Leave Me Breathless

Molly presents her glass to me. ‘This is the juiciest gossip I’ve ever heard in Hampton. No, wait. Darcy Hampton and what she did to Ryan can’t be beaten. Not by two almost kisses, anyway.’

Oh? ‘What happened?’

‘Now, that was a scandal like no other.’ Our faces are so close, we both have to pull back to take our drinks. ‘Long story short, Ryan had a drunken one-night stand with the daughter of Lord and Lady Hampton, he went his way and she went hers, she met some rich older man, found out she was pregnant, and told the world it was his.’

I flinch. ‘Ouch.’

‘Yes, can you believe that? The witch was never going to tell Ryan he had a kid.’

‘So how did he find out?’

‘He hadn’t been in town for months. I think he was working overseas or something, I don’t know. Anyway, he saw Darcy Hampton in the shop.’ Molly blows her cheeks out. ‘Heavily pregnant. Did the math, I guess.’

‘Wow. Many men would’ve run a mile.’

‘Ryan’s not like that. His mother was a wonderful human. She would have made sure he did the right thing, even if he didn’t want to.’

‘His mother lives here?’

Molly’s face drops, and I sit back, wary of her sadness. ‘She did live here. She died the day Ryan found out the baby was his after a year-long court battle. A stroke.’

‘Oh my God, so she never got to meet Alex?’

Molly shakes her head. ‘It’s so sad. He lost his mum the day he won his daughter.’

My heart sinks for him. ‘That’s terrible.’

‘I know. So you can understand why Ryan hates Darcy Hampton with a vengeance. First she deceived him, then she fought him over the paternity test, obviously because she knew what the result would be. And by doing that, Ryan lost out on the first year of his daughter’s life. His mum would have been an amazing grandmother.’

‘What a bitch.’ I don’t know the woman, but I hate her already.

‘Yeah, but to be fair, she’s bound by her parents. If Darcy doesn’t play ball, she gets cut off by the lord and lady. She’s too materialistic to say goodbye to that kind of money and status.’

I scoff. What kind of human being is she? Who does that? I pause for thought. Why the hell am I asking myself such questions? I know what people are capable of. ‘Still a bitch,’ I murmur meekly. ‘No one should be kept away from their child.’ And no daughter should be kept away from her father. Jesus, I feel my nice hazy tipsiness being replaced with something far less appealing. Pain. No daughter should be kept from her mother, either. ‘More wine?’ I ask, jumping up clumsily and smacking my knee on the table. ‘Shit!’

‘Careful,’ Molly cries, hissing when she sees I’ve knocked my healing wound. More blood. Great. ‘Bob!’ she yells. ‘We have an injury!’ And the whole pub freezes and looks my way.

I smile, small and awkward, and start hobbling past the crowd to the ladies’. ‘Some tissue will be fine,’ I assure them all. ‘Back in a flick.’ I fall through the doors and blink back the sudden onset of wooziness. ‘Oh boy,’ I mumble, heading for the sink. I have to close one eye to focus on myself, and when I do, I look as drunk as I suddenly feel. A quiet drink, she said. ‘You’re a bad influence, Molly.’ And I love her for it.

‘It didn’t look like you needed much arm twisting from where I was sitting.’

I whirl around and make a sharp grab for the sink to steady myself. ‘You’re in the ladies’,’ I shriek in shock. ‘Wait, from where you were sitting? Where were you sitting?’

‘At the end of the bar.’ Ryan looks me up and down, a rather disapproving look on his face. ‘You chug down wine quicker than any woman I’ve known.’

Well, maybe because it’s a novelty to drink at my own pace, when I like, and without worrying I might get myself into trouble. ‘How many women have you known?’ I say instead, startling at the sound of my own question. ‘I didn’t mean to say that.’

‘No?’ he asks, his head tilting. ‘Then what did you mean to say?’

I cringe all over the ladies’ bathroom. ‘Got a bandage?’

He smiles that crooked smile and comes over. ‘Let me see.’

‘Still feeling guilty?’ I ask lightly.

‘Something like that.’ Without warning, he takes me under my armpits and lifts me onto the nearby old table where Bob has an expansive display of female cosmetics set out, as well as lollipops and chewing gum. I try so hard not to stiffen, but when a man like Ryan lifts you from your feet like you’re nothing, I would challenge any woman not to come over a bit . . . tense. Without thought, I reach over and snag a piece of gum, popping it in and chewing. Ryan looks up at me. My chewing slows. And he smiles a very small smile as he slowly casts his eyes down to my knee. ‘You knocked the scab off.’