An Unexpected Proposal

by Amy Andrews

  She smiled. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘That’s enough for now.’

  She dropped her legs down to the ground and walked into his arms. He opened his mouth to talk to her and she silenced him with a deep lingering kiss. ‘Don’t say anything, just take me inside and make love to me,’ she said softly.

  Marcus swung her up wordlessly and strode into the lounge, and was making his way to the bedroom when there was a knock at the door. They both stopped and looked at each other, puzzled. It was eleven o’clock at night.

  ‘You expecting anyone?’ he asked.

  Hardly. It was his place after all. She giggled. ‘No.’

  He sighed and turned around, carrying her to the door.

  She laughed some more and wiggled her legs. ‘Put me down.’

  ‘No way, he said. ‘I’m not ever letting you go.’

  Madeline forgot her embarrassment and clung to him, buoyed by his statement.

  ‘Open the door,’ he told her. ‘My hands are full.’

  She giggled again and opened the door for him. It swung open and Madeline saw a pretty blonde woman standing there, a suitcase at her feet.

  ‘Who the hell is she?’ the woman asked Marcus, glaring at Madeline.

  Marcus dropped Madeline on her feet quickly, keeping his arm around her waist, not able to believe his eyes.

  Madeline didn’t know who the woman was but she saw the possessive gleam in her eyes and wanted to roar, ‘Back off,’ in her most demonic voice. ‘Who the hell are you?’ she demanded in return, not caring that her shirt barely covered the tops of her thighs and the button holding the two sides together didn’t cover very much either.

  ‘I’m Marcus’s wife,’ the woman said haughtily.

  ‘Ex-wife,’ said Marcus firmly, finding his voice.

  So, this was Tabitha? She was a pretty little thing. Killer body. Madeline felt ill.

  ‘What do you want, Tab?’ he asked, not quite able to believe that she had followed him all the way to Queensland and had chosen this particular moment to announce herself.

  ‘I’m pregnant,’ she said, placing her hand protectively on her flat stomach. ‘It’s yours.’

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘THIS mobile is switched off or not in a service area.’

  Marcus left another message and pushed the end button on his phone in frustration. He lay on the couch, staring at the darkened ceiling. Damn Tabitha, damn her. A baby? His baby? Jesus! He felt an awful sense of déjà vu and quelled his rising panic.

  The scene played over and over in his head. Tabitha dropping her bombshell. Him standing there completely speechless.

  Maddy looking at him for clarity. For denial. And when he continued to look like a stunned mullet, gathering her stuff and leaving with dignity and grace. And him realising in that moment, as she’d walked out of his door, the awful truth.

  He loved Madeline Harrington. Had it only been hours ago that she had told him she was falling for him? It seemed like a year. And it seemed like he had gone one better. He wasn’t just falling, he had fallen—all the way. Hard. Why had it taken Tabitha walking into his apartment and Maddy walking out of it to finally get it? He loved her. In seven weeks he had gone from being hopelessly intrigued to helplessly in love.

  Sure, he had loved Tabitha, about a million years ago now in a weird kind of fashion. But what he felt for Maddy bore no resemblance to his long-ago feelings for his ex-wife. He wasn’t a kid playing at grown-ups, as he had with Tab. He was a grown-up, with a grown-up love so deep and so enormous it had caught him unawares. He couldn’t think how his life was going to be without Madeline. He just couldn’t contemplate it.

  Yes, things were really complicated right now with Tab and the baby, but he had to make it work, he just had to. There had to be a way to be a father to the baby and keep Maddy as well. It had taken him till he was thirty-five to finally fall in love and he wasn’t going to lose it now.

  He unlocked his phone keypad again and decided to send her a text. He tapped out the words I love you and then hesitated and deleted them. Why would she believe him now? His one chance to tell her had come and gone. It would just seem like a desperate move by a cornered male. He would tell her, but he was going to do it face to face. So she could look into his face and see his love. So she would know.

