A Proposal to Remember

‘Ouch. Is that a put-down?’

She looked at him and smiled shyly. ‘I’m buying my tree tonight. If you’ll lend me those muscles again, I’ll cook you supper.’

His smile faded and there was no missing the sudden tension in his frame. ‘Zan, about tonight…’

She saw the hesitation and felt the colour rush to her cheeks.

He’d had second thoughts.

Oh, damn, damn, damn. How could she have been so stupid?

A man as experienced as him certainly wouldn’t want to be bothered with a virgin.

‘Don’t worry, I’m strong enough to carry the tree myself,’ she said quickly, looking away and missing the frown that touched his brows. ‘We’d better get going. This clinic sometimes runs until early afternoon if we dawdle. I’ll call Mrs Hughes.’ Without giving him a chance to speak, Zan left the room and sought sanctuary in the waiting area. She saw her patient immediately and managed to produce a smile.

‘We’re ready for you, Mrs Hughes.’

* * *

Carlo closed his eyes and cursed softly in Italian.

Zan thought he didn’t want to see her again.

He was in an impossible situation. He’d promised Matt that he wouldn’t see her again, at least for the time being, but that was going to hurt her badly and frankly he didn’t feel too great about it either. But if he carried on then eventually he was going to have to confess that he’d been withholding significant information about himself, and additionally he could be putting her at risk.

Whichever route he took, he was going to hurt her.

She walked into the room at that moment, the twinkle missing from her gorgeous green eyes.

‘This is Helen Hughes.’ She smiled at the lady with her and helped her up onto the examination couch. ‘You might as well see us both at the same time, Helen. It will save us asking the same questions.’

Carlo introduced himself and tried to drag his mind back to the job in hand. He gave the patient a warm smile and walked over to the couch. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Pretty awful,’ Helen Hughes confessed immediately. ‘I’ve got terrible backache and indigestion which keeps me awake at night.’

Carlo nodded. ‘Because you are carrying two babies, your uterus is that much larger than that of a mother who is pregnant with one child. I’m afraid that all the normal problems of pregnancy are often worse when you are expecting twins.’

Helen pulled a face and rubbed her back. ‘Tell me about it. And it doesn’t help that I already have two children to look after.’ She exchanged a wry smile with Zan. ‘We thought we’d have one more baby and look what happened.’

Carlo smiled. ‘Is there a history of twins in your family?’

Helen nodded. ‘I’m a twin and my aunt and my sister both had twins. I suppose I’m lucky I only had one set!’

Zan checked Helen’s blood pressure and tested her urine sample for evidence of protein.

‘That’s all fine, Helen.’ She showed the results to Carlo, who nodded.

‘I’d like to feel your stomach, if that’s all right.’ He helped Helen wriggle down on the examining couch and then assessed the size of the uterus and the way the babies were lying.

Helen looked at him curiously. ‘Can you tell which is which?’

‘The first twin is lying head down in what we call a longitudinal position,’ Carlo said immediately, and Helen’s eyes widened.

‘That’s very impressive. The last doctor I had didn’t have a clue! He had to scan me.’

‘It can be hard when there are two babies,’ Carlo admitted. ‘Sometimes we need a scan to assess precisely how they are lying, but twins and triplets are a special interest of mine. Where I work in Italy, we also run an infertility clinic and, as you probably know, one of the consequences of infertility treatment is sometimes multiple births. We try to avoid it wherever we can, but I have more experience than most in delivering twins and triplets.’

‘Oh.’ Helen looked at him with a new respect. ‘The doctor I saw here last time had never even delivered twins before. I have to confess it didn’t fill me with confidence. Will you deliver me?’