Reunited By Their Secret Son. Louisa George

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СКАЧАТЬ he admired that, admired how she’d brought up a good kid on her own. But her lack of faith in him stung.

      ‘Our child, Sophie. I’m his father; I won’t hurt him.’

      She shook her head and he could tell she was not going to give in easily. ‘You provided some DNA, Finn. Let’s just see how much of a father you can be.’

      * * *

      ‘Hi, I’m back! Thanks so much for having him for me.’ Sophie bundled through the door of her late grandmother’s house and found her friend Hannah sitting on the sofa in front of a blazing coal fire, playing with Lachie and a digital tablet. Her heart squeezed as he looked up and grinned. Her boy. Just hers for a few precious months, really, and now she was having to share him... Was she doing the right thing by letting Finn in?

      She didn’t really have a choice if she was going to be able to live with herself, one way or another. Time would tell.

      She let all the anger and irritation and the surprising jolt of attraction go—the guy had been through a lot and yet he was still gorgeous, still capable of being serious and yet funny. Still hot enough to make her heart race and her palms itch to touch him. He was all the things she’d promised herself not to get involved with. She needed to be just a mother now. ‘How’s my boy been?’

      ‘Very good—eaten all his supper and had a nice play.’ Hannah wriggled out from Lachie’s grip, planted a kiss on his head and grabbed her coat and bag. ‘Bye-bye, Lachie! Be good for Mummy.’ She leaned close to Sophie and whispered, ‘I thought I’d leave the torture device to you. I’m not brave enough to tackle that. I want him to like me.’

      ‘The boots and bars? Hush now. They’re for his own good.’

      ‘I know. I just don’t like conflict.’ Hannah wandered towards the door and waited for Sophie to join her. There was a teasing light in her eyes and Sophie’s heart fell. Because, knowing Hannah, she wouldn’t be allowed to get on with the evening without an interrogation. ‘How was the dad?’

       Gorgeous. Enigmatic. Inspiring. Probably useless.

      ‘Shocked, but I think he’d worked it out. So I’m glad I fronted up and told him.’

      ‘Does he want to be involved?’

      Sophie put down her bag and went to stoke the fire, absentmindedly answering her friend. ‘With Lachie?’

      ‘Of course with Lachie.’ Hannah glanced over to the little boy on the sofa swiping pages and telling himself the story he knew off by heart, and then back to Sophie. ‘You didn’t think I meant involved with you...’ Her eyes grew. ‘You don’t want...do you? I mean...you did like him once. Enough to sleep with him, and that’s not like you at all.’

      ‘Hush! No. Of course I don’t want to be involved with him.’ She didn’t. She really didn’t. ‘I can’t trust him as far as I’d throw him. My heart’s not part of the deal, nor my body. I told him Lachie needed a father; I didn’t mention anything about a family.’ Which was ironic, really, given all she’d ever wanted was a proper family of her own. But she had that now. Her and her boy.

      Hannah seemed to have other ideas. ‘Still eye candy though?’

      ‘Outwardly, yes, gorgeous. Inwardly, a little hung up. He had an accident and I think it’s shaken him up.’ But hell, losing a limb would have an effect on...everything. ‘You know it’s not about how good-looking he is; it’s about what he can bring for Lachie. I really wish you’d never got that eye candy information out of me.’

      Hannah winked. ‘What’s a best friend for?’

      ‘Babysitting?’

      ‘Any time. I love that boy. Ciao bella. Love you too.’ Then she darted out of the door, blowing a kiss. If it hadn’t been for her, Sophie would never had stayed sane over the last couple of years.

      Closing the door behind her friend, she took a deep breath and tried to get rid of the strange feelings she’d had since seeing Finn. Through two and a half years of silence she’d been downright annoyed, then frustrated, then, to varying degrees, angry all over again. Eventually the simmering anger had faded into...nothing. She’d had no feelings about him at all. Until yesterday, when her ire had risen again, punctuated with the annoying fluster of being with someone who she’d been too honest with.

      And then there was the giddy heartbeat and the uplift in her gut just to be around him and the little tug in her belly—stirrings of something she’d forgotten she was even capable of: attraction.

      Damn him for appearing just as she was getting her life into some kind of routine after the craziness of childbirth and learning how to be a parent, especially when she’d had little blueprint for that from her own parents. She looked over at the only male she wanted in her life and her heart softened. ‘Okay, gorgeous little man, it’s time for bed. Come on, let’s get that bath run.’

      After much splashing and then warm milk he was just about ready for bed. ‘Right, let’s get on and do your superhero boots.’

      ‘No.’ Lachie waddled to the other side of his bedroom and hid in the wardrobe. ‘No.’

      ‘Hey...don’t forget you’ll get the stickers. That nice man, Finn, at the clinic said you could have stickers.’ This was always wearing. The fight, the fight, the fight. She crawled over to the wardrobe and opened the door, found him sitting on the floor, his mouth set in an expression she’d seen on Finn earlier. God, they were similar. She’d pretended she hadn’t noticed before, but it was stark now. She put her hand on his leg and tickled. ‘Come out, Mr Monster.’

      ‘No. No boots.’ The kid had started to string two words together now and she’d be so proud of him if he hadn’t learnt the word ‘no’.

      ‘I’ll get the stickers and you can have one if you come out. You can have more if you sit still.’ She crawled back across the floor, opened a drawer in his cupboard and took out the stickers. Then she put on her sing-song voice. ‘One sticker for Lachie. One sticker for Lachie. Oh, this is a good one. Lachie’s favourite.’

      After five minutes or so of playing this game to herself her boy eventually crawled out of the wardrobe, too nosy to be able to resist. ‘Dicker.’

      ‘When you have the boots and bars on.’

      He shook his head.

      She nodded and held the boots out. ‘Let’s put them on now. Now, Lachie, or no stickers at all.’

      He didn’t make eye contact but he sat on the floor and put his feet out. She tugged him onto her lap and showed him the boots with yesterday’s stickers stuck on. ‘One sticker for one foot and one sticker for the other.’

      She didn’t want to admit it, but the stickers had been a great idea.

      Her mind did a leap from her son’s feet to his father’s. It was the first time she’d allowed herself to really think about Finn’s leg. She’d managed to keep her face straight when he’d told her about the amputation, but she couldn’t imagine how terrible that would have been for him. How hard that would have been to get over for a physical guy like him. And then there’d been the rugby...losing a leg would have been an absolute game changer for his sport, and it would have meant he’d have СКАЧАТЬ