in heartfelt tones. ‘Where have you been?’
‘With Willie, then I went to the kitchen to find Freya some supper.’
Romy looked from her daughter to Lex. She had never seen him less than immaculate before, but now his hair was standing on end, his tie askew and his sleeves rolled up above his wrists.
He looked so harried that she wanted to laugh, but it seemed less than tactful when he had clearly been doing his best.
‘She was crying,’ Lex said defensively, as if she had demanded to know what he thought he was doing. ‘I thought she needed her nappy changing but I’m not really sure what I’m doing…’
Romy could only guess what that admission had cost him. ‘It was very brave of you to have a go at all,’ she told him. ‘Shall I take over now?’
‘She’s all yours.’
Lex couldn’t get up quickly enough. He watched as Romy cleaned the baby and put on a clean nappy with the minimum of fuss.
‘You make it look so simple,’ he said almost resentfully, and she glanced up at him with a smile.
‘Practice,’ she said.
Freya was wreathed in smiles once more. Romy lifted her up and kissed her, and the tenderness in her expression closed a fist around Lex’s heart and squeezed.
Turning abruptly on his heel, he went back into the bedroom, where a plate of bread and butter with some ham and a banana was sitting on a side table. Freya’s supper, presumably. Lex dreaded to imagine what she would do with that banana.
Not his problem, he reminded himself. Thank God.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ he called back to Romy as he retrieved his bag and briefcase. ‘What time are we expected for dinner?’
Romy appeared in the doorway with Freya. ‘Drinks at seven thirty.’
‘Fine. I’ll have time for a shower and can change these trousers.’ Lex shook each leg in turn. Between Freya and the snow, he didn’t think they would ever be the same again. ‘I don’t suppose you know which is my room?’
Romy settled Freya into the plastic chair that she had fixed to the table. She handed her the plate of bread and ham and turned to face Lex, drawing a breath.
‘This one,’ she said.
‘All your stuff is in here,’ said Lex. ‘You might as well stay here, and I’ll take your room.’
‘This is our room.’
Halfway to the door, Lex stopped. Frowned as he realised what she was saying. ‘You mean…?’
‘I’m afraid so.’ Faint colour touched Romy’s cheeks. She hadn’t been looking forward to breaking this to Lex. ‘There seems to have been some kind of misunderstanding when Summer rang up,’ she said carefully. ‘They thought that because we were bringing a baby, we were all together.’
‘Didn’t you tell them that’s not the case?’
She hesitated. ‘Not yet.’
‘Why on earth not?’
‘I wasn’t sure what to do.’
Edgily, Romy walked over to the window and pulled back the curtain. Outside, the snow was still swirling in the darkness while great, fat flakes piled up on the window sill. If they weren’t careful, they would be snowed in here, and then what would happen?
Lex eyed her back in baffled frustration. ‘What do you mean, you weren’t sure? You could just tell the truth!’
‘The thing is, Willie was so pleased.’ Romy turned from the window, trying to make Lex understand what it had been like. ‘He was supposed to be showing me some charter, but he really just wanted to talk about you, and how happy he was to discover you weren’t at all like your reputation. There he was, expecting some soulless businessman, and you
turn up with a baby and start bonding with his beastly dog… Willie was absolutely delighted to discover that you were a family man after all!’
‘But I’m not Freya’s father,’ Lex objected, pacing back from the door. ‘We told him that.’
‘I know, but that only makes it better from his point of view. Apparently his mother was a single mother who struggled without any support from her family or his father or anyone, and helping single mothers is a big issue with him.’
Romy fiddled with her bracelets. ‘He just assumed that you and I were.’ Somehow she just couldn’t bring herself to say ‘lovers’. It was too close to the truth. And too far.
‘Together,’ she said in the end. ‘So the fact that you’re prepared to be in a relationship with me and be a hands-on father figure to Freya…well, that clinched it for Willie.’
Hands-on? Lex raked a hand through his hair. This was getting worse and worse!
‘Why didn’t you put him right straight away?’
‘Because you told me you wanted this deal signed at all costs!’ said Romy defensively. ‘This is important, you said.’
‘Good God, Romy, you can’t have thought I meant you to lie to the man!’
‘I didn’t lie. I just…didn’t tell him he’d got it all wrong. I could barely get a word in edgeways as it was.’
Romy was starting to get cross. ‘Willie was going on and on about how pleased he was to discover that you weren’t at all like your reputation, and how much happier he felt knowing that Grant’s was going to be part of a chain run by a man with the right priorities. At what point was I supposed to interrupt and say that actually you weren’t like that at all, and that actually you didn’t want anything to do with me at all and that you’d rather stick pins in your eyes than deal with a baby?’
‘There must have been something you could do!’ Lex took another turn around the room, watched round-eyed by Freya, who was intrigued by his agitation. ‘Eat your supper!’ he said to her irritably as he went past, and obligingly she stuffed another finger of bread in her mouth.
‘Leave Freya out of it!’ snapped Romy, moving to stand protectively over her daughter.
Picking up the banana, she began to peel it as she made herself calm down. There was no point in getting into an argument with Lex. She didn’t for a moment think he would sack her out of spite, but, when all was said and done, he was still her boss.
‘Look,’ she said after a moment, ‘I know it seems awkward, and I’m sorry, but I just didn’t know what to do. It seemed so important to Willie.’
She sliced up the banana and put it on Freya’s plate, while Lex continued to prowl around the room. ‘I got the sense that he’d almost decided that he didn’t want to sell to you, but, between Freya and the dog, you’ve changed his mind. He told me in the tower that he’s really keen for the deal to go ahead as soon as possible now.’
Lex
