Baby on Board: Secret Baby, Surprise Parents / Her Baby Wish / Keeping Her Baby's Secret

‘Two?’

‘A red velvet cupcake is supposed to be irresistible,’ she said.

‘Got it,’ he murmured, finally getting to his feet. Then, as he made a move, she put her hand on his arm, detaining him. ‘Thanks for the shoulder.’

‘Any time,’ he said, covering her hand with his own, kissing her cheek, going for an Oscar. ‘Anything.’ Then, touching his finger to Posie’s cheek. ‘Bye, baby. Be good for Grace.’

Then, gathering the packages from her desk, he headed for the door, where Josh was blocking his way.

‘Makepeace,’ Josh said, his acknowledgement curt to the point of rudeness.

‘Kingsley,’ he responded mildly. ‘I was sorry to hear about your brother. I liked him a lot.’ The mildness was deceptive. If he’d actually said, ‘Unlike you…’he couldn’t have made himself plainer. ‘We missed you at his funeral.’

Josh said nothing, merely stepped aside to let him out, then closed the door after him and slipped the catch.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘I’M EXPECTING someone,’ Grace protested.

‘Whoever it is will knock,’ Josh replied, crossing to the coffee pot. He turned over a couple of cups, opened the fridge. ‘There’s no milk. Shall I call back your gallant and ask him to bring you a carton?’

Gallant.

It was marginally better than ‘lovelorn swain’, she supposed. But only marginally.

‘Don’t bother for me,’ she said, and he poured two cups of black coffee and placed them on the low table set in front of the sofa.

‘You were a lot longer than I expected,’ she said, glancing up at him as Posie spit out the teat, with a finality that suggested that any further attempt to persuade her to take any more would be a waste of time. ‘What took you so long?’

‘There was a lot to go through, but clearly I needn’t have worried that you’d be lonely.’

Feeling trapped on the sofa, Grace got up, lifted the baby to her shoulder and, gently rubbing her back, began to pace.

‘I didn’t realise you and Toby Makepeace were still a hot item.’

Hot?

Hardly…

‘When Toby saw the light, he came over to see if there was anything he could do, Josh. It’s what friends do.’

‘Yes, I got the “any time, anything” message. Including the shoulder to cry on,’ he said, as she turned and came face to face with him. ‘You’ll forgive my surprise. I had assumed you were, momentarily, unattached.’

He invested ‘momentarily’ with more than its usual weight, bringing a flush to her wet cheeks, drawing quite unnecessary attention to them.

Josh produced a clean handkerchief and, taking her chin in his hand, he gently blotted first her eyes, then her cheeks, before unbuttoning one of the pockets on her thin silk shirt and tucking it against her breast.

She opened her mouth but no words came and she closed it again. Then jumped as he carefully refastened the buttons she had slipped open for Posie, her entire body trembling as the warmth of his fingers shot like an electric charge to her heart.

‘Don’t…’ was all she could manage. ‘Please.’

It was too painful. Too sweet…

He let his hands drop, stepping away from her, and it took all she had not to scream out a desperate, No…, because that felt wrong, too.

‘In view of the fact that you were carrying a baby for Phoebe,’ he continued calmly, as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn’t just touched her, switching her on as easily as if he’d flipped a light switch, undoing, in a moment, ten years of keeping all her feelings battened down.

She stared at him, uncomprehending, having entirely lost the thread of what he was saying.

‘I don’t imagine there are many men who could handle that. Not even Toby Makepeace.’

Toby. The surrogacy…

Got it.

‘Actually, you might be surprised. There are surrogates who, having completed their own families, want to help childless couples achieve their own dreams. They’re fully supported by their partners.’

She’d done her homework, knew the answers without having to think.

‘And is that what your friend Makepeace did? Support you?’

‘Friend’ was loaded, too.

Okay. Hands up. She was the one who’d gone out of her way to give Josh the impression, over the years, that she had a continuous string of boyfriends. Not that he’d taken much interest on his flying visits.

It was as if, after their one night together, he’d totally wiped her from his mind. As if the minute their relationship had changed from friendship to intimacy she’d become just like any other girl he’d ever dated.

Just like the girls she’d once almost pitied because she’d always known he was going to leave the minute he had his degree in his pocket.

Dispensable.

Which made it doubly surprising that he’d remembered Toby’s name. They’d only met once as far as she was aware.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘on the plus side, he didn’t arrive in the middle of the night like some avenging angel, demanding that I stop being such a fool. Does that answer your question?’ Then, tired of playing games, ‘I have no idea how Toby felt about Posie, Josh. I didn’t discuss what I was doing with him. It was none of his business.’

‘That’s pretty much what you said to me a year ago.’

‘I didn’t know…’

Her mouth dried and, suddenly afraid, she held Posie a little more tightly because it had everything to do with him. Maybe, then, if she hadn’t responded with outraged anger, but had taken the time to sit down, listen, he might, despite his sworn promise to Michael, have told her the truth.

‘You should have told me.’

‘What would that have achieved? You were already pregnant.’ Then, ‘You’re quite sure that Posie is mine?’

‘What?’ That was so far from what she’d been thinking that Grace took an involuntary step back, stumbling against one of the chairs at the work table.

As Posie let out a startled cry, Josh reached out for her and steadied her, then laid his palm against Posie’s head, calming her, giving Grace a chance to catch her breath.