Chapter 1

Chapter One

Will

17 Years Later

" S hit," I hissed as I snatched my watch up from my bedside table. I threw back the duvet and dropped my feet to the floor. "Maddy, sweetheart, you'd better get up. We're late."

Grabbing yesterday's jeans from the floor, I pulled them on and then snagged a t-shirt, quickly smelling it to make sure it would survive at least the school run. Thank fuck I only had one more year of battling with the mums who all wanted a fucking piece of my arse.

I didn't have to take Maddy to school, but it seemed ridiculous not to when my bar was only around the corner from it. The problem was, at only thirty-seven and still being in great shape—even if I did say so myself—they surrounded my car like flies on shit. It was a wonder I wasn't a stone heavier with all the cakes and pies they gave to me. As for the sexual propositions, I felt violated daily. One woman even bruised my arse after Maddy left her bag in my car, and I had to run after her with it. She had an iron grip, and I didn't think she was going to let go.

"Dad," Maddy's yell made my ears ring. "Get your arse out of bed, or we're going to be late."

I shook my head and ran down the stairs to where her voice was coming from. When I skidded into the kitchen, I wasn't surprised to see she was already tucking into her breakfast, with mine waiting for me at the place opposite hers at the kitchen table.

"Morning, sweetheart." I grinned as I sat down and picked up the spoon for my cereal. "I should have known you'd be up and ready."

My seventeen-year-old daughter rolled her eyes and then grinned. Damn, she was beautiful. She looked a lot like her mum, but a lot like my mum too because Maddy had her smile. My smile and my lips.

"Did you do pay roll?" she asked.

"Yep. Sure did." I took a spoonful of cereal and watched as she delicately nibbled her toast.

She may have been brought up by a neanderthal, but I'd taught her manners. In fact, I taught her a lot; manners, how to punch a guy who made her feel uncomfortable, how to put a mean girl down with one short sentence, and most importantly how to make the best damn Long Island Iced Tea known to man.

I was so damn proud of her. I was proud of myself for sticking with it, even when times were hard. To be honest, sticking with it hadn't been hard, mainly because I loved her more than life. From the moment I saw Maddy in her cot at Miriam's house, I fell, hook, line, and sinker. There was no way she was going to be a two week thing. We got to keep Miriam for almost nine months before she died, and I had to say, they were probably some of the best months of my life. I felt loved and wanted, and it turned out I was pretty good at the whole dad thing. It had been hard work, especially when Miriam got really ill, but I'd managed to keep it together. I even helped take care of Miriam when the nurse wasn't around. Those nine months made me a man.

Maddy also had amazing organisational skills and made sure that I kept on top of business with my bar. I'd bought it when she started her last year of primary school. Mainly because she had joined drama club, and that, along with sleepovers and a nice group of friends that she had, I found myself with a lot of free time. Also, Miriam had changed her will and had left me a bunch of money to be received when Maddy was five. I had no fucking clue until Miriam's solicitor called me on Maddy's birthday. Apparently, she knew me better than I thought because the stipulation had been that Maddy was still with me. I'd never mentioned my plan to put Maddy into care once Miriam had gone. I'd never thought about it again once I saw her, not until the day Gordon, her solicitor, told me that there was a cool quarter of a million quid waiting to be transferred into my bank account.

These days, drama club had been replaced with fashion, music and, I hated to say it, boys. They seemed to be mentioned in every hushed conversation that I heard between Maddy and her friends. I was only grateful that her school didn't have a sports team of any note. Imagine if the star striker of the school football team started hanging around her. I'd either be grey or bald. The thought of my baby going after or being seduced by some dickhead who rated himself, filled me with dread. It was just every other hormonal teenage lad I had to keep an eye on instead.

"You know that I'm going over to Emma's on Friday night, right?"

"Yes, I do because I won't be here." I grabbed my coffee mug and took a long swig. It was hot and strong, just how I liked it. "I also know that you want to know if I can get you booze to take, but you've been building up to ask me."

Her eyes went wide and then she blinked slowly.

"How did you know that?" she asked.

"I'm your dad, it's my job to know this stuff."

She narrowed her eyes on me and then pointed. "You were listening in, weren't you? When Emma, Ana and Liv were here."

I shrugged and then took another spoonful of cereal. I wasn't going to tell her that Emma had let slip to her mum, and her mum had told me, thinking that maybe us sharing secrets might lead to us sharing a bed too. It also didn't hurt for my kid to think that I had special hearing skills.

