There was room enough for an entire family, but she left that particular thought unsaid.
He shrugged. ‘I’m game if you are.’
He moved forward and offered her his hand, helped her clamber down. He let her go again as soon as it was safe, and she immediately missed his sure strength, his warmth. She tried to make do with the sun-warmed rock instead.
She rested back on her hands and lifted her face to the sun. ‘Summer is nearly here. I love summer.’
When she glanced back at him, she found him staring out to sea. Her heart crashed and ached and burned. Was he wishing himself a mil ion miles away?
Regardless of his sentiments, it couldn’t be denied that this stay here at least agreed with him physical y. His forearms and calves had grown tanned from the sun. His body, if it were possible, had grown harder and leaner.
She’d love to see him naked.
Oh!
She must’ve made some betraying noise
because he turned to her. She waved a hand in front of her face as if shooing a fly.
‘Look, I’m sorry. I know I freaked out back there earlier with Davey.’
That was one way of putting it.
‘But al of a sudden he was up on that scaffolding with me and al I could think was, what if he fel ? It’d be my fault.’
‘No, it wouldn’t. Caro and I should’ve been watching him more closely. I keep forgetting how quick he is.’
When he didn’t say anything else, a weight settled in her stomach. She stared at the water flowing in the channel. If she fel in now she had a feeling she’d sink to the very bottom. ‘Tel me about Chad.’
Every line of him stiffened. ‘Why?’
She lifted one shoulder. ‘Because I know that’s who Davey reminded you of. He’s such a big part of you even though he isn’t in your life any more.’ Alex didn’t say anything. She swal owed. ‘How old was he when he started to sleep through the night? Where did he take his first step?’
did he take his first step?’
Alex’s hands clenched to fists.
‘What was his favourite toy?’
He swung to her, his face twisted. ‘Talking about Chad, remembering him, whatever you think, Kit, it doesn’t help.’
The hairs on her arms lifted and her heart raced.
‘You’re not the only one who is scared, you know?’
she burst out, unable to keep the wobble from her voice.
He frowned then. ‘You’re scared?’
If she had the energy, she’d have smiled at his incredulity, if she could just get over the ache flattening her chest and stretching behind her eyes and pounding at her temples first. ‘Dammit, Alex!
Some days I’m terrified.’
She couldn’t bear to look at him any more, knowing the distance that stretched between them.
She stared down into the strong current that rippled down the channel as the tide came in, at the clean, clear water. Then blinked when a silver-grey shape lifted out of that water. ‘Oh, look!’ She pointed at the myriad of fins that surfaced. ‘Dolphins.’
In the past it had never mattered what it was that she’d brooded about as she’d sat out here; when the dolphins arrived things never looked so bad.
From the way Alex leaned forward to get a better view, from the way his back unbent and his shoulder unhitched, she figured maybe they had the same effect on him.
‘What are you scared about, Kit?’
‘That I’l be a terrible mum. That I’l be impatient and yel a lot and that being home with a baby wil be so intel ectual y and mind-bogglingly boring that I’l lose myself and blame the baby.’
‘Oh.’ The word broke from him softly as if he’d thought her above worrying about such things. As if the thought hadn’t occurred to him that such things could worry her. ‘I think you’l make a great mum. I don’t think you’l get impatient or yel . You never did at work. I know you loved your job, but how much more wil you love your baby?’
He had a point.
‘As for this baby brain you talk about, you’re doing the crossword and playing word games and I know you’l beat it. Maybe you could pick up some part-time work that wil give you some down-time from the baby?’
She eyed him uncertainly. ‘You don’t think it’s a mother’s role to be with her baby twenty-four seven?’
‘Nope.’
She let that idea sink in. ‘I’m scared of other stuff too.’
‘Like?’
‘What if dirty nappies make me puke?’
‘Keep a bucket by the changing table.’
That made her laugh. She sobered a moment later. ‘I wonder how I’l cope with months of broken sleep. I wonder how I’l cope if I get sick again.’
‘You have lots of friends al wil ing to help you out.’
‘I know, but…’ She wanted it to be him she shared al those things with—the difficulties and the joys of adjusting to a new baby.
He’d loved a child once. Didn’t it mean he could love another one?
‘But?’
‘I know al those things, but it doesn’t make the fear go away. I…I mean, the thought of the labour terrifies me.’ She gulped when she realized what she’d said. She hadn’t meant to reveal quite so much.
Turbulence raged in those dark eyes of his. ‘Then why are you going through it?’
‘Because the hope is greater than the fear.’
Something fluttered in her stomach—like a hiccup
—only it didn’t come from her.
‘What is it?’ Alex barked when she held herself suddenly stiff, al his energy focused on her. It almost threw her concentration. She loved watching his muscles bunch like that, his eyes narrow in readiness.
‘Hold on…’ She held up a hand. There! It happened again.
It was the baby!
‘Oh, Alex, look!’ She grabbed his hand and pressed it to her stomach.
‘What am I—?’
She pressed his fingers more firmly to the spot where the hiccup feeling grew. ‘Can you feel that?’
Wonder fil ed her.
‘What is it?’ He frowned. ‘Should I take you to the clinic?’
She laughed for the sheer joy of it. ‘That’s the baby, Alex. That’s the baby kicking.’
For a moment she thought he meant to pul his hand away but, almost as if he couldn’t help it, his hand away but, almost as if he couldn’t help it, his fingers spread across her bel y and gently pressed against her, sending darts of warmth shooting through her. ‘The baby?’ he whispered, almost as if he were afraid of waking it up.
‘Uh-huh.’ She nodded. ‘Isn’t it amazing?’
‘Yes.’ Then he frowned. ‘Does it hurt?’
He would’ve pul ed his hand away only she laid her hand on top of it to keep it there, to maintain this tenuous three-way connection—him, her and their baby. ‘Not a bit. It feels…wonderful! I’ve been dying for this moment.’ Her grin must stretch al the way across the channel to Forster.
His eyes widened. ‘This is the first time?’
She couldn’t get the grin off her face. ‘The very first time.’
Alex’s wonder made him look younger. The grooves either side of his mouth eased, the creases around his eyes relaxed and the darkness in his irises abated, his lips tilted up at the corners, and it al made Kit catch her breath.
Beneath her hand, his hand tensed. She dropped her gaze to stare at their two hands. Neither one of them moved, and in less than a heartbeat desire licked along her veins. She wanted to lift her gaze and memorize every line and feature of his face, the texture of his skin, while she could. Here on her rock.