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‘Are you picking Molly up from school?’
    ‘No, her grandma has asked to do that. She wants to spend some time with her.’
    ‘Then I presume you are hurrying back for some hot date?’
    ‘Certainly not. I have enough complications in my life at the moment! I simply want to be back at my apartment when Carmel arrives with Molly. We have a lot to discuss.’
    ‘Between that and work, life seems pretty hectic for you,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘I’m the same, running between this place and my work.’
    They were interrupted by a sudden commotion out in the hallway. Carrie looked around and saw that it was Manuel, arriving accompanied by two boisterous children, a boy and girl of about Molly’s age. They looked like twins.
    ‘Sorry about this disruption,’ Manuel said from the open doorway. ‘They’ve been sent home on a half-dayfrom school and my wife has been delayed in town. I’m just going to go and drop them with their grandma.’
    ‘That’s okay,’ Max said easily. He didn’t seem fazed as the children caught sight of him and hurried through the doorway to greet him.
    Carrie watched as he pushed his chair back from the table and welcomed them both with a bear-like hug, ruffling their hair and grinning as they chatted to him excitedly.
    They were attractive children with dark hair and eyes very like their father, and they were talking in rapid Spanish. ‘Uncle Max, Mum says we can have a birthday party in our back garden next week and that you’ll come and so will everyone else and we might have pony rides and a barbecue—’
    ‘Hey, you two, steady on,’ Manuel said laughingly from the doorway. ‘Uncle Max is in the middle of a business meeting. He doesn’t want to hear about your birthday party.’
    ‘On the contrary, I’m very interested,’ Max said with a grin.
    Carrie watched as the children perched one on each knee, and she found herself comparing Max’s easy manner with the awkward way José had behaved around Molly. If Molly had interrupted like this, José would have been totally irritated; he’d had no patience or time for Molly at all.
    ‘Carrie, these are Manuel’s children,’ Max introduced her cheerfully. ‘Belle and Emilio. It will be their fifth birthday a week on Sunday.’
    ‘Hello, you two.’ Carrie smiled and spoke to them in Spanish. ‘It sounds like you will be having a great party.’
    They launched into an excited and noisy description of their party plans and Carrie found herself laughing and asking them more questions.
    ‘I just came over to tell you that your father rang through to the office a little while ago, asking about these delivery dates,’ Manuel said to Max. ‘I told him everything was under control, but he seemed to be fretting about things.’
    Max shook his head. ‘I’ll pop down to the hospital a little later and reassure him. All he should be thinking about is getting well.’
    ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I told him,’ Manuel agreed, ‘but you know what he’s like. Doesn’t like to listen.’
    The housekeeper brought in their main courses.
    ‘Come on, children, we need to go and leave Uncle Max and Carrie in peace.’
    The twins seemed reluctant to move, especially when Max started to tickle them unmercifully and make them giggle.
    He was good with children, Carrie thought idly. And she thought suddenly that maybe she had misjudged him yesterday when she had thought he was just a flirtatious Casanova type like her ex-husband…she didn’t even know him.
    As the twins slipped down off his knee they grinned over at Carrie. ‘Are you Uncle Max’s new girlfriend?’ the little girl asked her suddenly.
    Before Carrie or Max could answer that question their father was shooing them out of the room, sending profuse apologies in Carrie’s direction. ‘Sorry about this; see you later, Max. Perhaps we can have that talk before you go down to the hospital?’
    ‘Yes, give me an hour, Manuel, and then come up.’
    As the front door closed