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“I found out at the scan.”
“His dad’s called Neal. Mine’s Brandon. Anyway, I had an older brother, Christian. He was the same age as Saxon and Kip.”
Past tense? I glance at her, but she’s busy lowering the shade on the stroller to keep the sun out of Eddie’s eyes.
“The three of them and sometimes Damon too were thick as thieves, really naughty, always getting into sticky situations, and they invariably dragged me along with them. It was summer, and we’d all gone to the beach. They boys were all strong swimmers—I was a bit younger, but still pretty good. The guys decided we were going to swim out to this cave that had been carved by the sea. It wasn’t far, and we made it fine, although the water was quite choppy. When we got there, we went into the cave. There were lots of rock pools, one or two quite deep, and we spent ages fishing out crabs and arsing about. All these rocks were piled up to the side where the sea had washed them in. And we didn’t realize that one side was loose.”
She stops and checks both ways, and we cross over to the other side of the road. The story—that is obviously going to turn tragic—seems incongruous with the brightness of the day.
“Christian was a climber, always going up trees and rock faces. He decided he was going to climb this pile of rocks, and up he went… But he slipped, and his weight must have upset the way the rocks were balanced. I was sitting by one of the rock pools, quite close to the rocks, looking in the water. Apparently Christian fell right into one of the rock pools with all the rocks on top of him. I was half-buried by them, and they crushed my left arm. I don’t remember much about it. Kip swam off to get help. Damon and Saxon tried to move the rocks, but of course, it was too late for Christian. The coroner’s verdict was that he drowned.”
“Oh, Kennedy, I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” she says softly. “But I thought you should know, because it’s affected Saxon a lot over the years.”
She stops as we reach McDonald’s, and we go into the busy, bright interior. “What do you fancy?” she asks as we study one of the order boards. “I might have one of their wraps because they’re a bit healthier, right? What about you?”
I’m tempted to have another burger, but remember the doctor’s advice to eat more healthily, and say, “Yes, I’ll have the same, please.”
She puts through the order, adds a couple of hashbrowns for good measure and some drinks, and swipes Saxon’s card. Then she takes us over to an empty table. She unclips Eddie and lifts him out of the stroller, then says, “Do you mind holding him while I get the food?”
“Um… okay.” Flustered, I accept the baby as she plonks him onto my lap, and she walks off.
The little boy looks up at me, probably feeling as startled as I am. “Hello,” I say to him. “I’m Catie.”
He studies me with these enormous blue eyes. He has a gorgeous little face with bright red cheeks. I touch the light-brown curls on his head and find them soft as feathers. He waves Puppy at me, and I take him, look at the dog, and say, “Hello, Puppy.” Then, following Saxon, I boop the baby’s nose with Puppy’s paw, and Eddie laughs and grabs the toy.
“Here we go.” Kennedy puts the tray of food on the table, then takes Eddie from me and slides onto the opposite bench.
Pleased at my first interaction with a baby, and that I didn’t drop him or make him cry, I divide up the food, watching while trying not to look as if I’m watching as she turns away a little, lifts her T-shirt, and fiddles with the top of her bra. Oh, she’s unhooked the cup, that’s clever. She lowers it and puts the baby to her breast, makes sure he’s settled, tucks her clothing around him, then sighs and gives a little shudder.
“Ooh,” she says, “the let-down reflex still makes me tingle.”
“I’m ashamed to say I don’t know what that is,” I admit, thinking it’s better to be honest, because it’s the only way I’m going to learn.
“Oh, when baby starts to suck, the milk starts flowing, and sometimes you can feel it, like a tingle. Are you going to breastfeed?”
“Um… I guess. Do you think it’s best to?”
“Oh God yes, if you can. Breast milk is really nutritional for babies. It’s got antibodies that help protect them against illnesses and infections.”
“I didn’t know that.”
She gives me an appraising look, but just says, “Twins are going to be fun. One at each boob!”
“I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“You’ll need breast pads—we’ll make sure we get some of those when we go shopping. Leakage is a major problem.” She has a drink from her water bottle, her eyes gleaming. “Especially during sex.”
My eyes widen.
“Orgasms can make the milk squirt out,” she clarifies. “You can either wear a bra and pads to bed, or embrace it and try to hit the wall.” She laughs and pulls her wrap toward her. “Saxon will probably enjoy the challenge. I’m betting he’s on the kinky side?” She raises an eyebrow and chuckles.
My cheeks turn volcanic. “I don’t… um… I mean… we’re not together. We only had a one-night stand four months ago.”
She studies my face, her expression surprised. “Oh,” she softly. “I’m so sorry. I thought… Hmm.”
I concentrate on opening the wrap.
