‘Explain, please,’ Curtis interrupted from the sidelines of what looked like a female conspiracy, and Tessa turned to him.
‘Pizzerias on a Saturday are usually home to teenagers wearing less…well, formal clothes. Anna thinks she might stand out a bit…’
‘Stand out!’ Curtis exploded incredulously. ‘Stand out? Yes, sure you’ll stand out but only because you’re a cut above the rest!’
Anna greeted this by turning on her heel and stomping out of the kitchen, leaving her father with a look of stunned amazement on his face. This quickly changed to glowering accusation as he looked at Tessa.
‘This is all your fault,’ he informed her. ‘We never had these ridiculous problems until you decided to take her on a shopping trip. She was always fine with the clothes she had.’
‘I think you need to go and talk to her,’ Tessa returned with as much calm as she could muster given the unfairness of his accusation.
With a curt nod, he disappeared only to return minutes later. ‘Where’s your phone book?’ he asked, pulling his mobile phone out of his pocket. ‘It seems that eating out anywhere tonight isn’t an option with my daughter. She’s decided that she wants to sit in front of your television and eat some pizza so I’ve told her that I’ll order some in.’
‘Sit in front of my television? Why can’t you both go home and she can sit in front of your television and eat the pizza?’
This was getting ridiculous. From a quiet night in, enjoying the peace of having the house to herself, she now found herself entertaining two people at loggerheads with one another, one of whom evoked all the wrong reactions in her. Worse, she could cope with him when he was at work, could cope with him when he was teasing her even though it made her insides squirm. Could even cope with him, just, when he was flirting with those dark eyes and that sexy smile. Flirting came naturally to him and meant nothing. In that context, it was possible to distance herself from some of the devastating effects of the odd wayward smile, the occasional crinkling of his eyes when he looked at her.
However, coping with him when he was like this, baffled and seemingly at a loss as to how to deal with a situation, was proving a nightmare. She wanted to plunge right in and stroke all his troubles away. Just the thought of that made her gulp with a hysterical swelling of pure alarm.
This was the essence of the charmer, she reminded herself. And the man was charm personified. It was a quality that couldn’t be pulled out of a hat and then shoved back in; it was something that was there, always, enticing and beckoning. It was the quality that made women want to be near him, made them want to continue contact long after any relationship might have gone pear-shaped.
‘Phone book?’ he reminded her, bringing her thoughts to a skidding halt.
‘I’m really very tired.’ One last stab, she thought, one last attempt to propel him and Anna out of the door, leaving her in peace.
Curtis looked at his watch and then looked at her. ‘It’s not even nine-thirty as yet.’#p#分页标题#e#
‘Yes, well, not everyone keeps late nights.’ A deafening silence greeted this and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what was going through his head. Either he had reached the right conclusion, namely that she didn’t want him around, in which case his active mind would already be jumping ahead to reasons and maybe, just maybe, coming up with the right one. Or else, she would be confirming his sweeping assumptions that she was as dreary as he thought she was, someone who retired to bed before ten with a cup of cocoa when all the world was out having a good time on a Saturday night.
Tessa fetched the phone book from the little bookshelf behind her and handed it to him.
‘What did you say the name of that pizzeria was…?’
She gave it to him and watched in despairing silence as he rapidly phoned and placed his order before clicking off his mobile and sticking it back into his pocket.
‘Forty minutes,’ he informed her. ‘I guess the place is so busy with hordes of appropriately dressed teenagers that the food orders are moving a little slowly.’
Tessa hesitated, torn between ignoring the light-hearted remark, made at her expense, and diving into a serious debate on his short-sightedness in not listening to what his daughter was trying to tell him. In the intervening silence, he solved the dilemma for her.
‘Not funny? I suppose you think I’m making fun of a serious situation?’
‘What I think doesn’t matter and what you do doesn’t concern me.’
‘Very lofty sentiments,’ Curtis mused, eyes narrowing on her. ‘Must be easy getting through life when you can detach yourself from annoying situations with such ease.’