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She gathered all the pictures, stuffing them back into the box, and went downstairs.
* * *
Matt was seated in the lounge, elbows on knees, head dipped down. He knew this house could be everything he needed but, as it stood now, he didn’t enjoy coming back here. This was his parents’ home, not his. They were both gone. He could speak to neither of them. Couldn’t tell them about his baby or his plan to marry Hannah. He wanted to be the perfect father, but he didn’t know what that was. A stolid family man, just like his father? He didn’t want that for his child, but he didn’t know anything else.
It looked as though, at any moment, his mother would walk into this place to talk about some charity fundraiser or other. That his father would pour a scotch and retire to his office to work some more, without a smile or any acknowledgement that he was happy to see his son. But they wouldn’t. And this house reminded him of them. They were gone. All he had was Sarah.
Feeling Hannah’s presence, he looked up to see her enter the room with a box in her hand.
‘There’s a lot of stuff here. Not a lot of you, though,’ Hannah said.
‘I haven’t spent much time here since leaving boarding school. After school, Alex and I shared an apartment while we studied.’
‘Is that where you started Command Technologies?’
‘Yes. Having Alex’s buy-in, it was easy to attract investors and the capital I needed. I’m good at leveraging what I have.’ He was doing the same thing now. Maybe Hannah would be able to turn this house into a home for them. ‘What’s that?’
‘Photographs. The drawers and cupboards were empty except for this. I was wondering if you’d like to take it with you?’
Of course they were empty. Sarah had wanted very little from here, having inherited the country manor, which she’d promptly sold, unwilling to move away from her own home. Matt had had people come in to remove what had been left. All of it had either been donated to various charities or auctioned off. He thought his mother would have approved. He didn’t recognise the box, though.
He fought the urge to lean into Hannah as she sat beside him, pulling off the lid.
‘You were always a heartbreaker, weren’t you?’ she said lightly, handing the pictures over. His body tensed. ‘Are these all your family pictures?’
‘They must be.’ They hadn’t taken pictures often and, when they had, it had been a planned-out affair. After Matt and Sarah had been sent off to boarding school, the opportunities for such things had become fewer.
‘It’s like it’s you but not you,’ she said from beside him. ‘They’re so cold.’
He took the pictures, looked at the first one and threw it back into the box, shutting the lid firmly.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’ Her voice was tentative.
‘Do I want...? No, Hannah, I don’t,’ he said sharply. ‘This doesn’t concern you.’
‘Matt...’
‘Are you done snooping? You were supposed to be taking a look at this house to see if it could suit our family. Not digging around for answers to questions no one asked,’ Matt said with pure ice in his voice, tossing the box on the large coffee table and storming out of the room. With no real idea of where he was going, he simply followed his feet until, having stepped into his childhood bedroom, he shut the door. It reflected nothing of him. It hadn’t for years.
He sat heavily on the edge of the bed, regretting the way he had spoken to Hannah. Christ, he hadn’t meant to snap, but their agreement was never meant to include talking about his family. There was no need for it.
What he was starting with Hannah was meant to be purely for the benefit of his child. He didn’t need to rehash his past. Life before all of this really was none of Hannah’s concern. She needed to be a good mother, he needed to be a good father and that was all there was to it. He didn’t rely on anyone and had never asked for anyone’s support. He sure as hell wasn’t about to start now.
Emotions were a weakness. A man stood strong—resolute.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE TENDERNESS OF the night before was lost. Hannah could see that. Since she had kissed him, Matt had pulled away. It was the last thing she’d seen before falling asleep. And this morning he had put so much more space between them.
She had always associated Matt with warmth. From the moment they’d met she’d been able to see he was someone who made people feel comfortable. Not this person who, sure, looked like him yet seemed positively arctic in comparison.
Hannah pulled out one of the pictures from the box and studied Matt. He stood up straight, spine like steel. She was so used to his relaxed posture whenever he was around her that she’d never really noticed until now. The serious expression on his face also seemed at odds with who he really was because usually he smiled, winked and pursed his lips when he was thinking. The sparkle in his eye that she had noticed before was the only real indication that there was more inside him waiting to burst free.
How was this person her Matt?
She sighed, leaning back against the cushions of the large couch that had looked a lot more comfortable than it actually was, making her wonder if it was ever really used. Digging the heels of her hands into her eyes, she tried to merge the two images of Matt. All she could think about was the man who had seen her in Melbourne...
Seven months ago
