The Package Deal: Nine Months to Change His Life / From Neighbours...to Newlyweds? / The Bonus Mum

‘I’m not here much.’

‘Social life?’

‘I work.’ He crossed to the kitchen, opened the massive fridge and stared into its interior as if he didn’t know what the contents were but knew he’d find something.

‘Soda? Cheese and crackers? Cold chicken?’

‘I’ve just had lunch. Who fills your refrigerator?’

‘A housekeeping service.’

‘A housekeeper?’

‘It’s a service. More convenient than just the one employee. I don’t need to worry about holidays.’

‘So you don’t even need to know your housekeeper.’

‘They come and go when I’m not here.’

‘That’s awful.’

‘What’s awful about it?’

‘You really are alone.’

‘I don’t need anyone,’ he told her. ‘I like my life.’

‘You need Jake.’

A shadow crossed his face then. How had this woman guessed what was hurting him?

He didn’t want to talk about it but then...this was Mary. Maybe he did.

‘We fight to be independent,’ he told her. ‘But the twin thing makes it harder. When he was hurt in Afghanistan I damned near died myself. And when I didn’t know whether that chopper had made it...it’s not a sensation I’d like to repeat.’

‘So you don’t want to get close to anyone else?’

‘I don’t want the responsibility of loving like that—but I will do the right thing by your baby.’

‘You just said it was our baby.’

‘It is,’ he said, and he sounded strained. ‘So I will do what I can.’

‘I hope he’s grateful.’ She gazed around with distaste. ‘I can tell you one thing, though. If he’s any child of mine, he won’t want to inherit this place.’

Inherit. The word was a biggie. Why had she said it? It took things to a whole new level.

She watched Ben’s face change again.

‘I didn’t mean...’ She spoke too fast, trying to take things back. ‘Ben, I’m not expecting anything, I told you. This baby...if you want, he can be brought up not even knowing he’s your son. Or daughter for that matter. Inheritance is nonsense. We won’t interfere with your life.’

‘You already have interfered.’

‘I shouldn’t have told you?’

‘Of course you should.’ He raked his hair in that gesture she was starting to know. It softened him, she thought. It took away the image of businessman Ben and gave her back the image of Ben in a cave. The Ben she needed to care for.

‘Ben, you like your isolation,’ she said softly. ‘We’re not threatening that. I’ll return to New Zealand and ask nothing of you. If you want, you can set up a trust for this child’s education, but I’ll not raise him expecting anything from you. You can walk away.’

‘I can’t walk away.’

‘But I can,’ she said. ‘And I will. Come Monday. Meanwhile, which of these doors leads to a bedroom I can use?’

‘The bedroom at the end of the hall’s mine. Choose any other. They all have en suites.’

‘Of course.’

‘Mary?

‘Yes?’

‘Have a nap,’ he told her. ‘Then I’ll take you out to dinner.’

‘I’m having a sleep, not a nap,’ she told him. ‘A really long one. I’m jet-lagged like you wouldn’t believe and this pregnancy makes me want to sleep all the time. You can go back to whatever you were doing. You need to be independent and I’m not messing with that. Thank you, Ben, and goodnight.’

* * *

She slept. He headed for his study and stared out over the park.

He needed time to work out all that was inside him.

Maybe it wasn’t possible for him to work it out.

Mary was carrying his child. He was going to be a father.

Coming, ready or not.

The old chant, sung by children for ages past in the game of hide and seek, was suddenly echoing around in his head, almost as a taunt.

A father.

Abortion? The word drifted through his consciousness but when he tried to work out some way he could say it to her, something like a wall rose up.

He couldn’t say it.

He didn’t want to say it.

This would be Mary’s baby and he didn’t want her not to have a child. It was a convoluted thought but it was there as a certainty. And somehow... The time in the cave with her had been time out, like a watershed, where fear had laid all bare. That a child should come of it... It seemed okay.