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His insight surprised her. But it was true. And then she wondered if his words were a form of farewell. She couldn’t blame him if he was backing off so soon; he could have any woman he wanted. Why would he put his hand up for getting involved with someone who was little more than a nutcase?
‘You mentioned coffee?’ He placed his palms along either side of her face. ‘And if there’s any toast to go with that I wouldn’t say no. I’m absolutely starving.’
She had just prepared a pot of coffee and a plate of buttered toast when little footsteps alerted her to the fact the twins were up and about. Sure enough a few moments later two small figures clad in teddy-bear pyjamas appeared in the kitchen doorway and huge brown eyes stared questioningly.
‘Well, hello.’ Steel smiled at the two little girls who had hesitated on the threshold, clearly unsure of their welcome once they saw him. ‘I’ve just called to show your mummy a picture of my niece who was born this morning. Would you like to see it too?’ he added as he fetched a camera from his coat pocket. ‘She’s only an hour or two old—how about that?’
They sidled over to him, Amelia leading the way as normal, and stared wide-eyed at the pictures he showed them.
‘She’s very tiny.’ Amelia studied the camera with intense concentration. ‘And her face is all screwed up.’
‘And she hasn’t got any hair,’ Daisy put in. ‘Not even a bit.’
‘Not yet, but that will come.’ Steel smiled at the girls. ‘One day she’ll be as pretty as you.’
The twins looked doubtful. ‘Has she got a mummy and a daddy?’ Amelia asked after a moment or two.
Steel nodded. ‘A very nice mummy and daddy.’
‘We’ve just got a mummy,’ Daisy informed him. ‘Our daddy’s in heaven and he’s not coming back.’
Toni had just browned some more toast and now she froze, not knowing what to say to help Steel.
‘I think your mummy’s terrific,’ Steel said quietly, ‘better than any other mummy I know, which makes you very lucky, and I think she’s probably got some toast for you right now.’
‘Yes! Yes!’ Hot buttered toast was the twins’ favourite.
It was Daisy who said—once the girls had a slice of toast each—'Can we sit with you?’ as she stood in front of Steel, all brown-eyed entreaty.
‘I don’t see why not.’ Steel made room for the girls on each knee, careless of his designer suit and the dripping butter.
Toni looked into the chiselled male face and knew she would love him for ever. Which was terrifying.
By the time Toni’s parents made an appearance the twins had already been upstairs to inform their grandparents the steel man was in the kitchen having breakfast. Consequently Vivienne and William were remarkably matter-of-fact, congratulating Steel on becoming an uncle when he showed them the pictures of Miranda and acting as though it were commonplace to have a multimillionaire eating breakfast in their tiny kitchen.
Every moment was bittersweet for Toni. It was impossible not to imagine how it would be if the twins were Steel’s children, his flesh and blood, because he was so good with them and they seemed to have taken to him big time. For such a masculine man he definitely had a way with children, and she found this surprising, although she reflected she shouldn’t have. He had brought Annie up, hadn’t he? And she’d noticed he had a compassion for anything small and defenceless, even going to the bother of catching a spider and putting it outside when one had found its way into his office a few weeks back. On the other hand he was ruthless and uncompromising in business, annihilating the competition without any remorse and showing no weakness.
An enigma. She nodded mentally to the thought as she and the girls disappeared upstairs to wash and get dressed. Steel had suggested he give her a lift. He just needed to visit his apartment to change his clothes and have a shave first, he’d said blandly, as though the two of them arriving at the office together would provoke no comment.
Once the girls were ready for school they disappeared downstairs again leaving her to finish getting ready. By the time she came down they were jumping with excitement owing to the fact Steel had suggested he take them to the school’s breakfast club in his car.
‘It’s called a Rapide,’ Amelia informed Toni very seriously. ‘Because it goes fast. An’ it goes really, really fast, doesn’t it?’ she added, turning to Steel.
‘Like the wind,’ he assured the little girl gravely.
‘But not when it’s taking you two to school,’ Toni cautioned. ‘Then it goes nice and safely.’
‘Oh, Mummy.’ She was clearly the spoilsport this morning.
Toni could just feel the neighbours’ eyes boring into her back when she and Steel and the girls climbed into the car a few minutes later. Curtains were twitching and no doubt speculation would be rife. And this was just the beginning of it. Steel was larger than life in every respect and consequently people took a healthy—and not so healthy—interest in what he did. Mind, she supposed she bought the celebrity gossip mags now and again, which perhaps wasn’t so very different.
As luck would have it—bad luck—the first person Toni saw when she got out of the car with the girls was Poppy with Nathan. Poppy’s husband usually dropped Nathan off every morning on his way to work to save Poppy having to try and get the other three children dressed and out of the house so early—no mean feat since the new baby had arrived.
‘Graham’s taken a couple of days’ holiday so I can get on with some Christmas shopping without the kids,’ Poppy said as Toni reached her, talking to Toni but with her eyes fixed on the Aston Martin. ‘Is that him? Steel Landry?’
‘Uh-huh.’ Toni continued walking to the school gate but once the children had gone in Poppy caught hold of her arm. ‘You sly old fox, you. What’s going on?’
‘Nothing.’ She didn’t feel ready to discuss Steel this morning.
