He shook his head. ‘How can I? My apartment isn’t exactly set up for kids. I can just see the boys falling over the railings off the deck and the baby drowning in the hot tub.’
‘It’ll be a while before she can get in it,’ Georgie pointed out, and he gave her a strained smile.
‘I know, but you know what I mean. They can’t live there, it’s not the right environment for children, and Mum’s cottage is far too small. We’ll need a house that’s big enough for Mum and the kids and a nanny, that will give Mum a studio for her art and room for me to come and stay at weekends.’
In London, she realised. One of the nicer residential areas, close enough to commute to his office, far enough out to be civilised. And with him light-years from being the bachelor playboy she’d fallen for so hard and so fast. Still, he’d be safely out of the way, and she’d get over him in time, she thought, and then he dropped the bombshell.
‘In fact, it occurred to me that I’ve already got one, if we can change things yet again.’
Georgie followed his eyes, looking through the window to the big house sitting just a hundred yards away, and her heart lurched.
‘Here?’ she said incredulously.
‘Why not? It’s a fabulous house, it’s in a lovely setting, it’s near to my mother’s friends—what could be better?’
You somewhere else, miles away, not right here under my nose tearing my heart out with those beautiful little children until you get bored with me and move on—
‘Nothing,’ she said, honesty forcing her to admit the truth. ‘It’s perfect.’
And she’d just have to keep her heart firmly under control.
CHAPTER SIX
‘HOW soon can you do it?’
Georgie shrugged. ‘Three weeks?’
‘One? It doesn’t have to be finished—just enough to get us moved in. All we need at first is a kitchen and a bathroom and the main rooms—sitting room, three or four bedrooms?’
One week? He was crazy. She took a sip of her wine, stared down at the plans again and made a few pencilled annotations.
Her father had gone to bed, the children had been tucked up hours ago after eating the chicken Stroganoff that Nick had sanctioned, and they were hunched over the plans on the kitchen table and trying to get a workable solution for his complex needs. And boy, were they complex!
She’d learned a little more about the accident, as well. The car had been hit in the side by a vehicle coming out of a side-turning without looking, and both the driver and Lucie had been killed instantly. The boys and the baby had escaped miraculously without injury, but as well as a badly bruised breast-bone, Nick’s mother’s lower right leg had been shattered and she had a fixator on it, a metal frame on the outside holding the bones in place. Even thinking about it made Georgie feel queasy. Nick told her it would be another week before she was able to leave hospital, and then she’d need a place to go where she could have a bathroom and bedroom on the ground floor so she could get about on crutches.
And that was possible now, with the plans as they were, but if the entire house was to be turned back into one unit and adapted for their future needs, then the bathroom that was in the process of being installed would need to be moved to another room. It was so easy on the computer—just click on it, and drag and drop, but try telling the plumber that!
‘Georgie?’
She looked up from the plans into his sad, exhausted eyes and pushed herself away from the table.
‘I’ll do what I can. Come on, you’re done in. You need to get to bed. I’ve put you in the spare room where you were before.’
‘What about the baby?’
‘I’ve got her in with me, just for tonight.’
‘Georgie, that’s not fair—’
‘Nick, none of this is fair, but you’re wiped and this could go on for ages. You need your sleep, so you might as well have one decent night.’
He opened his mouth as if to argue, shut it again and pulled her into his arms.
‘Thank you,’ he mumbled into her hair. ‘I’ve missed you.’
‘I’ve missed you, too. I thought you were ignoring my calls because you’d gone off me.’
He laughed and hugged her tighter. ‘Not a chance. I’m sorry. I wish I’d rung you now, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. Anyway, it won’t be like this for long. Once I get a new nanny sorted in the morning and the house is up and running, I should be able to get back to normal. I’m going to have to be more involved in their lives than I have been, but I’m sure we’ll all cope.’
He made it sound so easy. So do-able. She hugged him back, snuggling against his chest and wishing they could spend the night together, but with the children in the house it didn’t seem right.
Still, as he’d said, it wouldn’t be long. He’d have a nanny in the next couple of days, and then they could get back to normal.
‘What do you mean, you haven’t got anyone? You must have!’
He listened to the reasonable explanations of the woman at the nanny agency, then hung up with a growl and tried another one. Same story. Nobody suitable.
He rang Tory. ‘Find me a nanny,’ he barked, and after a pointed silence he added, ‘please.’
‘I’ll do what I can. How are things?’
Frustrating. ‘Fine,’ he lied. ‘Georgie’s going to try and have the house sorted in the next few days. In the meantime I don’t know what to do. We spent last night with her and her father, but we can’t impose on them again, and the cottage…’
‘Is full of Lucie’s things,’ Tory finished gently.
He swallowed hard. ‘Silly, isn’t it? Maybe we should just check into a hotel.’
He heard a noise behind him and turned, to find Georgie standing there in the doorway. He smiled at her and held up his hand to stop her going away. ‘Tory, if you could just sort the nanny thing for me that would be great. Any time in the next half-hour will do.’
