longer reflected hurt, and it felt very nice to be with someone you knew, but not quite, someone you would happily spend a lifetime knowing some more. ‘And I’m certainly better with you.’
‘Hey!’ There was a very loud shout from down the hall. ‘Hey!’ came the voice again.
‘Oh, no.’ Bridgette lay back on the pillow as Harry completely broke the moment. ‘Those bloody grommets. It’s as if he’s suddenly found his voice.’
Harry had found his voice and he knew how to use it! ‘Hey,’ Harry shouted again from behind his closed door. It was a sort of mixture between ‘Harry’ and ‘Hello’ and ‘Have you forgotten me?’
‘I’ll get him.’ Bridgette peeled back the sheet, liking the big sparkle on her finger as she did so.
‘If you say you love me, I’ll go and get him,’ Dominic said, and pulled on his trousers, deciding he had to be at least half-respectable as he walked in on the little guy.
‘If you go and it doesn’t make you change your mind—’ Bridgette grinned, knowing what he would find ‘—I’ll say it then.’
It was the longest walk of his life.
He’d just put a ring on a woman’s finger. Shouldn’t they be sipping champagne, booking a restaurant, hell, in some five-star hotel having sex, not getting up to a baby?
But with him and Bridgette it was all just a little bit back to front and he’d better get used to the idea.
He pushed open the door.
‘Hey!’ Angry eyes met him, and so did the smell. Angry eyes asked him how dared he take so long, leave him sitting in this new bed that he wasn’t sure how to get out of?
‘This isn’t how it’s supposed to be, Harry,’ Dominic said, because surely it should be a sweet, cherubic baby sitting there smiling at him, but it was an angry Harry with a full nappy. The newly engaged Dominic had to change the first nappy in his life and, yes, it was shocking, a real baptism of fire!
‘Think of all the cruises I won’t be going on,’ Dominic said as he tried to work out all the tabs, ‘all the sheer irresponsibility I’m missing…’
‘Hey!’ Harry said, liking his clean bottom and new word.
‘Hey,’ Dominic answered
And then he picked him up.
A bare chest, a toddler who was still a baby and a mass of curls against his chin, and it was inevitable—he didn’t just love Bridgette, he loved Harry too. For the second time in twenty minutes he handed over his heart and it was terrifying.
He would never tell, but he thought he was crying. Maybe he was because Harry’s fat hands were patting his cheeks. He could never tell Bridgette that he was terrified too.
That the phone might ring.
That there might be a knock on the door.
That Courtney might come back.
That this little guy might have to be returned too soon.
‘I’ll make this work.’ He looked into the little grey eyes that had always been wary and saw the trust in them now. ‘I will make this work,’ Dominic said again, and his commitment was as solid as the diamond he had placed on Bridgette’s finger—his promise to Harry would cut glass if it had to, it was that strong. ‘It will all be okay.’
He walked back into the bedroom with a sweet-smelling Harry and did a double-take as he saw his previously sexy fiancée in bright orange flannelette pyjama bottoms and a T-shirt.
‘Don’t want him having flashbacks about his aunt in years to come,’ Bridgette said.
And it was hard, because she was more a mother than the one Harry had.
‘I’m just going to wash my hands.’
He was so tidy and neat. As he handed over Harry and headed to the bedroom, she worked something out. ‘That’s why he smiled,’ Bridgette said. ‘When you took your jacket off, he knew that you were staying.’
She looked at her nephew, at smiling grey eyes that mirrored her own, and it was easy to say it as Dominic walked back in the room.
‘I love you.’
BRIDGETTE never got tired of watching a new life come into the world. It had been a glorious morning and had been a wonderful straightforward birth. Kate was watching from the bed, and Michael, the father, was standing over Bridgette as she finished up the weights and measurements, popped on a hat, wrapped up their son and handed him over—the perfect miracle, really.
‘We’re going to move you back to your room soon,’ Bridgette told the new parents. ‘I’ll come and check on you later, but Jasmine is going to take over from me for a little while.’
‘That’s right.’ Kate looked up from her baby. ‘You’ve got your scan this morning. I’m glad he arrived in time and you didn’t have to dash off.’
‘I wouldn’t have left you,’ Bridgette said. ‘I’d already rung down and told them I might not be able to leave.’ She looked at the little pink squashed face and smiled. ‘You have a very considerate baby.’
‘You’ll have one of your own soon.’
‘Not that soon.’ Bridgette gave an impatient sigh, because she really couldn’t wait. ‘I’m only nineteen weeks.’ And then she checked herself, because she sounded just like any impatient first-time mum, and then she laughed because that was exactly what she was. She gave a small wink. ‘Nineteen weeks and counting!’
She would breathe when she got to twenty-four weeks, she decided, no, twenty-five, she corrected, thinking of the difference those extra few days had made to Francesca. Francesca had been discharged the day Dominic had started his new job—home on oxygen but doing brilliantly. It had been a nice way to start, Dominic had said.
As she walked down to the canteen where she was meeting Dominic, she wondered if he’d be able to get away. She really didn’t mind if he couldn’t. It was a routine scan, after all, and he’d end up asking the sonographer way too many questions. Still, even if she would be fine without him, she smiled when she saw him sitting at the far end of the canteen, sharing lunch with Harry, and she realised he was going to make the appointment—it was better with him there.
‘Hi, Harry.’ She received a lovely kiss that tasted of bananas, and asked about his busy morning, because along with building bricks he’d done a painting or two, or was it three? He really had come on in leaps and bounds. ‘Any news from Courtney?’ Bridgette asked Dominic.
‘I was about to ask you the same,’ Dominic said. ‘She seems to be taking ages. I thought it started at eleven.’
Courtney had an interview this morning at the hospital. She was attending college, and now that she had been clean for well over
