The Marakaios Baby (The Marakaios Brides 2)
If she dared.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
IN THE DAYS after Margo told him about her childhood Leo found himself going over what she’d said and connecting the dots that before had seemed no more than a scattered, random design of inexplicable behaviour.
Now he was starting to understand why Margo had decided to marry for the sake of their child.
After a childhood like hers, he could see how the stability of a family life was something she would want to provide for her child...even if they didn’t love each other.
Except that basis was one Leo realised he could no longer assume. Did he love Margo? Could he love her? He certainly admired her resilience and her strength of spirit, her devotion to their unborn child. He was still deeply attracted to her, God knew. And if he let himself...if he stopped guarding his heart the way he suspected Margo was guarding hers...
Could this businesslike marriage become something more? Did he even want that? Margo had rejected him once. He understood why now, but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t do it again.
Things at least had become easier between them, and more relaxed: they shared most meals and chatted about ordinary things, and Margo had shown him her preliminary designs for the nursery, which he’d admired.
They were rebuilding the friendship they’d had before his marriage proposal, and this time it was so much deeper, so much more real.
One morning at breakfast Leo told her that Antonios and his wife Lindsay would be coming after Christmas for a short visit.
‘Are you looking forward to that?’ she asked, her dark, knowing gaze sweeping over him.
‘Yes, I think I am,’ Leo answered slowly.
He hadn’t seen his brother since right after his mother’s funeral, when Antonios and Lindsay had moved to New York and Leo had taken the reins of Marakaios Enterprises. He and Antonios had made peace with each other, but it was an uneasy one, and although they’d emailed and talked on the telephone since then Leo didn’t know how it would feel to be in the same room, to rake over the same memories.
‘It will be nice to meet some more of your family,’ Margo said, breaking into his thoughts. ‘Sorry I can’t return the favour.’
She spoke lightly, but he saw the darkness in her eyes, knew she was testing him, trying to see how he felt about what she’d told him now that he’d had time to process it. Accept it.
And what he felt, Leo knew, was sadness for Margo. Regret that he hadn’t known sooner. And a deep desire to make it better for her.
‘We have all the family we need right here,’ he said, and she blinked several times before smiling rather shyly.
‘What a lovely thing to say, Leo.’
‘It’s true.’
‘It’s still lovely.’
That afternoon they headed into Amfissa for Margo’s twenty-week scan. The last time they’d come to the hospital they’d been in an ambulance, filled with panic and fear. Leo saw the vestiges of both on Margo’s face as he drove into the hospital car park and knew she was remembering. Hell, he was too.
The panic didn’t leave Margo’s face or Leo’s gut until they were in the examination room and they could see their baby kicking on the screen.
The technician spent a long time taking measurements, checking the heart and lungs, fingers and toes. Leo held Margo’s hand the whole time.
‘Everything looks fine,’ she said, and they both sagged a bit with relief. ‘The placenta is starting to move, so hopefully the praevia will clear up before delivery. But we’ll keep an eye on it. If it doesn’t move completely by thirty weeks we’ll have to talk about a scheduled Caesarean section.’
Margo nodded, her face pale. Leo knew she would do whatever it took to keep their baby safe and healthy, although such an operation was hardly ideal.
‘Do you want to know the sex?’ the technician asked. ‘Because I can tell you. But only if you want to know.’
Leo and Margo looked at each other, apprehensive and excited.
‘Could you write it down?’ Leo asked. ‘And put it in an envelope? Then we can open it together.’
‘On Christmas Day,’ Margo agreed, clearly getting into the spirit of the thing. ‘A Christmas present to both of us.’
He smiled at her, and she smiled back, and Leo felt a kind of giddy excitement at the thought of knowing—and of knowing together.
* * *
Margo was determined to have a wonderful Christmas. The Christmases of her childhood had been unmarked, simply another day to survive. As an adult she’d decorated her apartment, and she and Sophie had exchanged presents, but that was as far as the celebrations had gone. Now, with a home and family of her own, she wanted to go all-out.