One Night, One Baby

by Kate Hardy

  ‘No, it’ll be fine.’ He smiled. ‘Stop worrying. They’ll be pleased.’

  She sucked in a breath as another thought hit her. ‘They won’t see me as a substitute…?’

  ‘For Natalie? No. And, for the record, my mother has been saying for a long, long time that it’s time I forgave myself and moved on. They’ll be really pleased to meet you.’ He kissed her lightly. ‘Stop worrying. Really. Or you’ll end up back on bedrest.’

  She groaned. ‘If I have to spend another day stuck in bed…’

  ‘I know. I’d go crazy, too. Though I only made you do it for your own good. And for our baby’s sake.’

  He was still saying it. Our baby. Pleasure rippled through her. He meant it. He really, really meant it.

  He held her close. ‘Can we show my parents the photos? The film?’

  ‘Of course.’ Part of her was stunned by the speed at which his attitude towards the baby had changed. But in a way she could understand it. He hadn’t dared let himself get close in case it all went wrong; he’d kept the brakes on. But now he’d had reassurance from the radiographer that everything was fine, the brakes were off.

  And Jane had seen the very second that Mitch had fallen in love with his daughter.

  Hard.

  She stifled the thought that he’d never said the L-word to her. He’d shown it, hadn’t he? The fact he’d flown straight from America to come to her bedside when Hannah had called him had to mean something.

  But all the same…it would’ve been nice to hear.

  As soon as they were in the car, he made a quick phone call. And then he smiled at Jane. ‘They’re getting out the fatted calf.’

  ‘Very funny.’

  ‘My sister’s on business in Edinburgh so she won’t be there, but you can meet my parents and Ben.’

  ‘Ben?’

  He grimaced. ‘Ah. I should’ve checked. Are you OK with dogs?’

  ‘I like them. We just never had one when I was little because he would’ve spent most of his time in kennels.’

  ‘Ben’s a spaniel. He’s old, he’s greedy and he smells.’ He smiled. ‘We got him the year I took my GCSEs. He used to sleep on my bed. It drove my mum crazy.’

  This was a side of him Jane hadn’t seen before. Not the loner: a man who was most definitely part of a family.

  Would he be like that with their daughter? With her?

  She tried not to let herself hope too much.

  And although Mitch had reassured her that his parents would be pleased to meet her, she was still worried. Although she rarely went to the seaside, she couldn’t enjoy strolling on the beach hand in hand with Mitch: supposing his family didn’t like her? Supposing they compared her with Natalie and she just didn’t measure up?

  Mitch didn’t seem to notice that she was quiet. Though he did make her sit down and have a cold drink, after their walk.

  And then it was time to meet his family.

  Her heart was beating so hard, so fast, she was sure they must be able to hear it.

  ‘Jane, this is my mum, Elaine, and my dad, George. Mum, Dad—this is Jane.’

  Diffidently, Jane held out her hand. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ she said.

  Elaine didn’t take her hand. Instead, she gave Jane a warm, welcoming hug. ‘And we’re so pleased to meet you, Jane. Come and sit down.’

  As far as she knew, Mitch hadn’t said a word to his parents about her before today, let alone the baby. And yet there was no reserve, no disapproval, no questioning—just acceptance and warmth.

  Jane swallowed hard.

  ‘Are you all right, love?’ Elaine asked.

  ‘Hormones,’ Jane said, hearing the wobble in her voice and hating it. ‘I’m sorry. I’m not usually this wet.’

  And that was it. The ice was broken. Elaine had tears in her eyes when she saw the photographs of the baby—even more so when Mitch promised to do copies for her. She allowed Jane into her kitchen, but wouldn’t let her actually do anything. ‘Which isn’t because I’m territorial about my kitchen.’

  ‘Being a domestic science teacher, you couldn’t be,’ Jane said with a smile.

  Elaine blinked. ‘Mitch told you that?’

  ‘Just before he proved that he could cook as well as I can. He said you taught him.’

  Elaine looked pleased, then worry crossed her expression. ‘You should be sitting with your feet up. Mitch said you’re only just out of bed after a scare.’ She looked grim. ‘If he’d told us about you sooner, I could’ve come up to give you a hand.’

