The Single Dad's Marriage Wish (Bachelor Dads) Read Online Free PDF

knee as if he’d known her all his life. ‘I’ll talk to Hamish—you just let me know how soon you can move in.’
    ‘I’m staying at the local youth hostel.’ Charlotte blushed, wondering if that fact alone would be enough to jinx her chances. ‘Just till I find somewhere.’
    ‘Well, guess what?’ Belinda smiled. ‘You just did!’
    Despite Belinda being so sure she could get Hamish to agree, Charlotte felt the knot in her stomach tighten when she heard a car crunch along the gravel, wondering how the rather terse Hamish Adams she had met that morning would have reacted to the news that his sister had in a matter of hours found him a live-in babysitter who just happened to work alongside him.
    Oh, God!
    Feeling the butterflies leaping like salmon in her stomach, her hand clenching so hard on the paintbrushthat shades of orchid white seeped through her fingers, Charlotte caught a glimpse of herself in the bedroom mirror.
    What would Cassie have done in a situation like this?
    It was a question she asked herself ten, sometimes a hundred times a day.
    Whenever she was unsure, whenever she couldn’t quite work out how to deal with a particular scenario, Charlotte tried to work out what her big sister by eight and half minutes would do, and more often that not the answer was the same: Cassie wouldn’t give two hoots!
    She smiled and the butterflies in her stomach settled just a fraction. Why, Cassie wouldn’t even notice the awkwardness of the moment—she’d just swan down the stairs with a wide smile and talk her walk through any strained silence.
    With lipstick on!
    After wiping her hands on her already woefully paint-stained jeans, Charlotte rummaged in her bag and pulled out the necessary props to turn her pale, strained lips into a pretty pink pout then squirted the remaining dregs of her perfume onto her neck before taking a deep breath and marching out her very new bedroom door.
    ‘Hamish!’ Descending the stairs, her smile stayed firmly intact as, without even glancing up, he deposited his laptop, a bag of groceries, a nappy bag and then finally his gorgeous son onto the hallway floor. ‘Fancy meeting you here!’
    ‘Fancy!’ Hamish said dryly, before deigning a glance at her. ‘So I was the interview you were dashing off to?’
    ‘Seems that way.’ Her heart in her mouth and absolutely refusing to show it, Charlotte neglected the remaining few steps and stood a good a few inches above him—grateful for the diversion of a pudgy, happy toddler emptying the contents of his nappy bag over the hall floor. Anything was easier than looking at Hamish right now. ‘I really had no idea this morning it was you I’d be…’
    ‘Living with,’ Hamish finished for her, without ending the sentence, and internally Charlotte blanched as he continued, ‘working with, sharing child care with.’
    ‘It might seem a touch awkward at first…’ Charlotte attempted, but gave in there—nothing was going to thaw the strained atmosphere in the hall. The rather irritable but kind doctor she had encountered that morning was light years from the forebidding-looking man who was glaring at her now, and suddenly the haven she’d found for her animals, the glimpse at finally getting her finances in order, all faded into the distance.
    ‘Awkward doesn’t come close,’ Hamish muttered, flicking on the light and stomping down the hall, but checking himself at the sight of her crestfallen face he relented a touch. ‘It’s not you I’m annoyed with, there’s just no way this can possibly work.’ Hamish interrupted her thoughts as if he knew them. ‘Belinda should have spoken to me. Have you already booked the transport for your horses?’
    She didn’t even bother to correct him, just gave a nervous nod. ‘A friend has to pick up his new horse from somewhere near here in a couple of weeks—he’sgoing to bring them down, along with the last of my boxes…’ Her voice trailed off as he opened his mouth to speak.