‘You have no idea how big a Christmas bonus you’re going to give me,’ she said, but there was a smile in her voice and he laughed softly as she put the phone down on him. He turned back to Georgie, the smile still hovering, but she was biting her lip in that way she had when things were troubling her, and he gave up with the smile and held out his hand to her.
‘What is it?’
She went over, letting him pull her up against his side. ‘You don’t have to go to a hotel,’ she said. ‘You can all stay here. There’s tons of room, and Dad’s really enjoying having the children around.’
He tipped his head back and studied her face searchingly. ‘What about you? Are you enjoying having them around?’
She shrugged. ‘What about me? I’m busy at work. It doesn’t matter about me.’
‘So you don’t want them here.’
‘I didn’t say that,’ she protested, pulling away, and he let her go and stood up and followed her out of the kitchen and into George’s office by the front door. He wasn’t letting this one drop.
‘It’s what you meant.’
‘No.’
He wasn’t convinced, but he changed the subject—for now. ‘Were you coming to see me about something?’
‘Mmm—the house. I’ve done some plans—want to see?’
He nodded, and she pulled out a chair for him at the desk, bringing up the plans on the computer and pointing to the changes.
‘If we move the bathroom to here, and put a doorway here into this bit, these could be your mother’s permanent rooms. If we gave her this room as her sitting room, she could have access to the conservatory when we rebuild it…’
Why couldn’t he concentrate? This was important—vital, in fact—but somehow it couldn’t compete with the fresh citrus smell of shampoo drifting from her hair and the way her lips moved as she was talking, the quick little darts of her hand as she pointed things out to him.
‘So what do you think? Does she need her own kitchen?’
He sucked in a deep breath, ignored the fresh wave of citrus
that assailed his senses and stared at the plans. ‘Run it by me again?’
He couldn’t get a nanny. He’d been on the phone all day trying to sort it out, and every time she’d tried to ring him to ask for his input, his phone had been engaged. Tory had been driven insane by him, Georgie was sure, but still there was no nanny in the pipeline, and the business was beginning to clamour for his attention.
He was getting desperate, she could see. He came off the phone to Tory yet again and threw his mobile on the desk in disgust, just as she came through to her father’s office with a cup of tea for him.
‘Problems?’
‘Georgie, I’ve got to get back to London. The business will be going down the tubes.’
‘Can’t Tory keep you in touch?’
He sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair for the umpteenth time. ‘She is—well, she’s trying, but it’s impossible without appropriate internet connections.’
Her heart was howling in protest, her head was busy saying no as loud as it could, but her mouth seemed to have a mind of its own.
‘We’ve got broadband. Go down to London, get whatever computer stuff you need, I’ll clear you a space in the office and you can get yourself back here by the morning and sort it out.’
‘What about the kids?’
Oh, hell. She was getting sucked in deeper and deeper, but what else could she do? ‘I’ll look after them,’ she told him. ‘Just so long as you really have torn up that penalty clause.’
He grinned and hugged her. ‘Absolutely. No penalty clause—and I’ll be back first thing. If you’re really sure?’
‘I’m sure. Go on, say goodbye to the kids and get yourself back here as soon as you reasonably can.’
‘I will. With a nanny, if possible.’
‘I won’t hold my breath,’ she said drily, and wondered what on earth she was doing…
He came back at seven the next morning, but there was still no nanny. Nevertheless she left the children with him with a clear conscience, went to the site and made herself a cup of tea before settling down in front of her desk and studying her list of queries.
The plumber was going to walk off site, she thought, and good for him. She felt like doing it herself, because she knew perfectly well that if she stayed she’d become massively involved with the whole family. Her father already adored the children, he thought the world of Nick, and all Georgie could think of was Martin and how he’d returned the children to their mother and walked away from her without a backward glance.
Not that she’d cared about him, not really. She’d grown up a lot during the course of their relationship, realised he was only using her, but she’d thought she had the children, couldn’t have loved them more if they’d been her own, and she could see it happening all over again.
Not handing them back to their mother, of course, because tragically that would never be an option, but loving them would be so easy. Was so easy. The boys were gorgeous, and holding the baby just seemed so right, so natural, that at times she was almost surprised that she couldn’t breast-feed her. Bizarre. And much, much too dangerous for her heart.
She stared at her list and sighed. First step was to find the plumber and break the good news…
It was a miracle! Tory had found him a nanny—a tall, pretty Swedish girl called Una, with a stunning figure and hair to die for. Under any other circumstances Georgie would have hated her on sight, but she greeted her arrival with a huge sigh of relief, changed the sheets on her bed and relinquished it and the baby without a qualm.
Well, almost. The bed Una was welcome to. The baby was different, and when she woke in the night Georgie woke too, listening to Una’s gentle murmurings and the baby’s quiet grizzling until her bottle was prepared.
Then silence, and Georgie gave up her vigil at the top of the attic stairs and tiptoed back to bed, calling herself an idiot. Una was perfectly capable of looking after the baby—much more capable, in fact, than Georgie herself, and she didn’t need watching over like a rookie plasterer let loose on a ballroom ceiling!
She curled up in bed, pulled the sheets over her head and ignored the cries when they started. Una could cope. Una would be fine. Una didn’t need her help…
‘Can I do anything?’
