“Hey, I won’t hear any of your nonsense.” Mack walked up next to her. “You are beautiful, and that’s it. Now, are you going to feed me?”

Since Mack wasn’t going to charge her, Flora insisted on making her dinner, which suited Flora because she just wanted to spend more time with Mack.

“Of course I am. Your favourite, lasagne.”

“Yes,” Mack said with a first pump.

Flora had asked Mack what her favourite food was, and it happened to be lasagne, followed closely by macaroni cheese, so she had prepared a lasagne and left it in her fridge. All she had to do was pop it in the oven.

“Come on, then.” Flora walked up to the front door, Dexter following at her heels. Once inside they dispensed with their jackets and moved through to the kitchen.

“Take a seat, and I’ll get dinner going.”

“Can I put some music on?” Mack asked.

“Yes, there’s a radio there on the work surface, or you could put on the music channel.”

Mack grabbed the remote and quickly put on one of the music channels. Then she returned to sit at the kitchen table.

“This is a nice cosy room,” Mack said.

“I like it. I think when the house was changed into two flats, the kitchen and dining room were combined. By the way, it was so good coming home and remembering I didn’t have to worry about the boys upstairs.”

Mack got up and walked over to lean on the kitchen counter. “You don’t ever have to be worried about anything.”

Flora gazed at Mack and thought how sexy she looked, leaning against the kitchen counter with her arms folded. She looked so strong, not just physically but mentally, and to someone like Flora, with all her issues, mental strength and confidence were such an attractive feature.

“Why don’t I have to worry?”

“Because I’m your friend, and you’ve had to deal with things on your own for far too long.”

Flora could feel the heat of the preheating oven on her legs, matching the rising heat in the rest of her body. She had to ask the question she had wondered about for so long.

“Mack, why do you want to be such a good friend to me? You have family, Liam, and lots of other friends, male and female, I’m sure.”