Husband for Real
Page 17
Rose didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she laughed, and James laughed with her in relief, holding her close.
‘I’ve been in a right old state,’ she said unsteadily at last. ‘All day I’ve been rehearsing ways to tell you. And you knew all the time!’
He raised her face to his, his eyes very sober. ‘Rose, when I set out to make you fall in love with me again I was ready to go to every length I could to make it happen, but I swear this wasn’t part of my plan. But when Minerva gave me the glad news I realised I’d been hoping against hope you might be pregnant. Lord knows, I was too desperate to make love to you again that night to do anything to prevent it.’
‘And I never got the chance to tell you I wasn’t doing anything to prevent it, either,’ she said ruefully, then smiled at him. ‘But while we’re on the subject I may as well clear up a point or two about this plan of yours, Sinclair. You had no hope of making me fall in love with again, darling, because I’d never fallen out of love in the first place.’
With a smothered sound James crushed her close, expressing his appreciation without words, but after a while he put her away from him to look down into her face. ‘So clear up another point for me, Rose. Are you truly happy about the baby?’
‘Of course I am,’ she said joyfully. ‘I wanted your baby all those years ago, James. I still do.’ To her surprise she saw a trace of moisture in his eyes, and smiled shakily. ‘How do you feel about it, Daddy?’
James took so long to tell her exactly how he felt in every detail, it was very late by the time they got round to eating the simple meal Rose had prepared earlier.
‘So how soon can you wind things up here and come live with me, sweetheart?’ he asked as they lay in each other’s arms in bed later.
‘Minerva’s asked Bel to take over from me, so I’ll need to stay to give her a teach-in for a while. After that I’m all yours.’
James gave a great sigh of satisfaction. ‘You were mine from the first moment I set eyes on you, sweetheart.’
‘Quite a bit before that, actually,’ she informed him. ‘I took one look at you during a rugby match one Saturday afternoon—’
‘At a match?’ He frowned. ‘I thought you drew my name out of a hat.’
Rose smiled gleefully. ‘I did. But I wouldn’t have taken part in all that nonsense if I hadn’t been madly in love with you to start with, James Sinclair. The three of us were supposed to write different names on each paper, but I wrote yours on all four of mine.’
James gave a shout of laughter and hugged her close. ‘Little devil!’
‘I still remember the state I was in as Fabia and Con drew other men’s names out of the hat.’ She smiled radiantly. ‘But fate let me draw the slip Fabia had written your name on as a joke, so the others had no idea I’d shortened the odds. You never stood a chance, Sinclair.’
‘Am I complaining?’ he whispered, and switched off the light.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0047-0
HUSBAND FOR REAL
First North American Publication 2002.
Copyright © 2001 by Catherine George.
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*The Dysarts