Back soon. We still have the stables to muck out.
Strangely, Anna found herself smiling and singing to herself—the songs he’d sung to Melanie last night—as she fed the baby.
She found delight even in Melanie spitting the food at her, because the baby shrieked in happiness at the mess she’d created. Tiny fingers wiped the mush into Anna’s face and hair, and Anna just sat there laughing, touching that sweet, flushed little face, petting the spiky hair, all damp from the extreme humidity outside, as well as in.
Within days Adam and Melanie seemed to be merging into one face, a single entity of adorable baby, and she loved them both. Motherhood, to have a baby to love, was worth any sacrifice. Any sacrifice.
Jared walked in two hours later, as Anna finished cleaning the house with the baby crawling around after her, making a mess of what she’d cleaned. He lifted his brows, pointing. ‘Has Melanie begun crawling? She’s pretty young for that.’
Even looking at him reminded her of the man she’d seen last night, so moved by a baby-kiss. Aching with wistfulness, longing and regret, Anna made herself laugh. ‘Yes. I sat her down on the floor with some toys so I could sweep—she doesn’t seem to like the portable cot when she’s awake—and the second she saw the dust and dirt, she got down on hands and knees and came after me.’ Awe and joy swept through her, thinking of it: she’d seen a milestone in Melanie’s life … her first crawling step.
He grinned. ‘Has she been crawling behind you, making mess, all morning?’
She chuckled. ‘The things they don’t tell you about the joys of parenthood.’
‘So it seems.’ Eyes shimmering with humour met hers. ‘So do we dare take her out to the stables without the cot?’
This time she burst out laughing, and snorted. ‘Oh, the fun she’d have with the animals—and the dung!’
‘Yeah,’ he said softly. ‘I remember the best times of my childhood were chucking the stuff around—especially at my sisters and brothers—and Mum running around with a wooden spoon, trying to catch me, for all the work I caused.’ He chuckled. ‘She never did catch me. She always said I drove her up the wall, so I’d make car engine sounds and run to walls.’
He was talking about his family life again, and it felt as if she couldn’t stop smiling, laughing—and that felt so good. For the longest time she’d wondered if she’d forgotten how to laugh spontaneously. ‘I see my future before me. Melanie already painted my face with her breakfast. If Rosie does let us adopt her, I somehow don’t think I’ll be getting the decorous little girl I was.’
‘Except when you stole chocolate,’ he reminded her, his eyes still laughing, not sensual—but still she caught her breath for a moment.
She lifted a shoulder. ‘A pathetic kind of rebellion, wasn’t it?’ she asked lightly. ‘During her lifetime, the rebel Lea runs away from boarding school, refuses to marry the man her father picks for her, starts her own place and makes a total success of it, has a child and won’t marry the father. And what do I do in my entire life? I steal chocolate—once.’
‘I thought it was adorable,’ he said quietly.
That was the problem. You saw me as a child to protect and adore, not a woman to love.
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