Snowbound: Miracle Marriage (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 8)

‘Because it’s late. I thought you might be very tired.’ He spoke the words slowly, emphasising each one as if she were a small child. ‘You’re jet-lagged. I thought you’d need some rest.’

Rest?

He was suggesting that she go home to rest?

Facing the onset of massive embarrassment, Hayley looked at him stupidly. ‘You want me to—You were suggesting—Oh.’

There was a shimmer of amusement in his eyes, but also a flicker of sympathy. ‘Hayley, listen, don’t for one moment think that I don’t—’

‘If you laugh now, Patrick Buchannan, you will never be able to deliver a baby again,’ she warned huskily, ‘let alone make another one of your own. If you laugh, you will never again have to ask a woman if she’s pregnant.’

‘I’m not laughing.’

‘Good.’ She lifted her chin, trying to hold onto the last shreds of her dignity, trying to look as though this situation was entirely normal and that she didn’t really want to die on the spot. But she saw immediately that this whole misunderstanding was her fault. Because she’d been thinking about nothing but sex, she’d assumed he’d be the same.

‘Right. So you were, in fact, asking whether I want to go home and sleep.’ Hayley cleared her throat and tried to make her voice sound casual. As if she had conversations about sex every day of the week. As if she were a twenty-first-century woman. ‘Of course. That’s fine.’ This was even more embarrassing than realising she’d left her knickers on his bedroom floor.

‘Hayley—’

‘It’s kind of you to offer, but actually I’m not particularly tired.’ She felt like a stripper who had accidentally turned up at children’s party. ‘I don’t need to go back to the house now.’ She was never going back to his house again. As soon as the shift was over she was going to change her identity and leave the country. Maybe she’d become a nun—at least that way she wouldn’t have the opportunity to proposition men.

‘You’ve done us a favour, coming in,’ Patrick said cautiously, watching her closely as if he was afraid she might flip at any moment. ‘You’ve calmed Sally down, it’s probably because of you that she’s progressed. But none of us are for getting it’s Christmas Day and you weren’t supposed to be working. The night staff will be here soon.’

‘Sally is only eight centimetres dilated. I won’t leave until she has the baby.’ And that would mean staying near to Patrick. Oh, Hayley, torture yourself, why don’t you? Still, if things got too bad she could always drown herself in the birthing pool. ‘I’ll stay.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Oh, yes. I’m very good at decisions. Once I’ve made a decision…’ Hayley snapped her fingers ‘…that’s it. Done. I never change my mind.’ Well, only about three thousand, two hundred and fifty-four times.

&n

bsp; ‘That’s very generous of you. Sally will be relieved—and so will Tom. He rates you, and that’s a compliment coming from Tom.’

Now he was flattering her to make her feel better, Hayley thought gloomily, remembering the sympathy in his eyes. He must think she was a sad, desperate woman. Not wanting to dwell on that, she changed the subject. ‘What are you going to do about the children? It must be Posy’s bedtime.’

‘It is. If you’re sure you’re willing to stay for Sally, I’ll send the kids home with my brother. They won’t complain—they adore Daniel.’

‘So you’re not going to ring the babysitter with the vampire lipstick?’

A sardonic smile flickered across his handsome face. ‘I think we might give her a miss this time. I think spending Christmas night with a vampire might be a little unfair on the kids. Although I have asked her to pop in and check on the kittens.’ His eyes gleamed with irony. ‘Yours and mine.’

‘I love the kittens.’ Why did he have to be so good-looking? It wasn’t fair. Things would have been much easier if he’d been small, earnest and academic. Reminding herself that if he’d been small, earnest and academic, she wouldn’t have left her knickers on his bedroom floor, Hayley smoothed her scrub suit and tried to look professional. As if she hadn’t just made it obvious that her feelings about him were anything but professional. ‘I’d better get back before Tom has a breakdown. You go and sort out the kids.’

‘Alfie advertised for a housekeeper? And he used my credit card?’

‘Yes, but that will teach you to leave it lying around.’ Patrick handed his brother a large bag. ‘This is everything they’re going to need for the night. You know, it might be easier if you just stayed in our house—’

‘No.’ Daniel gave a strange smile. ‘Today I asked Stella to marry me—’

‘I know.’

Daniel’s brows rose. ‘How do you know?’

‘You’re forgetting I have Alfie. He knows everything that goes on around here,’ Patrick said wearily. ‘So, did Stella say yes?’

‘Of course she said yes.’

‘Then she’s a brave woman.’