  ‘I’m sorry about that.’

  Elaine smiled ruefully and hugged her again. ‘It’s not you, love. It’s him. But he’s spoken more to us today than he has in the previous year—which I think is down to you. It’s been a rough couple of years.’ She paused. ‘Do you know about…?’

  ‘Natalie?’ Jane nodded. ‘And I’m not trying to take her place. I’m just me.’

  ‘I know that, love. And I’m looking forward to getting to know you.’ Elaine smiled at her. ‘I promise I’m not going to be one of these interfering mothers-in-law. But I’d like to think I could come up and see you from time to time.’

  ‘I’d love that,’ Jane said, meaning it. ‘We could have lunch.’

  ‘And a spa day.’

  Things Jane sometimes wished she could share with her own mother. ‘That’d be really nice.’

  ‘So are you going back to work after the baby?’

  ‘We haven’t discussed that.’ Jane decided not to tell Mitch’s mother that her son had refused to discuss anything to do with the baby until today. ‘But I’d like to go back part-time, at least. I love my job, and I think it’ll be good for the baby if I keep up my non-baby interests.’

  ‘What do you do? Mitch didn’t say.’

  ‘I’m a record office archivist,’ Jane told her.

  ‘Sounds interesting.’

  Jane laughed. ‘Some people think it’s boring, being stuck in one place with a pile of old documents.’

  ‘Some people,’ Elaine said, smiling, ‘are far more boring when they start talking about coefficients and vectors and wind-speeds. Don’t listen to him. Tell me more about what you do.’

  Encouraged, Jane explained more about her job.

  ‘You know, I’ve always thought about researching the history of this house,’ Elaine said. ‘It’s one of the oldest in the village. I keep saying I’m going to start a project one summer holidays, but I’ve never got round to it.’

  ‘I could help, if you like,’ Jane offered.

  ‘I’d love it.’ Elaine smiled. ‘And it’d be a good excuse to meet up.’

  ‘You don’t need an excuse. I’m just so…well, relieved,’ Jane admitted. ‘With Mitch not telling you anything about me, I thought you might…’

  ‘Not accept you?’ Elaine guessed. ‘You’ve taken away some of the shadows in his eyes. He’s not an easy man, and there will be times when you want to throttle him. But it’s clear to me in the way you look at him that you love him. And that’s enough for me.’ Elaine hugged her. ‘Now, stop it, or you’ll have me in tears, too!’

  Love.

  That was when it really hit Jane.

  Mitch hadn’t told her he loved her. But she hadn’t said it to him, either.

  And she did love him.

  Even when he was being impossible and closed off.

  She couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment that physical attraction had turned into liking, let alone where liking had blurred into love. But over the last few months—even though he drove her crazy, at times—she’d fallen for him. And she knew it was the for-ever kind of love. The sort that wouldn’t go away.

  But as for telling him…she’d have to pick her time carefully. A time when he’d be receptive instead of sticking another wall up.

  ‘Your parents are lovely,’ Jane said to Mitch as he drove back to London. ‘And you don’t know how lucky you are, having a family who are settled.’

  He frowned. ‘I thought you didn’t ha
ve any hang-ups about your family.’

  ‘I don’t. But it’d just be nice to see them more often than I do. Half the time I have no idea where they are, beyond a vague location such as “Turkey”.’ She shrugged. ‘Still, I suppose at least our baby will see a decent amount of one set of grandparents.’

  Mitch reached over to squeeze her hand. ‘So what did your parents say when you told them?’

  Oh, so he was going to ask, then? ‘Not much.’ Jane shrugged. ‘They were pleased. But they’re pretty wrapped up in their work.’

  As Mitch was. She really hoped that Mitch wouldn’t follow in their footsteps and be too busy for his daughter. But they’d just have to take it step by step.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  THE two half-days at the end of the week helped Jane ease back into work. She loved being back in the archives, even though her boss Stella fussed over her and barely let her lift so much as a piece of paper.

