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

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СКАЧАТЬ with the babies at her feet and looked around.

      Odd, how alien it seemed, and yet how familiar. Nothing had really changed, only her—and she’d changed beyond recognition, apparently, if the blank look on the face of the man who stuck his head round the door was anything to go by.

      ‘Oh—sorry. I was looking for Andrea,’ he said.

      She smiled at the familiar face. ‘Hello, Stephen,’ she said, and he did a mild double-take and stared at her.

      ‘Julia?’

      ‘That’s me,’ she said lightly, wondering whether to be flattered or not, and Stephen gave a startled laugh.

      ‘Well—how are you? I thought—’ He broke off, clearly unsure quite what to say, and for the first time she wondered about the public rather than private impact that her disappearance had had on Max.

      ‘I’ve been busy,’ she said wryly, and he stared at the girls and gave a tiny, choked laugh.

      ‘I can see. Amazing. I had no idea.’

      Nor had Max, but she wasn’t going to discuss their private life with one of his employees, even if he had once been a friend of hers, and one of Max’s most reliable right-hand men.

      The most reliable. ‘So how’s Yashimoto?’

      ‘Stunned. You know Max is selling the company back to him?’

      It was her turn to stare. ‘He is?’

      ‘Yes, apparently. I couldn’t believe it. He’s fought so hard to turn it round, and now he’s just giving it away. Still, it’s in much better shape, and Yashimoto will make a better job of it now with the benefit of Max’s advice, so he’s happy. But it’s Max I can’t fathom. I thought you would have known all about it, since you were so involved with setting up the deal in the first place.’

      She shook her head. ‘Max and I don’t talk about business now.’

      ‘No. Good idea, not taking work home. Doesn’t sound like Max, but babies change you. Did you know we’ve had a little boy?’

      She smiled. ‘No, I didn’t. Congratulations—and make sure you see plenty of him.’

      ‘I will. In the meantime, I’d better go and join this meeting.’

      ‘I think they’re in Max’s office.’

      ‘Cheers. And it’s lovely to see you again.’

      He shut the door and left her there to contemplate the bombshell he’d dropped.

      When had Max decided to sell Yashimoto’s company back to him? Yesterday? Today? Or much earlier, and she just hadn’t known because they hadn’t discussed business at all, as she’d told Stephen?

      She had no idea, but she was puzzled, whatever. Did it mean he was taking her seriously and cutting back on his business interests? Or had it already been in the pipeline? She needed to know, because the difference was crucial. She didn’t want to go thinking that he was making sweeping changes when all the time he’d been following one of his incredible hunches.

      Oh, well. She’d find out later. In the meantime, she had bigger things to worry about, because shortly she was going to see her mother-in-law again, and she was feeling curiously apprehensive.

      She needn’t have worried.

      Linda Gallagher took one look at her with the girls, clapped a hand over her mouth and burst into tears.

      ‘Oh, Julia, my dear girl—oh, my dear, dear, girl!’ And, without another word, she threw her arms around her and hugged her hard.

      Julia blinked away her own tears and hugged her back, and then she was released, and Linda was exclaiming over the babies and crying on Max and hugging him until she thought his ribs would break.

      ‘Come in—come on in, all of you. Richard? Look, it’s Max, and he’s brought Julia and—’

      And she started to cry again.

      ‘Julia?’

      Richard, Linda’s partner, studied her for a moment and then gave a fleeting smile and kissed her cheek. ‘It’s good to see you again. And you’ve been busy.’

      ‘A little,’ she said wryly. ‘I’m sorry to drop such a bombshell on you. It seems to be a day for them.’

      Because Max had only decided to sell back to Yashimoto this morning, she’d found out. So he was taking her seriously, and going to huge lengths to change things.

      Max took charge of the babies, tucking one under each arm and heading into the house with his mother fussing, clucking and mopping up her tears, and Richard helped her take the seats out of the car and into the house so the girls could sit in them to have their lunch.

      ‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ he said quietly as he closed the front door. ‘Linda’s really missed you, and Max has been—well—difficult doesn’t even scratch the surface.’

      She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry.’

      ‘No. Don’t worry about me. But Linda probably deserves an explanation, when you can give her one, and—it’s between you and Max, really, I guess. But it’s great to see you again, and to see him smiling. And a father. That’s not something we thought we’d ever see.’

      ‘No. None of us thought that.’

      Well, not as long as he was with her, at least, what with her medical problems. But apparently miracles did happen, and she had two of them.

      Three, if Max turning his life around was to be believed. She still wasn’t sure he was, but time would tell.

      In the meantime, she followed Richard into the sitting room and found Linda on the floor with her back to the sofa, and Libby crawling busily over her while Ava headed for the plant stand in the corner.

      ‘I don’t think so,’ she said, disengaging her fingers from the fine mahogany legs of the stand before she pulled it over on herself. ‘You need to be put in the stocks, young lady. Come and say hello to your grandmother.’

      And, turning her round, she dangled her across the room by her fingers, while her little legs tried valiantly to keep up.

      ‘She’s going to walk early,’ Linda said, shaking her head. ‘Just like Max. He was a nightmare. And she won’t be far behind,’ she added, grabbing Libby, who was climbing up her front and trying to get on the sofa. ‘How on earth do you keep up with them?’

      She gave a tired laugh. ‘Oh, I have no idea. It’s getting worse by the day. I thought when they were in ITU and I’d just had my C-section that it couldn’t get any worse—’

      ‘You had a C-section?’

      Max’s face was shocked, and she realised she hadn’t actually told him anything about their birth.

      ‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘I had to. The adhesions were too СКАЧАТЬ