AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Mum.’ Maude smiled, very much aware that Mateo had strolled towards her, joining her on the sofa, his thigh against hers, his legs spread as he relaxed back, ‘I didn’t think anyone actually developed photos in this day and age.’
‘Darling, you know I like putting everything in frames!’ She smiled and winked at Mateo. ‘I’m not a fan of scrolling through a phone to look at pictures.’
Mateo was smiling good-naturedly, duly glancing at the array of family snapshots on the sideboard and knowing that, if he did a thorough house inspection, he would find many dozens more strewn on surfaces in all the rooms.
This was what he had missed out on. These were all the tangible, physical manifestations of the life he had never had, however good his father had been when it had come to raising him. And this was what Maude had wanted for herself, the big thing she felt she had sacrificed, the thing that only love could bring to the equation.
The moment passed by, leaving an uncomfortable taste in his mouth. Felicity, having got their undivided attention and having moved away from the holiday chit chat, fixed them both with a beady stare.
‘Okay, don’t tell me that you two love birds have hurried over here at full pelt because you couldn’t wait a minute longer to hear about our holiday abroad. I know that can’t be true because I usually have to force this young lady to come visit us...’
She grinned and rested her hand lightly on her husband’s knee, an unthinking gesture of affection. ‘I’d say spit it out right now, but Nick and Amy are popping over for supper, so if you have urgent news then maybe it can wait until they come? Which will be in...remind me what time they’re coming, darling?’
‘They’ll be here in fifteen.’
‘So, can it wait?’
‘Mum, since when do you have toforceme to visit?’
‘Perhaps I exaggerated a little.’ Felicity smiled and blew Maude a kiss.
‘Well,’ Maude began, ‘As it happens, wehavegot...er...’
She was interrupted. The doorbell went and that was good. No, she was not going to back out of this agreement now, but the enormity of what she was embarking on was dawning on her. In thirty years’ time, would she and Mateo have photos proudly displayed on every surface conceivable? Would they be taking romantic trips together? Or would their very functional relationship have evolved into two separate people leading separate lives, sleeping in separate quarters in the very big house only huge amounts of money could buy? Would they even still be together?
Maude knew this was a pointless direction for her thoughts to take but she was still tussling with them when Amy appeared in the doorway and Nick behind her, his arm around his wife’s waist, her head leaning back on his shoulder, both smiling, both radiantly happy.
Mateo watched this family gathering at its most relaxed, very different from when he had last seen them all at that pre-wedding do, and held back as Maude stood to move towards her brother and sister-in-law, along with her parents.
He had got what he wanted.
He had never felt the drive to be possessive about anyone in his life before. He had become an island, strong, powerful and utterly shatter-proof. Cassie had been his one and only weakness and, even then, he had never given her anything more than his sympathy. But this baby... From the minute he had known of its existence, Mateo had realised that he would do his utmost for it, and that included marrying a woman who, to be brutally honest, had had no interest in marryinghim. He had been given a deck of cards and he had known how to play them to his benefit.
But Maude had been out of sorts on the drive here. Had the prospect of seeing her parents again wakened her to what she was in the process of giving up?
He had watched her and, for the first time, he had realised that when it came to anything that involved emotion nothing was black and white. Inhisworld, the world he had created for himself, there were no shades of grey. When he had decided that marriage was the solution to what had been thrown at him, that too had been a black and white decision.
But he had looked at those photos on the sideboard, had watched Maude as she had looked at them, and had felt as though he’d been given an insight into how she thought without her having to say a word. It had been a sucker punch to his gut.
And then when Nick and Amy had come in, the very picture of happiness, he had seen the shadow that had flitted over Maude’s face. She’d smiled and moved, arms open to hug, but something inside her had crumpled and it had crumpled because of him.
He was the one who had given her a chilling alternative to the perfectly reasonable picture she had painted of two adults leading their own lives while still loving the child they had accidentally created together. He was the one who had swayed her into thinking that it was okay to give up on the dream of a happy family she’d probably had since she was a kid because of a baby.
But now Mateo had had an insight into just what that meant. It meant taking away her chance to find someone she loved, who loved her back. It meant taking away her chance to follow in her brother’s footsteps and aim for the happy-ever-after life, whilst he had given up on all of that a long, long time ago.
In the flurry of activity, and with Nick and Amy demanding all the holiday info Maude and him had already been given, Mateo took the opportunity to pull Maude to one side as everyone else trooped into the kitchen where the drinks and nibbles had been left on the kitchen table.
‘You’re having second thoughts.’
‘No,’ Maude said honestly. ‘I’m not.’
‘I can see it on your face, Maude.’
‘What can you see, Mateo?’
‘Being back here...seeing your parents, seeing your brother and his wife... Has the reality of what lies ahead kicked in for you? Have you discovered that you don’t like the image you’re looking at?’
‘That’s not important.’ Maude looked down. She could feel a dull throb in her temples as she stared at his expensive shoes, knowing that to follow that line up, to follow the line of his beautiful body, would be a little heart-breaking just at the moment. She quickly raised her eyes to his face and looked at him steadily.