  ‘Look, I’m not going to do anything risky. I’ll make someone else get the tithe maps or boxes of manorial records out, and I won’t go up any ladders. Believe me, after spending a week stuck in bed, no way will I risk anything that’ll put me back there again,’ Jane said feelingly.

  ‘Hmm. Does Hannah know you’re here?’ Stella asked, eyes narrowed.

  ‘Yes. And she and Mitch and Charlie and Shelley have already read me the Riot Act. So I’ll take it as read, from you.’ Jane smiled to take the sting from her words.

  ‘If you feel even the slightest bit rough, you stop work and go home immediately,’ Stella said. ‘Understood?’

  ‘Understood.’

  ‘Good.’ Stella smiled at her. ‘So is Mitch going to stick around, now?’

  ‘I hope so.’ She really hoped so. And now that he’d bonded with the baby, there was no need for him to run away—was there?

  He met her from work at lunchtime, and she enjoyed walking hand in hand with him along the river before having a light lunch and heading home. He seemed more settled, now. Although he still hadn’t gone shopping with her for baby things—he was still insisting that she took more rest than she thought she needed—she felt he’d finally accepted the baby. He’d finally accepted that the future was going to happen, that it was time to move on.

  And Jane was relaxed enough to start making plans on the Monday night, on the way home from work on the tube. She was still daydreaming when she unlocked the front door.

  ‘Honey, I’m ho-ome,’ she called. If he made any comment, she’d say she was being ironic. But she loved the feeling of coming home to him. Of knowing that he was here. Of knowing she was home.

  ‘I’m in here,’ he called back.

  She walked towards the bedroom—and stopped dead in the doorway when she saw what he was doing.

  ‘Why are you packing?’

  ‘Because you’re a lot better now, you’re back at work full-time, and I have a project that’s seriously close to missing its deadline.’

  ‘You’re going away again.’ Clearly she’d been fooling herself. But after the time they’d shared, the way they’d bonded during her sick leave, the way he’d started talking about their baby, the fact he’d taken her to meet his family…she’d been so sure he would stay, this time.

  He sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Jane, this is what I do. You know that. It’s how I earn my living. If I keep taking time off, we’re going to be living on dry bread and water.’

  She lifted her chin. ‘I have a job. I’m perfectly capable of paying my half of the bills.’

  ‘I know you are. But this is who I am, Jane. I’m a stormchaser.’

  ‘Mmm-hmm.’ She willed the tears to stay back—no way was she going to let him see her crying over this.

  ‘I’ll be back.’

  ‘As soon as. Yeah, I know.’ She forced herself to smile outwardly—but inside she wasn’t smiling. ‘So I guess I’m not going to get to see you off at the airport.’ Again.

  ‘That’s fine.’

  No, it wasn’t. But suddenly she was just too tired to argue the point.

  By Friday, Mitch was chain-drinking coffee.

  This was ridiculous.

  He loved his job. And he had plenty to do, given that he’d needed to take unscheduled time off to look after Jane. So why wasn’t he enjoying his work, the way he used to? Where was the adrenalin rush when he looked at the screen and saw the weather systems moving, storms forming? Why did this all feel so…unimportant?

  ‘So how are things?’ Brad came to sit beside him and proffered an open bag of doughnuts.

  Even the sugar rush didn’t help. ‘Fine,’ Mitch lied.

  ‘At home, I meant. Jane’s all right? And the baby?’

  To Mitch’s relief, Brad had kept his voice low so nobody else on the team could hear. Even though Mitch had seen the baby for himself at the scan, knew everything was going to be all right, he still felt it was tempting fate to announce the news to everyone, the way he had with Natalie. ‘They’re both fine, thanks. We had a scan last week.’ He paused. ‘We’re having a little girl.’

  ‘Got any pictures?’

  Ha. If anyone had told him six months ago that he’d be showing baby pictures to a colleague, Mitch would’ve considered having them certified insane. But here he was, taking his mobile phone out of his pocket and flicking into the screen where he’d emailed the pictures from the scan. ‘Here.’

  ‘Wow—that’s incredible. They didn’t have this sort of thing when my kids were small. Just the grainy black and white blob that you told everyone was a baby and you could say where the head was and maybe an arm or leg, but that was it. This is…wow.’

