the baby.
‘I offered her some of my home-made soup,’ Evanna was saying as she pulled faces at the little girl, drawing smiles of delight, ‘but she wasn’t interested.’
Had no one else noticed? Kyla wondered as she moved instinctively towards Ethan. Had no one else noticed the grim set of his mouth or the fact that his entire body was unnaturally still? It was as if he were afraid to move.
Did he hate babies? Had he lost a baby? What could possibly have happened in his life to trigger that sort of reaction?
Her mind sifted through options and came up with nothing concrete.
Perhaps she was just being dramatic. He was single after all. It was perfectly possible that he just didn’t like babies.
‘She doesn’t need soup, she needs attention. Give your daddy a cuddle,’ Logan drawled in a soft voice, and the little girl gurgled with delight and lifted her hand to pull his hair.
‘Ow—you have got to stop doing that, sweet pea, or Daddy is going to be bald and that is not a “good look”, as your Aunty Kyla would say.’ Logan wrapped his daughter’s tiny fist in his hand and planted a noisy kiss on her cheek. ‘Pull someone else’s hair. Kyla has plenty.’
‘Ethan?’ Kyla moved over to Ethan’s side and touched his arm. ‘Are you all right?’
It was a moment before he even noticed she was there. ‘Of course.’ His voice was flat. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘I don’t know. You just seem—’
‘Tired,’ he supplied, his gaze cool as he turned to look at her. ‘It’s been a long day and it was a long night before that. I probably should have made my excuses and had an early night instead of accepting the invitation.’
Was that what was wrong? He was tired?
Kyla glanced towards her niece and then back at him, searching for clues. She wanted to ask a question but she had no idea which words would lead her to the right answer. Why would the sight of a strange baby affect him so badly? It didn’t make sense. ‘She’s sweet, isn’t she?’
There was a long silence and Ethan’s knuckles were white as he gripped the bottle of beer. ‘I don’t know much about babies,’ he said hoarsely, lifting the bottle to his lips and drinking deeply, ‘but I’m sure she’s very sweet.’
He was a loner, Kyla reminded herself. A man who clearly had no experience of family. It was perfectly natural that he wouldn’t be comfortable with babies. But somehow none of her reasoning made her feel better and Evanna’s words of warning rang in her head.
‘I had a call from the Infirmary on the mainland,’ Logan said, strolling across to them. ‘Doug’s doing well. They’re going to keep him in for a few more days, review his drugs and then send him back.’
‘We’re going to have to add him to our cardiac rehab list,’ Kyla said, her eyes still on Ethan. ‘We need to try and get him to take some exercise. Evanna runs a class at the community centre once a week. When he’s recovered, I’ll talk to him about it.’
‘It’s Leslie who is going to need the support.’ Logan winced as Kirsty grabbed another hunk of hair. ‘She rang me from the hospital with loads of questions.’
‘Don’t they answer questions in hospital?’
Logan gave a laugh. ‘She doesn’t trust them. She wanted to hear it from me.’
Kyla rolled her eyes. ‘What’s it like to enjoy such godlike status?’
‘Exhausting. Leslie is coming back over tomorrow to check on Andrea. She’s staying with a schoolfriend but obviously she was pretty upset about the whole thing and worried about her dad. Those prawns are done, Ethan. There’s a plate there and some of Evanna’s lemon mayonnaise on the side. Help yourself.’
‘Bit of a handful, our Andrea, by all accounts.’ Kyla reached for a plate and held it while Ethan removed the prawns from the barbecue.
The tension in his body had lessened and Kyla watched as he shelled prawns and drank beer, chatting to Logan and occasionally tending the barbecue.
Had it been her imagination?
Maybe. Certainly he seemed fine now and he even handed Kirsty some bread to chew.
‘I had Sonia Davies from the library in my antenatal clinic today,’ Evanna said, speaking directly to Logan. ‘She really wants a home birth.’
The smile faded from Logan’s face. ‘I won’t do home births,’ he said gruffly, ‘you know that. Don’t even bother asking me.’
Evanna bit her lip. ‘It’s her second baby and she’s—’
‘I won’t do home births.’
‘Logan, she isn’t—’
‘She can go to the community maternity unit on the mainland. It has all the advantages of home births, with none of the risks. This is an island, Evanna. I know you’ll tell me that if something happens she can be transferred, but will it be fast enough? We do wonders here, but we have to be realistic. I can’t provide neonatal intensive care and neither can I perform uterine surgery on a woman with an uncontrollable haemorrhage.’ His tone harsh, Logan turned away and helped himself to another beer. Evanna glanced helplessly at Kyla, who gave a brief shake of her head to indicate that she should drop the subject.
They both knew what was behind Logan’s intransigence. Catherine.
Feeling awful for him, Kyla strolled over to her brother and put a hand on his arm. ‘Mum rang last night.’ She kept her tone neutral. Steady. ‘She’s thinking of coming back over for Dad’s birthday and spending a few days with her grandchild. They’re missing her terribly. They loved the last set of photos you sent, especially the one of her sitting in the laundry basket.’
He was silent for a moment and then he breathed out heavily and she saw his shoulders relax. ‘It would be good if they came. Kirsty loves to see them.’
‘Mum’s worried she’s missing all the best bits.’ Kyla gave his arm a gentle squeeze and then let go and helped herself to a baby tomato. ‘I just hope she’s here when Kirsty takes her first steps or we’ll never hear the last of it.’
Logan’s eyes settled on hers and she smiled gently, watching as some of the strain left his face. ‘I’m all right,’ he said roughly in Gaelic, and she gave a brief nod and replied in the same language.
‘I know you’re all right.’
And then she turned and caught Ethan looking at them, a curious expression on his handsome face.
He was a complex character, she thought as she strolled back over to Evanna. Deep. A real thinker. But that didn’t mean anything was wrong.
She thought back to the way he’d looked when he’d first seen Kirsty.
It had just been her imagination working overtime, Kyla decided, her face brightening as one of her aunts arrived along with two of her cousins. She’d spent too long listening to Evanna’s gloomy
