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‘Um.’
He took the ring out of the box. ‘Marry me, Maddie,’ he said softly, and slid the ring onto the third finger of her left hand.
It was a perfect fit.
‘Now that,’ Theo said, ‘is a good omen.’
‘I guess so,’ she admitted.
‘Then are you going to put me out of my misery?’
‘This whole thing scares me stupid, Theo,’ she said.
‘That makes two of us. So let’s be scared together. I’m not Harry, Maddie. I’m not perfect either—I’m just a man. But I intend to be the best husband and father I can possibly be.’
Her eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh, Theo.’
He stood up and pulled her into his arms, holding her close and hoping she’d be able to take strength from his closeness. ‘So is that a yes?’
She dragged in a breath. ‘Yes,’ she whispered.
‘Good.’ He kissed her very gently. ‘After work, we’re going out to celebrate our engagement. You, me and a bottle of sparkling water.’
‘No champagne?’
He smiled, pleased that she was recovering her equilibrium enough to tease him. ‘If you want half a glass of champagne, agapi mou, you can have it with pleasure. But if you don’t like even the smell of coffee, my guess is you’re not going to like champagne right now either.’
She smiled back. ‘Fizzy water it is, then.’
The next week zoomed past. At the weekend Madison moved her belongings to Theo’s house—or, rather, she directed and he moved them, because he refused to let her lift a single thing. He also insisted on driving her down to Suffolk on the Sunday afternoon to meet her family, and to her relief they adored him.
And living with Theo was even better than she could have dreamed. She loved falling asleep in his arms at night, feeling protected and safe. Admittedly, he still hadn’t actually said he loved her, but he showed her in so many other ways. Like cooking bland foods for her so she could eat without feeling queasy, rubbing her back in exactly the right place even before she’d admitted that it ached, and making sure she didn’t overdo things. And what were words after all? Harry had said he loved her, but he hadn’t. Theo was definitely a man whose actions spoke louder than his words. She trusted him. So she really had to stop being silly and wishing he’d say he loved her. Stop being so needy.
Madison went to her booking-in appointment with the midwife on her own, but when her first blood tests came back, Theo looked at the results and frowned. ‘You’re rhesus negative.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘I’m not.’
She looked at him. ‘How do you know?’
‘I’m a blood donor.’
She shrugged. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter. The baby hasn’t necessarily inherited your blood group, and I haven’t had a previous miscarriage or termination, so even if the baby’s blood group is rhesus positive there’s no reason why I’d be sensitised to rhesus positive blood. No antibodies showed up on the screening, did they?’ She smiled. ‘There is such a thing as anti-D immunoglobulin—which I’ll have after the birth, and it’ll mop up any rhesus positive blood cells that might have crossed into me, so there shouldn’t be a problem in the future.’
‘And you’ll have more blood tests at twenty-eight and thirty-six weeks to make sure all’s well—and you’ll probably have anti-D in the last three weeks just to cover any of the little “silent” bleeds that happen in late pregnancy.’ He grimaced. ‘I know. I’m getting worried over nothing.’
She took his hand. ‘Theo, was your mum rhesus negative?’
‘No. So don’t start worrying on that score.’ He smiled wryly. ‘I’m worrying enough for both of us there, OK?’
No, it wasn’t OK. Because every time she tried to bring up the subject of his mother and reassure him that she was going to be perfectly fine, he distracted her. Threw up a brick wall. She knew he was trying to protect her from his fears, but it drove her crazy.
She still hadn’t managed to persuade Theo to talk about it by the beginning of August when she went for the dating scan, though this time he came to the antenatal appointment with her. And she noticed that Theo blinked back tears when he saw the image of their baby moving on the radiographer’s screen.
‘Considering how many times you’ve seen one of these over the years, Mr Petrakis,’ she teased, ‘you should be used to them by now.’
He held her hand tightly. ‘I know. But it’s the first time I’ve seen my baby.’ He stared at the screen. ‘It’s incredible.’
