Okay. Another new thing to add to the GeorgeList. (Probably one of the rare Cons) He's useless at giving directions.

Nora was nervous and lost. She didn't know the suburbs of London, although thanks to a couple of dates where she had made the journey instead of George, she was starting to get to know the centre of town. And now she was driving round and round the block on a street with no sign post and houses with no numbers or names, trying to find George's house.

Fortunately, it was still daylight and there were people around. Well, one at least; a small, dark haired girl with beautifully dark skin and an unfortunately obvious set of dental braces. Nora hated stopping to ask a young girl directions but she was desperate. She wound down her window and noticed the girl came really close to the van. Casey would never do that. She had had it drilled into her far too many times about stranger danger.

"I'm looking for the Venturi residence." She called.

"Derek's house?" The girl said, her face suddenly springing into life.

Nora smiled. "Yeah. Derek's house."

The girl beamed. "Well that's next door to me. Three doors down on the left. You can't miss it. The Prince is parked outside."

"The Prince?"

"Derek's dad's car."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." The girl looked liked she wanted to keep on talking but, Nora was late enough as it was and the girl's mother wouldn't want her talking to strange people in vans. Well, she hoped the girl's mother would care. It might be daylight, but it was actually quite late for a girl of fourteen to be out.

She parked the van and walked up the path to the door of George's house. It was undoubtedly a family home. She rang the doorbell.

When George opened it, she completely forgot about the traffic on the way there, the bad directions, and the slight concern she had had over the girl next door. She lost herself in his eyes.

"Hi." He said, smirking.

"Hi yourself." She grinned.

"You'd better come in."

"Sure."

She took the step into the house and found herself in a large open plan space – and complete bedlam. She could tell he had probably made an effort to clean up, things were stacked in piles rather than strewn across the floor, and she could smell furniture polish, although she wasn't sure if any had made it to the furniture, as there was no visible surface to check out her theory.

"Sorry. The place is a bit of a madhouse most of the time, I tried, but to be honest I think bulldozing it would be more effective."

She smiled. It was endearing. He needed a good shake and the ministrations of a good woman. Or at least the number of a good domestic.

He pulled her into a deep kiss and she forgot the mess – and her mind for a while.

"Where are the children?" she asked when they broke apart.

"The youngest two are staying with Abby's parents, and Derek is staying over night at a friend's. And your two?"

"Staying with my sister. She has a daughter slightly older than Casey."

"Great. So…"

And then the nerves hit them both. The trouble with dating a fellow parent is that crossing that oh so important hurdle of first sleepover involved organisation of military precision and not a lot of spontaneity. Even Casey had worked out what was on the cards as she watched her mother shaving her legs.

"So…we go to stay with Vicky. You have yet another date with George, for which you are shaving your legs…Oh my god. You're going to have SEX!"

"Shh. Casey, keep it down."

"Mom!"

"Okay. Yes. That is the…erm…plan."

"Plan?"

"Yes. You know. You like planning."

"Not that sort of planning. Talking of planning, have you got some condoms?" Casey had settled into parent mode.

"Yes. Thank you, Cassandra. I think that is enough."

"Just be careful."

"Thank you, sweetie I will."

And that was when Casey started to realise that George wasn't going away any time soon.

Nora felt like a naughty school girl all over again. But not the sort of naughty school girl that George would probably like.

"I'm not going to lie to you. I can't cook. If I cooked you dinner tonight, you'd end up with food poisoning and run back to Toronto vowing never to see me again, so I suggest take-out. Is that okay?" He was still holding her by the waist.

"Take out is fine."

"Chinese?" He asked kissing her neck.

"Sounds good."

He ordered with the phone in the crook of his neck, while he opened a bottle of wine and smirked at her. She was falling in love with that smirk. Nora found herself forgetting her nerves and remembering the last two months worth of dates instead. She crossed the short distance to him and slipped her hands around his waist. He proved that occasionally men can multitask as he poured the wine, completed the order and kissed the woman that was rapidly becoming the second most important thing in his life – after the children of course.

Mouth and hands free when his tasks were completed. He kissed her again. This was unrestricted kissing, because there was no curfew tonight.

"There's a bit of a delay with the food". He murmured, his hand brushing her breast through her clothes. "It'll be about an hour."

Nora found a confidence from the depths of her college years and tilted her head to one side. "Well then. Let's take that bottle upstairs and let's see if you can tick a few more boxes on my ideal man profile."

George's smirk grew, as did the fire in his eyes and a few other parts of his anatomy. "Hey I can definitely tick boxes." As he led her upstairs, wine and two glasses in his other hand, Nora reflected that the spontaneity hadn't been entirely lost. You just had to dig deep to find it.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

She had packed a nightshirt, but wearing an old button up of George's was more…fun. He concurred with that. Especially since he knew there was nothing underneath it. He knew, because he had watched her put it on – he'd then taken it off her again and they had wasted another forty five minutes exploring the things they had in common –and the bits they didn't. And he had watched her put it back on, insisting that it was time for breakfast and that if she didn't get up and get ready now, then her sister would never babysit again.

Nora was currently standing in his kitchen in nothing more than one of his old shirts looking like she had spent all night being ravaged (which in fairness was pretty close to the truth) and he loved it. She looked hot and so sexy and right now…so his. He was wearing boxers and running bottoms because his body just wouldn't behave and he was worried that Nora might start to think he was perverted or something if he walked around with a raging hard-on. It was best if she couldn't see that was the case when she was around.

So it was a good job they were both reasonably covered because then the back door banged and a tall boy with dark, copper-toned hair walked in.

"Hi Dad! Hi Nora!" He said and carried on into the living room.

"Jesus Derek! Can't you knock!" Nora looked up at George in surprise. It was the loudest she had ever heard him speak, but there was no malice there, only embarrassment at being caught with his lover (!!!) during a post-coital breakfast.

Derek turned abruptly on his toes and walked back into the kitchen.

"You said 9.30. It's 10.15. I didn't think I needed to knock."

"10.15????!" Nora dropped her spoon in shock. "Oh my god! Casey's recital is in two and a half hours I have to get back."

"Who's Casey?" Derek flicked his eyes to his dad's girlfriend. "My daughter."

Derek's eyes switched to his father, eyebrows raised.

George shook his head. "Never mind, Derek."

Nora came over to George. "I need to go. Can I grab a quick shower?"

"Sure. You know where the bathroom is."

She left the room.

George could feel Derek's eyes burning a hole in his back.

"Niiiiice Dad. Glad to see the ol' Venturi charm still works its magic in old age. Nora's rather hot. For an oldie."
And that got George on his weak side. "She is, isn't she?" He shook himself. "And less of the old."

Derek smirked his own version of his father's smirk, although it was difficult to tell which was more attractive.

"All I can say is Dad, if that's the mother, I can't wait to see the daughter."