Nine Month Countdown. Leah Ashton

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СКАЧАТЬ for whatever you had again, plus a selection of cakes as I have no idea what you like. Okay?’

      Ivy nodded numbly.

      ‘Great!’ he said. ‘So, tell me something about yourself.’

      ‘Pardon me?’

      He shrugged. ‘You heard me.’

      Ivy bristled. ‘Look, it’s great that you’re all so fine and relaxed and cool with this, but I don’t think you understand how—’

      ‘Ivy,’ he said, so firmly that her words froze on her tongue. ‘I promise you that I understand exactly what is going on here. It’s all I’ve thought about for four days. I dreamt about it, even, although I can’t say I’ve spent much time sleeping. I am exhausted, and stressed out of my mind. And frankly, I’m over it. I’m over feeling like that, but I can’t do anything about it. Neither can you.’

      Ivy’s gaze travelled across his face, for the first time noticing the dark circles beneath his eyes and the spidery lines of red in his stare.

      He’d just described her weekend, and beneath a thick layer of concealer she even had the matching blackened eyes.

      ‘But we’ve both decided to do this, so we might as well get to know each other. So again—tell me something about yourself.’

      Tell him something?

      I’m scared? I don’t know what I’m doing? I have no idea what to do with you?

      ‘I think that Aussie Rules football is the best game in the whole entire universe.’

      And then Angus smiled. A gorgeous smile, an amazing smile.

      ‘So now we have two things in common,’ he said.

      * * *

      A selection of cakes later, Ivy stood with Angus outside the café. It was dark between the street lights, and only the occasional car swished past.

      ‘Where’d you park?’ Angus asked.

      Ivy shook her head. ‘I didn’t. I just need to call my driver and he’ll come pick me up.’

      A sudden gust of wind made her shiver, and Ivy wrapped her arms around herself tightly.

      Angus took a step towards her—and for a moment Ivy thought he might put his arm around her again, as he had at the wine bar. But then he didn’t, and Ivy took a little longer than she would’ve liked to decide she was relieved.

      Tonight hadn’t been as she’d planned. They’d talked about all things unimportant—the favourite football team they shared, the latest movies they’d seen, and even the weather. It had been kind of like a date.

      Or rather exactly like one. Except it hadn’t had that early-date awkwardness. The overenthusiastic laughter or the well-rehearsed anecdotes.

      It had been...nice. Better than nice.

      ‘I don’t remember—did you ask me to tell you something about myself?’

      ‘No,’ Ivy said, smiling. Then added in an obedient sing-song voice: ‘So, Angus, tell me something about yourself.’

      ‘I don’t leave ladies waiting on the street in the dark. Come on, I’ll drive you home.’

      Ivy raised her eyebrows. ‘What if I live on the other side of the city?’

      Angus had already walked a few steps, and looked surprised she hadn’t already followed. ‘Do you?’

      She lived a five-minute drive away. ‘No.’

      He smiled. ‘Well, there you go. But it wouldn’t have mattered. I like driving.’

      He waited another moment. ‘So am I waiting here while you call your driver, or are you letting me drive you home?’

      It would take longer to call Simon and wait for him than for Angus to drive her home, and she could think of no good reason to refuse. So she found herself walking beside Angus the short distance to his car, parked around the corner.

      It was exactly the type of car she’d expect him to drive: big and black and foreboding. Although its vast size didn’t assist with the unexpected sensation of intimacy when the doors were shut and they both sank into the lush leather seats.

      Angus didn’t switch the radio on, and they sat in silence after she gave him the brief directions to her house.

      Now it did feel like a first date. As if they’d just been out for a romantic dinner and Angus were driving her home and they were both wondering if there’d be a kiss on her doorstep.

      How sweet. How quaint. How backwards given how she and Angus had met.

      Ivy dug her nails into her palms, needing to force herself to face reality.

      She couldn’t let her thoughts wander like this. She needed to focus, to remember what this really was.

      ‘I have an estimated due date,’ she said, the words sounding brittle in the silence. ‘July the second.’

      Instantly the atmosphere in the car shifted.

      There. Romantic notions gone.

      ‘Okay,’ Angus said. And Ivy supposed he couldn’t say much else.

      ‘That was what we were supposed to talk about today,’ she said. ‘That’s why I wanted to meet. To tell you that I had a scan today, and the baby has measured at five weeks and one day and that it’s due on July the second.’

      Her words were more jumbled than brittle, now.

      ‘Thank you,’ Angus said, and Ivy couldn’t interpret his tone at all.

      He slowed the car to turn into her driveway. The entrance was gated, but Ivy reached into her handbag for the small remote that swung the gates open.

      Angus nosed the car up the long curved driveway and came to a stop before the limestone steps that led to the front door of her rambling nineteen-thirties double-storey home.

      An automatic porch light flicked on, but otherwise the house was in darkness.

      ‘No butler to meet you?’ Angus asked, although his tone was not pointed, but curious.

      Ivy laughed. ‘Do you think I have someone feed me grapes as I bathe, too?’

      He shrugged. ‘You have a driver, so I assumed you had other staff.’

      ‘No,’ Ivy said. ‘I mean, because of the hours I work I have a weekly cleaner and a regular gardener, but that’s it. My home is my sanctuary, and I value my privacy.’

      It already felt a little too private in the car, so Ivy opened her door and slid her feet out onto the driveway. She turned to thank Angus for the lift, but he’d climbed out of his seat too, and in a few strides stood beside her at the bottom of the steps.

      Ivy СКАЧАТЬ