Page 114 of Where the Wattles Bloom

He took two steps towards her, alarm slicking a chill through his blood. ‘Is everything okay with the—’

‘She’s fine.’ Rowena’s assurance was instant, her gaze quickly seeking his, the blaze in her eyes extinguished. ‘It’s not that.’

The blast of relief Lachlan felt almost cut him off at the knees and he sank onto a corner of the bed. Raking his fingers through his hair, he took a moment to compose himself. To order his thoughts. To try and think about this rationally not emotionally.

Because if everything was okay with the baby and everything had seemed to be going well at Blairgowrie, why was she packing her bags?

‘Okay, so …’ He glanced at her. ‘What is it?’

‘Did you know your family are taking bets on when you’re going to propose?’

A spike of alarm drove Lachlan to his feet. ‘What?’

Sure, there’d been a lot of hints and innuendo this past couple of weeks. But they’d been teasing and good-hearted.

‘They’re running a pool. Lisa has Christmas Day if you want to do her a solid.’

She tossed in that morsel of information with a deceptive kind of calm but he knew her well enough to pick up on the brittle edge to her words.

Well … crap.

Okay, clearly his family had gotten a little carried away. He supposed with the emotion of Reggie’s passing and the excitement of a new baby that wasn’t surprising. But it was okay—he could fix it.

Because marriage had been the last thing on his mind. Not when there was still so much undecided between them. When Rowena was returning to Sydney and he wasn’t sure of his place in his baby’s life, let alone hers. And if two failed marriages had taught him anything, it was the importance of being sure.

‘Didn’t you tell them I was leaving soon?’

Lachlan shook his head. ‘It’s not really come up.’

‘Maybe it should have,’ she snapped as she put those fancy city-girl boots he’d come to love in her bag.

‘Oh, you think, huh?’

He couldn’t stop the sarcasm dripping from his voice, but watching her separate from him felt like ants marching under his skin and he wanted to tear his flesh from his bones just to make it stop. His heart already felt like a beaten, bloodied, bruised pulp from the constant replay of that day with Reggie—he didn’t need fucking ants under his skin.

‘I’m sorry I was a little preoccupied with Reggie’s death and all that entailed to explain the state of our relationship to my family.’

Although, if he was being one hundred per cent honest, the fact that they’d assumed certain things and embraced Rowena so openly had been a balm to his battered heart.

‘I’m not going to propose,’ he assured quietly, his irritation burning out as quickly as it had flared.

But if he thought his words would make some kind of difference, he was wrong, as she shut and zipped one bag and started putting clothes in the other.

Clearly, she’d not been assured by his denial.

‘We agreed on reassessing after a month.’

A tightness in his chest drove him a step closer. She was near enough to touch now and he placed a hand on her packing arm, which thankfully dropped to her side. ‘Yes, but you’re supposed to be here for another two weeks.’

Her body swayed a little towards him and Lachlan wanted nothing more than to draw her close. She shut her eyes briefly as if fighting the pull that, despite everything, was still insanely strong.

‘People are getting way too invested in … this,’ she murmured, her voice husky.

‘Does that include you?’

Was that what this was about? Was she running scared because she was starting to get invested in this? His damn fool banged-up heart did a little shimmy.

‘I have to go back to the NICU.’