Their Newborn Gift. Nikki Logan

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СКАЧАТЬ to hang out in the depths of outback Western Australia? Visit, absolutely. Live and die here, nope. That was fine with him.

      ‘A, um, girlfriend?’

      His eyes dropped to her lips briefly. ‘No.’

      She glanced around at the stables and yards. ‘Station hands?’

      ‘What do you want, Lea?’

      Her back straightened more than was good for a spine.

       Sorry, princess; a few great hours do not entitle you to a thing.

      Okay, a night. And part of a day.

      She glanced back at that damned car. ‘I…It’s about that weekend.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I need to talk to you about it.’

      Despite her obvious nerves, he felt like needling her. It was the least he could do. ‘It’s five years too late for an apology.’

      The flush bled away entirely. ‘Apology?’

      He leaned on the nearest veranda-post, far more casually than he felt. ‘For running out on me.’

      Her colour returned in a rush. ‘We picked each other up in a bar, Reilly. I didn’t realise that entitled either of us to any niceties.’

      Oh, yeah, he much preferred her angry. It put a glint in her eye only two degrees from the passionate one he remembered. ‘How did you find me?’

      The anger turned wary. ‘You were the talk of the town that weekend. I heard your name somewhere, remembered it. I looked you up in the championship records.’

      Her enormous pupils said she was lying. Why? Damn her, that he still gave a toss.

      ‘Which brings us full circle.’ He straightened so he could glare down at her. ‘What do you want, Lea?’ he asked again.

      She blew out a breath through stiff lips and turned to walk a few paces away. ‘There’s something about that night—something you should know.’

      Understanding hit him like a hammer blow. ‘You told me you were clean.’

      She stumbled to a halt. ‘What?’

      ‘You told me you were clean and on birth control. It’s why we didn’t use more protection.’

      That felt like a critically stupid decision now. But somewhere in the back of his thumping head, a rational voice told him he hadn’t caught anything off this woman. It would have shown up in one of the multitude of tests he’d undertaken since then—pure luck, considering how dumb it was to have had unprotected sex. But his big brain hadn’t been doing the thinking that night.

      Her eyes flared. ‘I am clean. I’m not here to tell you I’ve given you something.’

      ‘Then what the—?’

      ‘I came away with something that night.’

      What? ‘Not from me, lady.’

      She hissed. ‘Yes, Reilly. From you.’

      ‘Are you the man with the horse?’

      The little voice threw him. He and Lea spun round at the same time and she dropped instantly to her haunches before a tiny, dark elf standing at the top of the steps. The elf’s brown fringe was cut off square across her forehead, and her hair fell down straight on either side of her too-pale face. She seriously looked like something from a storybook. Not in a good way.

      ‘Molly, I told you to stay in the car.’ Lea pushed the girl’s fringe back from her forehead and laid a hand against her skin. ‘Did you climb all these stairs?’

      It was only then he noticed the kid was wheezing. Badly.

      She wriggled free of her mother’s fussing and looked straight at Reilly with enormous, chocolate-brown eyes. ‘Can I see it?’

      Somewhere deep in his gut a vortex cracked open. He knew those eyes. His pulse began to hammer but he managed to keep his voice light even as he towered over the tiny girl. ‘See what?’

      The kid looked to Lea and then back at him, her dark brows collapsing inwards. ‘Mum said she needed to see a man about a horse.’ She sucked her lip in between her teeth. ‘I wanted to meet the horse.’ A spasm of coughs interrupted her wheezing.

      Lea slipped her fingers around to the girl’s pulse, concern etched on her face. She threw him a desperate look.

      He stepped closer then put the brakes on. Not his problem. ‘Is she okay? Does she need a drink of water or something?’

      ‘Please.’

      Reilly was only too happy to get away from the surreal scene for a moment. His thumping head now echoed through his whole body. He let the screen door bang shut behind him, knowing he could see out better than she could see in, and he turned to watch the woman and child framed in the doorway.

      Lea was older than when he’d last seen her, but it only showed in the worry lines marking her hazel eyes. The rest of her was still as long and lean as when they’d first met. She loosened the little girl’s shirt, pushed sweaty hair back off her face and then lifted her into her arms. Two tiny sticks slid effortlessly around Lea’s neck, and mother and daughter had a low, private conversation punctuated with soft, loving kisses.

      It was so foreign. Yet he couldn’t take his eyes off them.

      I came away with something that night. His blood chilled. Not possible. Just not possible.

      Five years ago, a frozen inner voice reminded him. Very possible.

      Little Molly tilted her head and rested it on her mother’s shoulder, staring straight down the hallway, where he knew she couldn’t see him through the tinted mesh.

      He recognised that face. It was in the one photo he had kept of himself as a child.

       Oh, God…

      A black hole opened up in his gut, and a million possibilities rushed in right behind it. Possibilities he’d thought lost to him for ever. He kept his heart rate under control by pouring two glasses of ice-cold water in the kitchen, and then he shakily tossed one back himself before steeling himself to return. Mother and daughter whipped around as the screen door opened, and he indicated the comfortable cane-seating further along the veranda. She lowered Molly into a chair. It dwarfed her, her little legs stuck straight out in front.

      More sticks.

      ‘Thank you.’ Lea’s voice was as unsteady as the hands that took the water from him. She gently placed the other one out of reach. ‘Molly can’t be near glass.’

      Reilly frowned. Lea tipped her own water up to Molly’s bloodless lips. The girl gulped greedily, then Lea drank from the glass herself, visibly mastering her breathing. Max, his house cat, chose that moment to appear and twist himself amongst Lea’s feet. She leapt six inches off the timber floor.

      It was not a discussion to have in СКАЧАТЬ