by Amy Andrews
Evie let the tears come this time. She didn’t try to stop them. She pushed off the doorframe and was at his side in five seconds. Bending her head and kissing him two seconds after that.
‘Why,’ she demanded face wet, eyes glistening, ‘didn’t you say those things in Pete’s?’
Finn looked into her beautiful, interesting face made even more so by two wet tear tracks, his heart thudding in his chest. ‘Because I’m emotionally stunted and incredibly stupid.’
She laughed and kissed him again. ‘Do you really mean all those things? About loving me as a woman, not just as Isaac’s mother?’
Finn smiled. ‘Of course. You wouldn’t let me tell you so I figured I’d tell him.’
Evie crouched beside him, peeking inside the blanket at Isaac snuggled up in a little ball against Finn’s chest. ‘I’m glad you did.’
‘So am I,’ Finn murmured, looking down into her face. ‘I’m just sorry I got it so wrong for so long, Evie. I do love you. Just as you are. Evie Lockheart. No one’s mother or sister or doctor. Just you. You helped me love again, feel again, and I need you in my life. All of you.’
Evie nodded, two more tears joining the others. ‘And I love you.’
Finn dropped a kiss on her mouth and it was the sweetest thing Evie had ever known.
‘Don’t think you’re off the hook for the flash mob and the blimp, though,’ she warned as they broke apart.
Finn grinned. ‘I’ll consider myself on notice.’
And then a tiny little snuffly sneeze came from under the covers and they smiled at each other, brimming with love.
EPILOGUE
EVIE LOOKED up from watching Isaac happily crawling around the back yard to see her husband approaching with a massive wrapped box.
Finn grimaced as he set the heavy box on the ground. ‘Delivery for the birthday boy.’
Isaac turned at the interesting new arrival and crawled their way, gurgling happily. It was hard to believe a year had passed since the frantic night of his birth and while the doctors still corrected his age to nine months, it was still his birth day.
His milestones were behind, he was only just crawling and he was smaller than most kids his age, but he was bright and engaging and his parents were besotted with him.
Finn bent and picked his son up off the grass, kissing him on the head. ‘What do you think about that?’ he asked him.
Isaac kicked his legs excitedly and Finn and Evie laughed as they helped him pull the paper off the box and get it open. Inside sat the most exquisitely carved and decorated rocking horse Evie had ever seen.
‘Finn,’ she breathed reverently as he pulled it out and placed it on the grass. ‘It’s beautiful … Where did you get it?’
Isaac squirmed to get down and Finn obliged. ‘It’s not from me,’ he murmured, upending the box and searching for a card. A piece of thick embossed card slipped out.
Finn read it. ‘It’s from Khalid,’ he murmured.
Evie stared at it. A Saudi oil prince had sent Isaac a first birthday present. The sun shone down on the exquisite workmanship and they both admired it for a moment.
‘Is that … gold leaf?’ she asked.
Finn nodded. ‘I think so.’
They looked at each other and laughed. Then they heard Isaac giggling too and looked down to find him peeking out of the box at them.
‘But who needs gold leaf when you’ve got a box?’ Finn smiled.
And Evie watched with joy and love in her heart as Finn pushed a giggling Isaac round and round the yard in his cardboard car.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
First published in Great Britain 2013
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Harlequin Books S.A. 2013
Special thanks and acknowledgement are given to Alison Ahearn for her contribution to the Sydney Harbour Hospital series
eISBN: 978-1-472-00296-9