Una looked up from her seat in the middle of the sofa and smiled bravely. ‘I can manage,’ she said, but Maya was protesting, and Georgie’s arms ached.
‘Let me try. Sometimes she just needs a little jiggle to bring up her wind.’
And, resting the baby over her shoulder as if she’d been doing it for years, Georgie walked slowly up and down the floor, jiggling gently, until at last the baby burped, sighed and snuggled against her, tiny face rooting against her neck. ‘Here,’ she said, handing the baby back. ‘She’ll be fine now.’
And she trudged resolutely up the stairs, ignoring the faint whimpering from behind her. She turned the corner to the attic stairs and found Harry sitting on the bottom step, his eyes wet.
‘Hey, sport,’ she said softly, and sat beside him. ‘You OK?’
‘I had a dream. We were in the car, and there was a great big bang, and when I woke up the baby was crying. It was horrid.’
Oh, poor lamb. How on earth could he deal with this?
There was another wail from Maya, and Harry sighed. ‘She needs her mummy,’ he said, and Georgie knew he wasn’t just talking about the baby, but about all of them.
She slipped her arm around his skinny little shoulders and hugged him gently. ‘Want to sleep with me tonight?’
He nodded, and, taking his hand, she led him up to the attic room she was using, climbed into bed and held up the covers for him to slip in beside her. He snuggled into her arms, and gradually the tension left his little body and he relaxed into sleep.
Georgie didn’t. She listened for Maya and Dickon, and she watched over Harry, until the dawn broke in the sky outside her bedroom window and the demons of the night were driven away. Then, and only then, did she allow herself to sleep.
Nick was beside himself.
There was no sign of Harry, and in desperation he ran up to Georgie to ask if she’d seen him, and found them curled up together in her bed, sound asleep. Weak with relief, he sagged against the wall and watched them sleep, while his heart slowed and his breathing returned to normal.
This was crazy. The sooner his mother was out of hospital and able to cope with Una’s help, the sooner he could get back to London and start living a normal life, because this was doing his head in. It was so long since he’d had to take responsibility for anyone or anything other than himself and his own affairs that he’d forgotten how—if he’d ever known.
He thought it unlikely that he had. And what he knew about raising children could be written on the head of a pin.
In capitals.
He sighed, scrubbed his hand through his hair and looked up to find Georgie’s eyes on him.
‘Morning,’ she murmured, and he had an insane urge to pick Harry up and return him to his own bed and take his place there with Georgie. Her face was flushed and her eyes were soft with sleep, and she looked unutterably lovely and unbelievably sexy.
He went over to the bed, resisted the urge to pick Harry up and evict him, and bent over, dropping a soft, lingering kiss on her lips.
‘Morning,’ he murmured back. ‘That looks really inviting.’
She smiled, her eyes smoky and incredibly tempting, and he backed away before he did anything stupid.
‘I’d invite you to join in, but I think three might be a crowd.’
‘I think so,’ he replied, his voice sounding a little strangled to his desperate ears, and he headed for the door. ‘I’ll put the kettle on—make you a cup of tea.’
‘Thanks. I’ll be down in a minute.’
He escaped without disgracing himself, retrieved a dressing gown to give his irrepressible libido another layer of camouflage and went down to the kitchen, to find George in there with the kettle in his hand.
&n
bsp; ‘Everyone all right?’
‘Mmm. Harry must have woken in the night. He’s in bed with Georgie.’
‘Is he indeed?’ George murmured softly. ‘I didn’t think it would take long. She protests a lot, but she loves kids. She got hurt last time, though, and it’s made her wary.’
‘Last time?’
George sent him a searching look. ‘She not told you about Jessica and Emily? Martin’s two?’
Martin. That was the name of her boss, if he remembered correctly. What was it she’d said about him? He’d had marital problems and brought them to her—them, meaning his girls?
‘Not in detail,’ he said, bending the truth for the sake of extracting more information from George.
‘Ah, well, you’d better have it from her. Suffice to say when it all ended it broke her heart, purely on account of the children. Nothing to do with him, I don’t think. He was a louse, and she was far too good for him, and I think she realised it by the end. I was glad to see the back of him, but I miss the girls. It’s nice to have children in the house again, even if it is just for a short while.’
‘Hopefully,’ he agreed. ‘Georgie’s doing a fantastic job with the house. I don’t think it’ll be many days now. The carpets are due to go down tomorrow, I think, and the new bathroom’s underway. Another two days and it can be done, and then we could move in.’
‘You don’t have to be in such a hurry, you know,’ George said quietly. ‘If you need another few days…’
‘Thanks, but my mother’s due to come out of hospital after the weekend and I think we need to get her settled straight away. I’ll have to go over to the cottage and get some of her things, and I need to get more stuff for the children.’
Did his reluctance show, or was George just very perceptive? Whatever, he said, ‘Why don’t you go over with Georgie one evening and sort it out? You could get everything ready and then get a firm to pick it up.’
‘What about the children?’ he said. ‘I don’t want to upset them—all their mother’s things are there, and I don’t feel ready to deal with it.’
‘Leave them here. Between me and Una, we can cope.’
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