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‘Yes, we,’ she said. ‘I thought you wanted your dad to know about the baby?’
‘I know I have to tell him about it. I thought I’d call him. He’s not exactly going to demand to see the evidence. I’m not going up there and you don’t have to either, Elspeth. It’s going to be...awkward.’
‘Of course it is. That’s why I’m offering to be your wingman. Wing-woman. Whatever.’
She strengthened her resolve. He needed her there. This was going to be a hideously awkward family reunion, and a neutral observer would keep things on track.
‘This is not the sort of conversation you have on the phone. I think you should just go up there and get it done. I’ll come with you.’
‘Really? You’d do that? Walk smack-bang into the middle of someone else’s family drama?’
She shrugged. ‘Well, I think we’re family now. Your family drama is my family drama. And in my experience awkward family stuff usually goes better if you have a drinking partner.’
At last he cracked a smile. ‘You’re not going to be much use on that front.’
Elspeth threw up her hands and laughed softly, relieved that the tension in the room had broken. ‘I will happily drink cups of tea while feeding you whisky and mopping up your tears.’
‘Well, that’s a definition of love if ever I heard one.’
Elspeth laughed again, but couldn’t deny to herself the warm glow of something that she felt in the pit of her stomach. Fraser was right. That was family. That was friendship. Wanting to sit with someone and share their pain. To offer support through something difficult even when you stood to gain nothing. That was what you did for someone that you loved. She’d do it unquestioningly for her mother and Sarah. For a handful of her friends. And now, it seemed, for Fraser.
Friendly love. Family love. That was what he had meant. Not love love. He didn’t think she loved him. And she absolutely didn’t—she was quite sure about that. But just the mention of the L word had done something to the atmosphere in the room.
The sun had set while they had been talking, and the lamps placed around the room now seemed more mood lighting than bright and welcoming. The soft throw rugs on the white sofa looked sensuous and inviting, and the candle burning on the mantel seemed romantic rather than staged to sell a house.
Suddenly she was standing too close to him, and yet not close enough. Before she realised what she was doing she had taken half a step forward, and he had done the same. Leaving only the space of a breath between her face and his chest.
Elspeth looked up, surprised all over again by how he towered above her, and she felt a shiver of desire as she remembered what it was to be dominated by him. How it had felt to be with him...how aware she had been of his height, his size...how powerful she had felt giving up control to him.
His hand landed on the small of her back at the same moment that her fingertips brushed against his chest, and she had a split second to decide whether she was pulling him closer or pushing him away. Her body swayed towards him, leaving her in no doubt about where her baser instincts wanted her to take this. But reason won out at the last moment and she held her breath, pressing gently against Fraser’s chest as she retraced her steps, putting some much-needed space between them.
‘I like the apartment,’ she said, aware of how inane the words sounded given what had just almost happened between them.
She looked up, curious to see how Fraser would take the change of direction. He raised an eyebrow, and that tiny gesture showed her that he knew exactly what had just nearly happened between them, and that he had seen her swerve perfectly clearly. But he let it lie, and she figured he was as relieved as she was that they hadn’t complicated things by giving in to a momentary spike of lust.
They had been perfectly clear with one another that nothing like that was on the cards between them. They just had to be sure to remember it when they were tempted.
‘I’ll take it, then,’ Fraser said.
It took Elspeth a moment to remember that he was talking about the apartment. And then another to marvel at the fact that he could make the decision just like that on a property purchase that must run into seven figures. And then she took another moment to remember that this was the life her child was being born into. Would it feel normal for her child, one day, to drop upwards of a million pounds on a second home just because it was more convenient than the castle out in the country where it normally resided?
No, she reminded herself. Because regardless of where Fraser had been born, and regardless of whether he patched things up with his father, this baby would be living with her. Her and her mother and Sarah, in their comfortable bungalow with only a few decades of memories and zero coats of arms on the walls.
‘We’ve not even seen all of it yet,’ she reminded him.
Though, on reflection, reminding him that they hadn’t seen the bedrooms maybe wasn’t her most sensible move. He stood back, gesturing her towards the hallway from where several doorways led off. She tried not to feel self-conscious as she walked ahead of him. Tried not to wonder whether he was looking at her bottom in the close-fitting shift dress she had chosen to wear that morning.
It had seemed sensible and professional when she had chosen it. Now it seemed sensuous. She knew that it made the most of the few curves she had, and she couldn’t help but wonder whether Fraser had noticed. Had that been what was really on her mind when she had taken it off the hanger a few hours before?
She opened the first
door she came to and gave the opulent bathroom a nod. It was big, luxurious and marble. Exactly what she’d expect of a bathroom in an apartment in this part of town. The next door revealed a bedroom, its enormous bed piled high with more pillows, blankets, bedspreads and throws than a bachelor could ever need.
She had a brief thought, not quite fully formed, that this would be where Fraser would sleep—and that he wouldn’t always do so alone—and shut the door. Both on the thought and on the bed.
She caught Fraser’s eye, and knew that he had clocked something but decided not to say anything. Wise man.
She opened the next door, prepared just to glance inside and then close it as quickly, but the sight of an enormous white cot-bed made her pause with her hand still on the doorknob, temporarily winded.
