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‘Yes.’
He didn’t know if Naomi knew about the contract between him and Merida. It seemed irrelevant now. Abe could see how happy his brother and Merida were and, like every new father, Ethan came in every day with tales about his new baby.
And his wife.
Despite the contract and Abe’s gloomy predictions, it would seem they were very much in love.
It made his relationship with Candice, or rather the lack of it, so hollow.
So shallow.
Or rather, more simply, low.
And as Abe looked down at the fingers so tightly holding his, he knew that the woman who held this baby deserved to know that her first kiss hadn’t been entirely wasted on a cheat.
Even if it broke the terms of a contract he himself was bound to.
‘Naomi, I can’t really go into details but I am sorry that I wasn’t upfront with you about Candice.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ She shook her head, loath to confront things.
‘I think that it does.’
Naomi swallowed. She just looked at down at Ava, who lay blowing bubbles and utterly content and oblivious to a sometimes cruel world.
‘This can’t go any further,’ Abe said.
‘She’s two weeks old.’ Naomi deliberately misinterpreted, deflecting with a tease, but then she was serious. ‘If you mean me, you don’t have to worry, I’d never breathe a word.’
‘I know that.’ Intrinsically he did. ‘The truth is that Candice and I have an arrangement—as far as the press and the board are concerned, we’re in a relationship. We’re not, though.’
Naomi frowned, she simply didn’t understand. ‘But she came to the hospital to visit Ava, you’re going to the Devereux ball together...’ she pointed out, recalling Merida’s words.
‘It’s for appearances’ sake,’ Abe said. ‘The ball is just work and I have to take someone.’
‘So it’s just an act?’
He nodded, but that wasn’t enough for Naomi.
‘Are you saying that you’ve never been in a relationship and that you’ve never slept with her?’
‘No. We were together for a while. What I’m saying is that lately we haven’t been. We don’t...’
‘And she doesn’t have feelings for you?’ Naomi did look at him then, and she watched his jaw clamp down. ‘If you offered her more, she wouldn’t take it?’
‘It’s not like that,’ he insisted. ‘We have an agreement.’
But Naomi had heard enough. ‘Abe,’ she said, ‘can we not do this?’
‘But I want to tell you how it is.’
‘Well, I really don’t want to hear it.’
‘Naomi...’
‘Please, Abe, we’re both very different. Thank you for trying to explain things to me, and I’m glad that you don’t think you were cheating.’
‘I wasn’t.’
