The Baby Verdict by Cathy Williams

for a drink?’ He handed her a glass of something long and cold, and she took it from him quickly with a bright, ‘Thanks.’
    â€˜What are you doing here?’ she repeated, in a more normal voice. ‘I thought you said that you weren’t going to be coming.’
    â€˜Did I?’ He looked at her with an expression of amazement. ‘You must have misunderstood. I said that I might not be able to come over for the full time, but as you can see...’ he sipped his drink, and, disturbingly because it threatened a longer stay than she wanted, sat down on the edge of her towel, so that she had to make a few imperceptible adjustments to further the distance between them ‘...I managed to make it over.’
    â€˜So I see,’ Jessica mumbled.
    â€˜Call me a fool, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of seeing you without your handy working-woman face on. Efficient cool lawyer by day, efficient cool lawyer by night—didn’t make sense. So I rearranged my affairs to see if I could catch a rare glimpse of the only occasionally spotted Jessica Stearn—woman.’ He chuckled, thoroughly amused at his wit, and she refused to indulge him by responding.
    â€˜Sometimes I wonder how you manage to be so successful,’ she said tartly, ‘when bird-spotting is such a great pastime of yours.’
    â€˜I don’t think I said that. Quite.’ He shot her a dark, outrageously flirtations look and grinned. ‘Only one species in particular.’
    Unable to find a suitable response to that, Jessica resorted to a look of complete disdain, which made him grin even more.
    â€˜What do you think of it?’
    â€˜Fine. It’s your house, after all.’
    â€˜No,’ he said softly into her ear, which made her shift over a bit more in alarm, ‘I meant what do you think of the place, not what do you think about my being here.’
    â€˜Oh.’ She turned to look at him, and before she knew what was happening he reached out and removed her sunglasses in one neat movement.
    â€˜Could you please return those?’ she asked, opening her hand.
    â€˜I dislike talking to people when they’re hiding behind dark glasses.’
    â€˜I. Am. Not. Hiding. Behind. Anything,’ Jessica said stiffly, thoroughly unnerved, which of course had been his intention as she well knew. ‘The glare from the sun makes my eyes water.’
    â€˜Rubbish.’ He stretched out on the towel next to her, and out of the corner of her eye she could see a few curious looks coming their way. Mary and Elizabeth had both stopped reading their books—what a coincidence—and were staring across in their direction, attempting to look as though they were admiring the general scenery.
    â€˜You are going to start rumours,’ Jessica told him in a low, furious voice. He had shoved the sunglasses behind him, firmly out of reach.
    â€˜What kind of rumours?’
    â€˜Rumours...that...that...’ She spluttered into silence, and he gave her a slow, lazy smile.
    â€˜I’m merely sitting down to have a chat with one of my employees.’
    Jessica ground her teeth together in sheer frustration.
    â€˜So...what do you think of this little slice of paradise?’ He lay down with his hands behind his head, and her eyes reluctantly followed the long, athletic lines of his body.
    â€˜It’s beautiful. You’re very lucky to have this as a bolt-hole. Do you come here often?’
    â€˜When I need to unwind.’
    â€˜Good. Well.’ Making her mind up, she stood up and he promptly yanked her back down in such a smooth, unhurried gesture that she half toppled onto him, but managed to straighten herself with the speed of light.
    â€˜Not so fast. I’m enjoying our little conversation.’
    â€˜Glad one of us is,’ Jessica muttered indignantly.
    â€˜And so are you. Why pretend? You might want to scurry away like a terrified