Blowing It Read Free

know.” He smirked.
    I blushed. “Sorry. I’m an idiot.”
    “Don’t be. I’m sorry for teasing. Can’t help it.”
    “Bad habit?”
    “The worst.”
    “That’s not so bad, then.” I bit my lip to stop
myself before I said anything else stupid. “So… Abigail. Did you enjoy the reading?”
    A nod of blonde hair was my answer.
    “So did I,” Magnus added.
    “Really?” I couldn’t keep the sceptical frown off
my face.
    “Really! I’ve read the first one to madam here a
hundred times.”
    “Well, that’s nice.” Dammit .
    “Yep, whenever I’m babysitting it’s the only thing
guaranteed to settle her down.”
    “Babysitting?” My ears pricked up.
    “She’s my niece,” Magnus said. “My brother’s kid.”
    “You haven’t got any of your own?”
    He laughed, a rich, throaty baritone. “Not likely.”
    “Uncle Magnus lives with Robbie,” a small voice
piped up in wavering soprano.
    I raised an eyebrow as Magnus flushed.
    “Not anymore, sweetheart,” he said with a nudge to
her shoulder. “You know that.”
    “Where did he go?” she asked.
    With an apologetic grimace to me, which I
immediately waved away, he turned to the girl. “He wanted to live with someone
else, remember? He got bored of your Uncle Magnus. It’s a grown-up thing.”
    “Grown-ups are stupid.”
    I couldn’t help agreeing with her assessment. Bored
of this man? Unlikely. “I’m sorry,” I said softly when he turned back to me.
“That must suck.”
    “Not anymore.”
    He winked, and my eyes bugged. Was that a smutty
joke ?
    “Sorry.” A small frown furrowed his brow. “That was
inappropriate.”
    “Not at all,” I protested. “Honestly, my life is
way too PG these days.”
    “Oh? You haven’t got a friend you can joke with?”
    Something about the way he said “friend” gave me
pause. “No,” I answered carefully. “No friend.”
     “That’s a pity.”
    “Depends. It means I can always make a new one.”
    I held my breath, waiting for him to respond. His
eyebrows lifted as my meaning dawned.
    “You’re looking for a friend?”
    “It might be nice,” I said. “Then I could meet him
for coffee, say, in the cafe around the corner.”
    Was I really doing this? Was I really asking this
guy out? What if we were talking at cross-purposes. What if I’d read this all
wrong?
    And, oh hell, hadn’t Magnus just said he’d recently
broken up with someone? The last thing he probably wanted was some lecherous
author hitting on him.
    “It might take you a while to get through this
lot.” Magnus glanced at the impatient queue and Katy, who had been flapping for
me to hurry up for the past five minutes. Her wildly waving arms stilled in
midair as Magnus turned, like she was playing a one-woman game of musical
statues. I don’t think he was fooled.
    “Give me an hour,” I said quickly, dropping the
pretence. It could only be a matter of moments before Katy came over and asked
them to move on.
    Magnus’s eyebrows rose.
    “Please,” I added, making my eyes as big and
beseeching as I could. If only I was still allowed to wear eyeliner.
    A nerve ticked in his jaw, his eyes raking me as he
weighed his decision. “Okay,” he said. “One hour.”
    I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
     
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
    Despite my best efforts, it was an hour and a half
before I waved off the final kid, fiercely clutching his signed copy of my book
to his chest.
    “I thought that would never end,” Katy admitted,
slumping into the chair I’d sprung out of.
    “I need to go,” I said, not wanting to waste
another second making idle small talk.
    She nodded wanly. “Your driver’s outside.”
    “I don’t need him. I’ll make my own way back.”
    “You’re sure?”
    I nodded.
    “What are you up to?” Her eyes narrowed.
    “Nothing!” I protested, a little too defensively.
    “Hmm.” She didn’t look convinced. “Is there
anything I should know?”
    “I’m meeting a friend! Jesus….”
    “This