" Dad. I can't believe that you've been listening in." She gasped. "Were you listening last night?"

I wasn't, but there was enough giggling for me to know that boys were being discussed. Oh, to be seventeen again and getting that first rush of attraction to the opposite sex. Okay, so I wasn't na?ve enough to think she hadn't already kissed a boy. She was seventeen, which was like a twenty-year-old of my generation. They grew up so fucking fast these days. I'd drilled into her the importance of keeping herself for the one. Insisted on it, in fact. That was ironic coming from me, of course, but she was my baby and there would be plenty of time for that when she was like… thirty.

"I might have been," I replied. "But I guess you'll never know, because I won't tell."

"Dad," she whined. "I need my privacy."

"Yes, you certainly do, but I also need to be sure that you're safe. Which is why I will always listen in on your conversations. Even when you're sixty and I'm eighty."

"You might be dead when I'm sixty," she replied, a little too casually for my liking.

"Never. I will survive as long as I can just to annoy the shit out of you."

Maddy grinned, and her naturally plump lips parted to show the tip of her tongue between her teeth. Her chocolate brown eyes sparkled.

"So, the booze? Will you get some for me from the bar?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Dad!"

"No Maddy. You want booze, then you get some yourself, like any other teenager. It's a rite of passage. Get alcohol behind your parents' back, drink too much of it, puke and then clean it up without them finding out. Or so you think." I winked at her and then swigged back the last of my coffee. "Okay, let's go or you're going to be late and will get a detention."

"Please, I never get detention. I'm like a star pupil at that school."

She wasn't wrong. Maddy had clearly inherited brains from elsewhere in her family tree because she was a straight-A student. Her teachers told me regularly that she could easily go to a top university if she wanted to. My little angel wanted to make a difference, though. She wanted to become a children's counsellor, or a social worker and was adamant that she was going to do an online degree. I'd tried to dissuade her, telling her that she needed to go to a ‘real' uni to get all the experiences. She could still be close to home if that was what she wanted, but Maddy was adamant. Only time would tell if she'd change her mind. I just hoped she wasn't saying it because she didn't like the idea of leaving me alone, because I would be perfectly fine and would in no way be lonely. My sex life had been sketchy, to say the least, in the last seventeen years. Occasional hook-ups when Maddy was on sleepovers or away on school trips had seen me through, but I was more than ready for something a little more than occasional.

"Okay, star pupil. Let's go."

We both quickly put our dishes in the sink and then grabbed jackets and bags, and I led us to my Range Rover that was almost as old as Maddy.

"You know, if you let me buy a car, you wouldn't have to drive me to school every day."

"We've talked about this, Maddy," I sighed as I started the engine. "Aunt Miriam's money is for uni, not a crap car. It's my job to buy that for you."

"Exactly," she snapped, looking out of the window as I touched the edge of the speed limit. "You'd buy me something awful. Something safe and ugly and bright yellow. I want something decent."

I shook my head. "When you go to university and need a car, I'll get you one. Until then I'll drive you or you can walk. Besides which, you've only had a handful of lessons."

We lived in a small town about forty-five minutes from Manchester, and the places that Maddy went to were all within walking distance. If she needed to be somewhere after dark, I took her. There was absolutely no need for her to reduce her lifespan by having a car at the age where she feared nothing. Since her seventeenth birthday, she'd been desperate to drive and had booked lessons straight away. I, on the other hand, didn't understand the rush. Besides which, the lessons had stalled with her finding other things to spend her money on, so she obviously wasn't that desperate.

"I won't need a car if I do Open University." She turned in her seat and poked me in the arm. "So that's another two years I'll be the sad douche without wheels."

"Shit, life is tough, sweetheart." I took a left and within a few seconds was pulling up in front of the school. "Okay, munchkin. Have a great day."

Maddy growled at me and then leaned over the console for a kiss. "You're a dick, Dad, you know that, right?"

"I do indeed." I offered my cheek, and the little shit licked it. "Ugh, you're disgusting."

"Bye, Daddy." She grinned and then she was gone.

"Christ, I love that kid," I muttered to myself and put my car into drive and headed toward my bar, The Jumping Frog—the thing that aside from my daughter, was my biggest pride and joy. I just had no idea what crap was going to meet me when I got there.