  He tapped out Ring me and hit the send button. He wanted to hurl the ominously silent phone across the room. He wanted to go and get Tabitha out of his bed, put her on a plane and never see her again. He wanted to go back in time and erase that one thoughtless act.

  He cursed himself for his own stupidity as he thought back to that day. He had called round to see her to say goodbye on the eve of his departure to Queensland. They’d chatted and she told him about her split from Tony a few weeks previously and he remembered being surprised because he’d really thought she and Tony belonged together. They’d had a beer and a laugh and it had been like old times. Good times. He’d remembered what he had seen in her all those years ago.

  And she had kissed him and looked at him with those big eyes and said she couldn’t believe he was truly leaving and it was like they were saying their final goodbyes. Finally bringing a close to their relationship. And they’d both been single and it had seemed fitting somehow. But it hadn’t seemed so fitting the next morning and they’d both agreed it had been a little foolish.

  But their indiscretion had come back to haunt them well and truly. Maddy had looked at him with questioning eyes and the denial that had sprung to his lips had died an instant death. How could he be sure it wasn’t his? His mind had crowded with questions as he’d stood mutely trying to comprehend Tab’s news.

  And then Maddy had left and the enormity of what he’d lost had hit him. Tabitha had tried to talk to him but despite the hundreds of question crowding his mind, Marcus had been so angry he’d known he couldn’t get into it with her tonight. Angry at himself—that a moment of weakness and stupidity had hurt Maddy. Hurt the woman he loved.

  ‘It’s late, Tab. We’ll discuss it in the morning. Have my bed.’ He had gone to the linen cupboard pulled out clean sheets, thrust them at her, taken a pillow down for himself and stormed off to the couch, flicking off the light switch as he passed.

  And here he lay, his pregnant ex-wife in his bed and the woman he loved gone, refusing to take his calls. He felt impotent and furious at himself and Tabitha for the position they were now in.

  He looked at the time on his mobile. Two a.m. He rolled on his side and punched his pillow, squeezing his eyes shut as the heat of his anger burned in his chest. He really needed to get some sleep—tomorrow was going to be harrowing. He and Tabitha had to talk and for that he was going to need all his wits. He forced himself to employ some meditation techniques and forget that for the first day in six weeks he’d be waking up without Maddy.

  There were four missed calls and three texts on Madeline’s mobile the next morning when she switched it back on. Marcus. She told herself she wasn’t going to listen to them, her finger even hovered over the delete button, but a masochistic streak had her dialling her message bank just to hear his voice.

  ‘Maddy, please, Maddy, I’m so sorry. Please, switch your phone back on. Please.’

  He sounded bleak and she knew how he felt. It felt like winter inside her again—cold and barren. The warm place inside that he had thawed only a handful of weeks ago snap frozen in a thick block of ice. Had it only been last night she had confessed her feelings? With a sleepless night behind her and her love in tatters, it felt like an age ago. An ice age.

  At least his voice hadn’t been condescending. He hadn’t glibly said he could explain or that there’d been a mistake or dismissed what had happened as nothing. His voice told her how serious the situation was. And she couldn’t believe that the happiest six weeks of her life had ended so abruptly.

  The questions that had circled her brain endlessly continued. When Tabitha had laid her trump card down she had looked at Marcus, waiting for the denial, waiting for hi
m to dispute what she was saying. But she had seen it in his eyes. The truth. Tabitha’s baby was his baby.

  And now she was in love with someone who was having a child with another woman. Someone who would be a father to that baby come hell or high water. Someone who obviously still had a thing for his ex-wife. Had he gone straight from Tabitha’s bed to hers?

  She quashed the urge to cry. And to ring the office and tell Veronica she was ill and couldn’t come in today. She would not. She had a day to get through. Patients who relied on her. It wasn’t their fault that she was appallingly bad at picking lovers or that Marcus was appallingly bad at keeping his pants on.

  And it would give her something else to think about other than the complete shambles her life had become overnight. And Veronica was too damn astute for her own good and she didn’t want to face questions she didn’t have any answers to.

