She frowned fiercely at the interruption. ‘A series of coincidences.’ He saw a flicker of guilt move like a shadow across her face. A soft heart could be a major disadvantage in the business world, and it made him wonder how she had got so far.
‘Apology accepted. You had the details about Clare’s custody claim from Josie… Is Josie worried about it?’
He’d thought his daughter could tell him anything…but for the first time Draco stopped to consider the suddenly shockingly real possibility that his daughter really was losing out not having a stepmother she could bond with. He didn’t like the thought of Josie opening up to someone who was almost a total stranger, needing to open up to another woman as she had done with Eve.
His little girl was growing up and did the awful, boring Edward have a point? Was she lacking a female role model?
‘Josie has total faith in your ability to sort it.’ And just about anything else that might crop up. When the teenager spoke of her father, even when she was complaining, it was obvious that she adored him and had complete trust in his ability to keep her safe.
The way her own mother had kept her safe… Had Eve always appreciated it?
Draco nodded, feeling a surge of relief, his concern allayed slightly, yet the doubts that had been awoken remained there just below the surface.
‘Are you really not worried about the custody claim? I mean, don’t courts normally favour mothers?’
‘Potential custody claim.’
The smooth correction drew a frown from Eve. ‘You don’t think she’ll go through with it?’
Was he really as confident as he sounded? Or was this an example of his feelings for his ex-wife clouding his judgement?
In his place, with a great kid like Josie to protect… But she wasn’t in his place, Eve reminded herself, and Josie wasn’t her child. Which meant she could be totally objective, unlike Draco, and probably any other male when it came to a woman like Clare.
‘Josie has never lived with her mother?’
‘No, never.’ He arched a brow. ‘Do you think that’s wrong?’
A few minutes had been long enough for Eve to see that the beautiful woman was the last person in the world that should be given charge of any child, let alone one as special as Josie who, in her opinion, deserved a lot better.
‘I think that depends on the mother and the circumstances,’ she said tactfully.
‘Clare walked out when Josie was a baby.’
‘How could she have done that?’ In Eve’s mind a woman was hard-wired to care for her baby before anything else, and there were women who gave their lives for their babies.
She supposed women like Clare were the flip side of the coin. Yet she still couldn’t see how any woman could walk out and abandon her baby and she never would.
‘Was there…someone else or was it post-natal depression, perhaps?’ she suggested tentatively.
‘No, she just got bored.’
Watching her face, he sank down onto a sofa. ‘Take the weight off,’ he said, patting the arm in invitation.
‘I’ll pass.’