Mother and baby are doing fine.’
‘That’s grand news, love.’
It was. And Alex had rained on her parade. He didn’t deserve her smiles.
Frank gestured to the tools. ‘Good to see you haven’t wasted any time. What’s the plan?’
Alex told him because it was easier than following Kit into the house and dealing with the reproachful silence she’d subjected him to in the car.
He’d deserved it, he knew that, but he didn’t know how to put things right. It’d be better for all concerned if she just kept thinking of him as some kind of unfeeling monster.
He battled the scowl building up inside him and told Frank how he meant to replace the joists and wall studs in the living room wall after he’d fixed the broken tiles on the roof, and then how he was going to re-plaster the wall and paint the house.
‘If you need a hand…’
Frank’s eager face finally burned itself into his brain. Frank wanted to help, was dying to be useful, and Alex didn’t have the heart to rain on another person’s parade today. ‘You wouldn’t happen to be handy with a sander by any chance, would you?’
‘I would be.’
Alex clapped the older man on the shoulder. ‘Then you’re hired. A second pair of hands will be a godsend.’
Frank beamed at him and Alex found he could still smile. After a fashion.
CHAPTER EIGHT
K IT and Alex spent the next week working on their individual projects. Because there was so much dust and noise from the work Alex was doing in the living-dining area, Kit had set up a temporary office in one corner of her bedroom—a card table, her laptop and a file that was over a foot thick that had been couriered from Sydney.
Alex always broke off at lunchtime to make sure she ate. And that Frank ate too, if the older man was helping and hadn’t already left for one of his tri-weekly swims that Doreen insisted he keep up. ‘Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, lovey. Doctor’s orders.’
Kit had the distinct impression that some days Frank was more of a hindrance than a help. His pleasure at being of use, though, touched her. So did Alex’s patience with him.
It was a side she hadn’t seen to Alex before. As the multi-millionaire executive in Sydney, Alex had been demanding, dictatorial and, at times, difficult. He paid his executives top dollar and as a result he expected them to be on the ball—no excuses. But this Alex, the builder-tradesman working on her house in Tuncurry, he was more laid-back, more relaxed. More human.
He made her heart beat harder too.
Nonsense! Don’t rhapsodise.
It was just…if Alex could be this good with an eager elderly gentleman, then wouldn’t he be great with a child?
The thought hitched her breath, made her stomach churn and her fingers tremble. She pushed away from the card table to pace. She’d been lucky thus far in her pregnancy—she hadn’t suffered much from nausea. But whenever she thought of Alex’s reaction during her scan, her stomach rebelled and bile rose in her throat.
He had become so dark !
She paused in her pacing to pull both hands back through her hair. She couldn’t deny it. She wanted a father for her baby. Even a part-time father was better than no father at all. Before she’d found out about Chad, she’d thought Alex the lowest of low lifes. But now she knew he would never hurt their baby the way her father had hurt her.
She remembered all the nights as a child when she’d lain awake yearning for a father, the joy when he’d finally become a part of her life. The devastation when she’d found out how little she’d really meant to him.
Chad had meant the world to Alex. It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out. Couldn’t this baby mean the world to him too?
She swung away, hands clenched. It wasn’t fair that her baby— their baby—be forced to suffer because of another’s crimes. What was really holding Alex back from embracing fatherhood a second time? Did he think history would repeat itself?
She
‘That’s grand news, love.’
It was. And Alex had rained on her parade. He didn’t deserve her smiles.
Frank gestured to the tools. ‘Good to see you haven’t wasted any time. What’s the plan?’
Alex told him because it was easier than following Kit into the house and dealing with the reproachful silence she’d subjected him to in the car.
He’d deserved it, he knew that, but he didn’t know how to put things right. It’d be better for all concerned if she just kept thinking of him as some kind of unfeeling monster.
He battled the scowl building up inside him and told Frank how he meant to replace the joists and wall studs in the living room wall after he’d fixed the broken tiles on the roof, and then how he was going to re-plaster the wall and paint the house.
‘If you need a hand…’
Frank’s eager face finally burned itself into his brain. Frank wanted to help, was dying to be useful, and Alex didn’t have the heart to rain on another person’s parade today. ‘You wouldn’t happen to be handy with a sander by any chance, would you?’
‘I would be.’
Alex clapped the older man on the shoulder. ‘Then you’re hired. A second pair of hands will be a godsend.’
Frank beamed at him and Alex found he could still smile. After a fashion.
CHAPTER EIGHT
K IT and Alex spent the next week working on their individual projects. Because there was so much dust and noise from the work Alex was doing in the living-dining area, Kit had set up a temporary office in one corner of her bedroom—a card table, her laptop and a file that was over a foot thick that had been couriered from Sydney.
Alex always broke off at lunchtime to make sure she ate. And that Frank ate too, if the older man was helping and hadn’t already left for one of his tri-weekly swims that Doreen insisted he keep up. ‘Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, lovey. Doctor’s orders.’
Kit had the distinct impression that some days Frank was more of a hindrance than a help. His pleasure at being of use, though, touched her. So did Alex’s patience with him.
It was a side she hadn’t seen to Alex before. As the multi-millionaire executive in Sydney, Alex had been demanding, dictatorial and, at times, difficult. He paid his executives top dollar and as a result he expected them to be on the ball—no excuses. But this Alex, the builder-tradesman working on her house in Tuncurry, he was more laid-back, more relaxed. More human.
He made her heart beat harder too.
Nonsense! Don’t rhapsodise.
It was just…if Alex could be this good with an eager elderly gentleman, then wouldn’t he be great with a child?
The thought hitched her breath, made her stomach churn and her fingers tremble. She pushed away from the card table to pace. She’d been lucky thus far in her pregnancy—she hadn’t suffered much from nausea. But whenever she thought of Alex’s reaction during her scan, her stomach rebelled and bile rose in her throat.
He had become so dark !
She paused in her pacing to pull both hands back through her hair. She couldn’t deny it. She wanted a father for her baby. Even a part-time father was better than no father at all. Before she’d found out about Chad, she’d thought Alex the lowest of low lifes. But now she knew he would never hurt their baby the way her father had hurt her.
She remembered all the nights as a child when she’d lain awake yearning for a father, the joy when he’d finally become a part of her life. The devastation when she’d found out how little she’d really meant to him.
Chad had meant the world to Alex. It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out. Couldn’t this baby mean the world to him too?
She swung away, hands clenched. It wasn’t fair that her baby— their baby—be forced to suffer because of another’s crimes. What was really holding Alex back from embracing fatherhood a second time? Did he think history would repeat itself?
She
Similar Books
