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“That’s terrible!”
“We are not going to do that, Nina.”
“Oh, no!” She grabbed another strawberry, fascinated by these revelations about Jack’s childhood.
He stood up and pointed at the bassinette. “This kid is going to be brought up right.”
She nodded agreement, her mouth full of juicy fruit, her eyes feasting on a vision of Jack as a dedicated and devoted parent.
He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Must get to work now. I’ve got a shipment of stuff coming in. Keep eating, Nina. You need building up. Put some cream on the strawberries. It’s good for the kid.”
She nodded again, totally dumbfounded by this turn of events.
He paused by the bassinette. “See you tonight, Charlie girl. Be good for your mum. We’ve got to get her straightened out on a few things.”
He was almost out the door before Nina remembered. “Sally is picking me up tonight,” she called after him. “I’m going home, Jack.”
He halted, looking at her with determined authority. “Correction. I’m picking you up. I’ve already fixed it with Sally. Very understanding woman, Sally. She let me into your granny flat so I could provision your fridge properly. No more skimping on meals, Nina.”
He left, having taken over as he pleased. Nina felt steamrollered. Maybe she did need straightening out. Hope jiggled in her heart and danced around her mind as she poured some cream onto the strawberries. She looked at Charlotte, who was still sleeping peacefully.
“Well, kid,” she said giddily. “Maybe you’ve got a dad after all.” Then she sobered up and added, “But I’ll believe it when I see it.”
CHAPTER SIX
IT WAS strange, sitting beside Jack in his car, driving across the city. Nina felt she was in a time warp, as though the past eight months hadn’t happened. Same big, four-wheel-drive Range Rover he had owned then, same sense of being king of the road with all the lower traffic around them, same man in control of where they went, drawing an intense physical awareness of him, same feeling of intimacy, enclosed in a world of their own.
To shake off the eerie feeling, Nina kept glancing around to check that Charlotte was, indeed, with them, securely tucked into her capsule and undisturbed by her new and strange surroundings. Life had moved on, and Charlotte added another dimension to it.
Jack had expertly anchored the capsule on the rear seat. He’d had his vehicle fitted for it today, learning where to put the bolt from the safety harness and get everything adjusted properly. Nina was amazed at his forethought. At least in this practical sense he had accepted Charlotte.
“Stop worrying, Nina. There’s no problem.” He gave her a reassuring smile as he caught her glancing at the rear seat again. “Babies always sleep in moving vehicles.”
“How do you know that?”
His smile turned lopsided. “A guy I know drove around most of one night with his kid. His wife was desperate for sleep, and it was a surefire way to stop the baby from crying.”
“Maybe there was something wrong with the baby.”
“Just colic.”
He spoke so matter-of-factly, yet Nina was acutely conscious of the problems he listed and how they could affect their rela
tionship. So far, Jack had only ever seen Charlotte asleep, like a serene little doll, demanding only a token acknowledgment. It was easy to think nothing much had changed. She was guilty of it herself, sitting beside him, remembering how it had been together…before Charlotte.
But they weren’t going out on a date and they weren’t going home to make love. Tension knotted her stomach as she wondered about Jack’s expectations of tonight. Did he think they could pick up from where they had left off eight months ago?
He hadn’t tried to kiss her, as yet. Not properly. Nor had he really touched her except in courteous and caring support. She stared at his hands, lightly guiding the steering wheel. Perhaps it was from his love of working with wood, bringing out the beauty of its grain. Jack had wonderfully sensitive hands. As much as Nina craved the physical reassurance of his love, it was too soon to let him resume their former intimacy.
Too soon in several senses. Her body needed recovery time from the ordeal of giving birth. Apart from which, Nina felt the need to test Jack’s commitment to Charlotte before involving herself too closely with him. She couldn’t risk accepting it on faith alone. The road to hell was paved with good intentions.
They were driving into the harbour tunnel now. Once they emerged on the north side, it wasn’t far to Lane Cove, where Sally’s house and business were handily situated to draw clients from both the northern and western suburbs of Sydney. Nina hoped Jack wasn’t anticipating staying overnight in her granny flat. She hoped he wasn’t assuming everything was settled between them. It wasn’t. Maybe she should make that clear right now.
Something rolled against her feet as the Rover headed down the tunnel. She leaned over to pick it up. A can of dog meat. Nina stared at it, inwardly recoiling from what it meant. Jack still had the dog.
“Sorry about that,” he said, glancing over with a rueful grimace. “Must have escaped from one of the shopping bags. Better put it in the glove box, out of the way.”
She did as he suggested, wishing Jack wasn’t so attached to the mongrel dog he’d rescued from the RSPCA. It was big and fierce, and she was frightened of it. Jack had trained it to be a great watchdog, which was important, since the furniture he worked on was very valuable. Although he insisted Spike’s bark was worse than his bite, Nina had never been able to bring herself to pat it and play with it as Jack did.