  Marcus gave up on sleep at five-thirty and sat on the deck drinking microwaved coffee from last night’s pot, watching the colours of the river change as the sun rose. The morning traffic steadily increased and the River Cats started to ferry their first passengers across the river to their workplaces. His mind churned over and over the events of the night before in all their horrifying detail. He couldn’t think of a solution, just more problems.

  Tabitha was still asleep when Marcus left for work a couple of hours later. He almost woke her before he left but he remembered how tired being pregnant made her and figured it could wait a bit longer. He had to get to the hospital anyway as he’d promised Jenny Smith he’d call in before work.

  He somehow managed to pull an academy-award-winning performance out of thin air. He was bright and breezy and positive because that was what she and Trent needed. But, if anything, seeing Trent look so small and defenceless between the white hospital sheets cemented his conviction. He could never turn his back on his own child.

  He tried Maddy’s phone again several times before he reached work and hung up when her message bank picked up. Would she ever speak to him again? Did he deserve it? He would keep trying but he didn’t know what the hell he would say to her. That he loved her? That they could work it out? How? He didn’t have any answers yet.

  And he really wouldn’t have any until he talked to Tab. There were things he needed to clarify. His head warred with his heart. His head told him he had to do the honourable thing and be with Tabitha and the baby, accept his responsibilities and step up to the plate and be a father. Not one in name only like his own dad, but a hands-on, involved dad.

  But his heart said he loved Maddy and any relationship with Tabitha was doomed to failure, even more so than the first time around. If he hadn’t had met Maddy he might have been able to fool himself that marrying Tab again could work. But he had.

  His mobile rang as he was opening up and his heart leapt. But Tabitha’s mobile number was flashing on the screen and he felt his hopes sink.

  ‘Tab,’ he said.

  ‘You left without waking me,’ she chided.

  Marcus wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. ‘I had things to do,’ he said.

  ‘I was hoping for a grand tour of your new practice,’ she said. ‘And we need to talk. Do you get to stop for lunch? I could come down then.’

  Marcus sighed. The sooner they got this over, the sooner he could figure out what the hell he was going to do. ‘One o’clock,’ he said, and hit the end button on his phone.

  He looked at his watch. Fifteen minutes before his first client. Maddy would be in by now. He rose. He had to see her. If nothing else to apologise. Her wounded eyes from last night haunted him and he wanted to say how very sorry he was that she had been a casualty of Tabitha’s announcement. The thought that she was hurt and he had been responsible was more than he could bear.

  He stopped at Veronica’s desk and gave her his most charming smile. Maddy had teased him mercilessly about the younger woman’s adoration and today he wasn’t beyond exploiting that. ‘I need five minutes of Maddy’s time. Can you hold her first patient?’ Somehow he managed to smile.

  ‘Too late. She should be finishing soon, though.’

  ‘Can I sneak in before the next one?’

  ‘You’ve only just left her, Marcus Hunt,’ Veronica complained good-naturedly. Maddy’s door opened and her patient walked out, holding a script.

  ‘Can you send my next patient in, please, Veronica?’

  Even over the intercom Maddy’s voice sounded bleak.

  ‘Go on, then,’ Veronica said, lowering her voice, ‘I can stall for five minutes. Do you want me to announce you?’

  Good lord, no! He doubted he’d make it past the desk. ‘No, thanks.’ He smiled.

  ‘Go get her, tiger.’ She growled at him playfully. Marcus left the reception area, feeling a little guilty about misleading Veronica, and approached Maddy’s office with great trepidation. She didn’t disappoint him. Her reaction was what he’d expected.

  She looked up from a chart and saw him standing in the doorway. He looked uncertain. ‘Not now, Marcus, I’m busy.’ She was proud of how business like she sounded when her heart was breaking.

  ‘Look,’ he said as he stepped into the room and shut the door behind him, ‘I can—’

  ‘What?’ she interrupted. ‘Explain? I doubt it.’

  ‘Tabitha—’

  ‘Don’t,’ she said interrupting again. ‘I don’t want to hear about whatever little sordid arrangement you’ve got going.’

