brats arrive?” Emmy asked.

“Sunday,” he said tersely. It probably wasn’t worth pulling her up on the whole “brat” thing. He liked to think it was affectionate.

“Do you reckon you’ll manage six weeks of them?” Leo asked. “I’d put my money on it being three weeks before you call Amy and beg her to come and take them.”

“Two and a half,” Emmy said at the same time that Hugh offered three and a half.

“Thanks for your confidence,” Damian said blithely. “There’s no way I’d call Amy to pick them up.” Partly because he was excited to have his boys for a longer stretch and partly because he’d never give Amy the satisfaction. She already thought he was useless.

“Maybe you won’t need her to pick them up, but you’ll be tearing your hair out.”

Damian raised his glass at Leo’s comment. “Now that I can agree with you on.”

“Agree about what?” a monotone voice asked as a shadow fell over him. Scarlett lived above the local cafe and babysat for a few families in the area, alongside being part owner of a small publishing house with two other local women. Her hair fell around her face as she bent to look at Alice.

“That my children are angels,” Damian told her.

“Not what I heard,” she said. “Emmy says they’re brats.”

“She means it affectionately.” Damian glared at Emmy. “Don’t you?”

Shrugging, Emmy put the book aside and scooted along the bench to make space for Scarlett while looking up at her as though she were some kind of goddess. “Hi.”

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