  ‘The technology’s pretty amazing,’ Mitch agreed.

  ‘And your mind isn’t here at all, is it?’

  ‘I love what I do,’ Mitch protested, ‘and I’m committed to the project.’

  ‘Nobody’s questioning that. But you haven’t taken a single picture today,’ Brad pointed out quietly.

  ‘No,’ Mitch admitted. ‘I love all this. So I don’t understand why it’s…’ He sighed and took another bite of doughnut. ‘It’s dragging.’

  ‘That’s because you’re missing home. Missing Jane. Missing the baby,’ Brad said, patting his shoulder. ‘And it’ll get worse when the babe arrives. Kids grow up really quickly, you know. My youngest starts high school next term and it doesn’t seem like a blink of an eye since the eldest was in preschool.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Mitch finished his doughnut. ‘We’d better get some work done.’

  ‘Sure.’

  But the empty feeling didn’t go away. And whereas he’d never really noticed his surroundings before, now he found himself comparing them with home. Sure, the motel had a comfortable bed and there was nothing to complain about, but it was so impersonal. The room was soulless. Even the picture on the wall was completely bland—the pictures in their flat had the rich colours of a print from a Book of Hours, or fascinating detail in the copies of ancient maps.

  He’d spent almost two weeks back with Jane, and in that time he’d grown used to curling round her body at night. Used to the way she fitted so perfectly against him. Used to her warmth. The motel’s double bed felt way too wide—and he had a feeling that it would’ve been just as bad in a single bed.

  He didn’t belong here any more.

  He belonged in London. With Jane. With the woman he loved.

  And how long it had taken him to realise that.

  He wanted to ring her right there and then—but it was stupid o’clock in the morning her time, and she really needed her sleep. A text wouldn’t do it, either. He wanted to tell her face to face. That finally he was free of his demons. That he loved her.

  And he’d ask her to marry him.

  He found himself counting the days until he was due home again. The only thing that kept him going was the fact that he’d found the perfect ring. A very plain platinum band with a round-cut solitaire diamond. But not just any diamond: this one was blue. Exactly the same shade of blue as Jane’s eyes.


  Brad whistled when he saw it. ‘That must’ve set you back quite a few dollars.’

  Mitch laughed. ‘It’s half a carat—not quite the Hope Diamond. Besides, natural blue diamonds are rare, so this one’s an enhanced one.’

  ‘Even so, I’ve seen the websites my wife drools over. These babies are seriously expensive. And is that a platinum setting?’ Brad held it up to the light. ‘Don’t you dare tell Deanna or she’ll want one and I’ll have to take out a second mortgage!’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘So you’re going to ask Jane to marry you?’

  ‘Just as soon as I get home.’ Then Mitch’s smile faded. ‘I just hope she’ll say yes.’

  Mitch didn’t tell Jane when he was coming back, because he wanted to surprise her. He picked up the biggest bouquet of flowers he could find at the airport, then caught the train back to Isleworth.

  It seemed oddly quiet when he opened the front door. Jane wasn’t one to have the TV on all the time, but she usually had music playing. Maybe she’d gone round to see the girls, he thought. He dropped his suitcase in the hall, closed the door and went to put the flowers in water in the sink until he could give them to her properly—and, more importantly, the velvet-covered box in his pocket.

  But something didn’t seem right about the kitchen. Something felt…missing. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what.

  Frowning, he walked into the living room.

  And then it hit him.

  There were no plants.

  No cushions.

  His heart missed a beat. No. He was just being paranoid. She wouldn’t have…would she?

  He went straight to the wardrobe in their bedroom. Opened the doors.

  And it was empty, apart from a few hangers rattling on the rail.

  He grabbed his phone and called Jane’s mobile.

  ‘Where are you?’ he asked, without preamble, when she answered it.

  ‘Where are you?’ she fenced.

  ‘Our flat.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘What do you mean, ah?’

  ‘I moved back home.’

  ‘Home?’

  ‘With the girls.’

  ‘I don’t believe this,’ he muttered through clenched teeth. ‘Why? When? And why the hell didn’t you tell me what you were going to do?’