Double Trouble: Pregnancy Surprise: Two Little Miracles / Expecting Royal Twins! / Miracle: Twin Babies. Melissa McClone

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СКАЧАТЬ ran her fingers through her hair and went downstairs.

      He was standing by the bag, her phone in hand, looking defiant and guilty all at once, and she felt suddenly sorry for him, plunged head-first into this bizarre situation that was totally outside his experience, dislocated from everything that was familiar.

      Except her, and even she’d changed beyond recognition, she realised.

      She smiled. ‘It’s OK, Max, I’m not going to bite.’

      ‘Just nag me.’

      ‘No. Not even nag you. I’m going to ask you, one more time, to take this seriously. To give it your best shot, to see if we can make a go of it. If not for us, then for the girls.’

      He swallowed hard, and looked away. ‘I need to make a call, Jules. There’s something important I forgot to tell Andrea.’

      ‘Is anyone going to die?’

      He looked startled. ‘Of course not.’

      ‘Or be hurt?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘So it doesn’t really matter.’

      ‘It’ll just hold things up a few days until they realise.’

      ‘Realise?’

      ‘There’s a document I was going to get faxed to Yashimoto.’

      ‘And he won’t ask Stephen or Andrea for it?’

      He shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

      ‘So what’s the worst that will happen? You’ll lose a few thousand?’

      ‘Maybe more.’

      ‘Does it matter? I mean, it’s not as if you’re strapped, Max. You don’t ever have to work again if you don’t want to. A few pounds, a few days out of a lifetime, isn’t so much to ask, is it?’

      He turned slowly back to her, his eyes bleak. ‘I thought we had it all. I thought we were happy.’

      ‘We were—but it all just got too much, Max. And I’m not going back to it, so if you can’t do this, can’t learn to delegate and take time out to enjoy your family, then we don’t have a future. And, to have a future, we have to be able to trust each other.’

      He didn’t move for a moment, but then he sighed softly, threw her phone back into her bag and straightened up.

      ‘You’d better show me how to work the washing machine, then, hadn’t you?’ he said with a little twisted smile, and she felt the breath ease out of her lungs.

      ‘It’ll be a pleasure,’ she said, almost giddy with relief, and, leading him into the utility room, she introduced him to the concept of home laundry.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      THE babies were cute.

      Sweet, messy, temperamental and cute. And boring.

      Not when they were awake, but when they were asleep, and Jules was asleep, and the house was so quiet he wanted to scream.

      And it struck him he was the one doing all the adjusting.

      How fair was that? Not fair at all, he thought, simmering, and it hadn’t been his idea that he’d been cut out of their lives.

      So far—thirty-odd hours in—he’d learned to run a bath the right temperature, how to put the washing machine on, how to aim food at a baby’s face, not always successfully, and how not to drink tea. That had been lesson one, and one he was unlikely ever to forget.

      But now, at eleven o’clock at night, when he would usually be working on for at least another three hours, Julia had gone to bed, the babies were settled till the morning and there was nothing to do.

      Nothing on the television, no way of keeping in touch with Yashimoto—who would by then have been back in the office, because he started early—and no way of contacting anyone in New York, where they’d all still be at work.

      He paced around the kitchen, made tea, threw it down the sink, because he’d drunk gallons of the stuff during the day, and contemplated the wine he’d brought back the night before from the pub. He’d only had a couple of glasses, so there was nearly two bottles, but he didn’t drink alone. Dangerous.

      Then he thought of the pub.

      He stepped out of the back door to let Murphy out into the garden, and coincidentally see if the pub lights were on, and realised it was in darkness. Of course it was, he thought in disgust. It was a gastro-pub in the country—a restaurant, really, more than a pub—and they stopped serving at something ridiculous like nine, so he couldn’t even go there and drown his sorrows. And it was so damned quiet!

      Except for that screaming he could hear in the background. He’d heard it a moment ago, and now he was standing outside the French doors he could hear it clearly, a truly blood-curdling noise, and it chilled him to the bone. Murphy’s hackles were up and he was growling softly, so Max called him back inside and shut the door, then went upstairs and knocked on Julia’s bedroom door. She opened it a moment later, wearing pyjamas with cats all over them and rumpled with sleep, and he had to force himself to stick to the point.

      ‘There’s a noise,’ he said without preamble, not letting himself look at the little cats running about all over her body. ‘Screaming. I think someone’s being attacked.’

      She cocked her head on one side, listened, and then smiled. ‘It’s a badger,’ she said. ‘Or a fox. They both scream at night. I’m not sure which is which, but at this time of year I think it’s probably a badger. The foxes make more noise in the spring. Did it wake you?’

      And then she looked at him and sighed. ‘Oh, Max—you haven’t been to bed yet, have you? You ought to sleep. You’re exhausted.’

      ‘I’m not exhausted. I’m never asleep at this time of night.’

      ‘Well, you should be,’ she scolded softly, then went back into her bedroom and emerged again, stuffing her arms into a fluffy robe that hid the cats, to his disappointment. ‘Tea?’

      He didn’t want tea. The last thing he wanted was tea, but he would have drunk neat acid just then to have her company.

      ‘Tea sounds great,’ he said gruffly, and followed her downstairs.

      It couldn’t be easy for him, to be lobbed in at the deep end, and it didn’t get much deeper than twins. He’d never been someone who needed much sleep, and, with nothing to do in the night but think, he must be turning this whole situation over and over in his mind.

      Good, she told herself. Maybe he’d see the error of his ways.

      Or maybe she’d just drive him away.

      ‘Is there any wood on the fire?’ She asked, and he shrugged.

      ‘I СКАЧАТЬ