  ‘It’s not like that,’ he denied. She was hurt and lashing out. He would not take it personally.

  ‘So you didn’t sleep with her?’

  What defence did he have for that? Nothing. It wouldn’t matter to Maddy what the circumstances had been or that in the decade of their separation it had been the one and only time. He nodded. ‘The night before I left for Queensland.’

  The confirmation hit her hard and she bit back a gasp. Even up until now she’d been hoping it had all been a dreadful mistake. She nodded. So, they hadn’t been together. He’d been a free agent. But his actions had put their relationship in serious peril. And she wasn’t going to hang around and wait for Marcus to choose his ex-wife and their baby over her.

  She felt the hot burn of tears in her eyes. ‘For God’s sake, Marcus, you’re a doctor. You should at least have had the brains to have used a condom,’ she hissed.

  ‘We did,’ he said indignantly. Although they had all those years ago, too, and it hadn’t made any difference. Maybe Tabitha’s condom supply was suspect?

  She stared at him, blinking away the threatening tears. She couldn’t do this any more. It hurt too much to think about. ‘Just go, Marcus,’ she said, refusing to look at him, ‘I have a patient.’

  ‘I love you, Maddy.’

  She gasped and looked at him incredulously. She felt as if someone had come along with a big stick, swiped her feet out from underneath her and she’d landed flat on her butt. She felt winded.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s true,’ he said calmly.

  Madeline let the air whoosh out of her chest in a big huff. She believed him. She could see it all over his face. Oh, now? Now he tells her?

  ‘Oh, right. And when did you have this revelation? Because less than twenty-four hours ago you didn’t. I mean, I gave you the perfect opening to tell me last night and you didn’t. But suddenly your pregnant ex-wife turns up, and you find the words?’

  He knew it would be a hard sell but everything was such a mess right now, he wanted one thing to be right. ‘I realised last night when you walked out the door. Tabitha was there and you were gone and it hit me.’

  ‘I didn’t notice you running after me down the corridor to tell me.’

  ‘Would it have made a difference at that point?’

  She thought about the intensity of her anger and knew she wouldn’t have given him the time of day, but she was damned if she was going to let him off the hook. ‘Well, I guess we’ll never know now, will we?’

  ‘Maddy, please…’
<
br />   She heard the note of desperation in his voice and could tell he was just as miserable about this turn of events as she was. Despite the mess and her anger and disappointment, she still loved him and could see he was being torn up inside.

  She took a deep breath and decided to put him out of his misery. She knew him well enough to know he couldn’t walk away from being a father, and when you loved someone you didn’t ask them to do things they couldn’t do. If she wasn’t on the scene this whole situation was going to be so much easier for him. He was so good with children, with Connor and Trent, and he’d make an excellent father. She had to let him go.

  ‘Marcus, go and be with Tabitha and your baby. It’s OK—you have my blessing.’

  Marcus frowned at her, not quite believing what she was saying. ‘I don’t want your blessing. I want your love.’

  ‘Well, you can’t have it. I take it back. And I never said I loved you anyway. Just that I thought I was falling for you. Luckily for me, Tabitha came along at the right moment.’

  ‘That’s rubbish.’

  She shrugged. ‘I think you have bigger things to think about.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Just go, Marcus.’ Can’t you see my heart is breaking and I’m going to cry any second? ‘I have a patient.’

  Thankfully his morning was sufficiently busy to keep his mind off everything. There was so much he hadn’t had a chance to say to Maddy. He certainly hadn’t believed her when she’d denied loving him. Even if he had to abduct her and tie her to a chair, he would make her listen. But Maddy was right, he had to sort things out with Tab first.

  His ex-wife wandered in at one, and stood in his doorway.

  ‘Come in,’ he said. ‘Sit down.’

  Tabitha did as she was asked and looked at Marcus for a few moments. ‘I’m sorry about bursting in last night and being rude to your…ah…guest. It was late and I was tired and I guess I just wasn’t expecting it. So who is she?’