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‘I’m going to be there for the pregnancy, the birth, the nappies. The twins will be mine,’ Steele said. ‘They will know about Gerry and when they turn into feral teenagers and say that I’m not their real father, I won’t be hurt, not for a second. Instead, you and I will laugh in their moody, acne-laden faces when they say that, because we know we dealt with all that in Hawaii many, many years ago.’
Candy let out a breath.
‘It’s not just you that has concerns about getting married,’ he said. ‘I made a list of my own.’ He took out his boarding pass and she read it.
Movies.
Football.
Cricket.
‘It’s a lot less complicated than mine,’ she said.
‘Oh, no, it isn’t. I like my life very much and there are certain...er...requirements that I swore I would not forgo...’
She looked at him.
‘The movies,’ Steele explained. ‘I like to go on my own sometimes. I just do. I don’t want you saying, “But you used to take me”...’
Candy smiled.
‘And I know it’s horrible and selfish to take myself off when you’ll have been stuck indoors with screaming twins, so perhaps you might like to take yourself off now and then to wherever ladies take themselves off to...’
‘Like a spa day?’ she said.
‘I think so.’
‘And you’d never say, “Oh, Candy, why do you have so many spa days? Why don’t I come with you this time?”’
‘Never,’ he promised.
‘Deal.’
‘The football and cricket are one and the same...’ He looked a bit worried and so too was Candy as she hated sport—it made her sweat and feel shaky and that was just watching it. ‘I don’t do romantic holidays,’ he said. ‘I shall, of course, and I’ll do family ones too, but I have a group of friends and we like some big-ticket stuff.’
‘Such as?’
‘You remember how well we negotiated the movie issue?’ Steele checked, because was he really going to land a perfect woman who didn’t mind what he was about to suggest?
‘I do.’ Candy was very curious. She loved their discussions. ‘What sort of big-ticket stuff?’
‘International cricket events. World Cup...’
‘Oh.’
‘We don’t always all go to everything.’
Candy said nothing at first. It really was a bit awkward. ‘Would I be expected to go?’
‘Well...’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of drinking and singing...’ He waited for her to say that no way would she ever want to go. Yes, this was awkward. ‘Might be a bit of bad language, which wouldn’t be great for the twins.’ Still Candy said nothing and so he told her the real deal. ‘There’s also a very strict no-girlfriends-or-wives agreement, which I have, over the years, enforced on my friends several times. I’d never be able to live it down if I asked to bring you.’
He watched a little smile play on her lips.
‘However,’ he said quickly, ‘I would think, given I’d be going away with friends for a couple of weeks now and then and leaving you, that you might need to escape with your girlfriends for a holiday every now and then, and I’d look after the twins and however many others we have...’
‘Oh, I think I could agree to that.’ Candy smiled and she looked at him, a man so happy in himself he wasn’t looking for the other half. It had just turned out that she happened to be it. ‘I love you, even without the twins, you do know that.’
‘Why isn’t there anything written about me on your list, then?’ Steele asked, loving the way she blushed.
‘I tried to write a letter.’
‘Show me.’
‘That’s so unfair.’
‘I need to know you love me, Candy,’ he teased, and held out his hand.
It was so embarrassing as he sat there and read how crazy she was about him and then he started to laugh.
‘“Friends with benefits.” I’m sorry, Candy, this might be insensitive but if I’m having a friend with benefits then I want the blonde, leggy Candy. Not the heavily pregnant with twins one—that’s husband stuff.’ He looked at her. ‘Marry me?’
