Suddenly the pots weren’t the only things simmering. He turned away, looking for something else to focus on, wondering what the hell was in the package under his arm until he remembered his plan. And in order to carry out that plan, the last thing he needed was to start imagining Angelina naked. Certainly not after that kiss and discovering how good she tasted.
It was the baby he was supposed to be bonding with, after all.
He grabbed a cold beer from the drinks fridge, willing its coolness south. ‘I’ll be down in the workshop if you need me. And Angelina?’ She looked up, all blue-eyed innocence in a pinny he was having far less innocent thoughts about. ‘I’ve got something to show you after dinner.’
He sat on the stool, his beer growing warm, Poppa’s tools laid out on the bench before him. The wood was hard. The piece was challenging. But it was in there, he knew. And there was no way he wasn’t going to find it.
‘Mind if I join you?’ She’d disappeared after dinner while he’d gone to check the markets, but Dominic found her in the ballroom of all places, with a chair pulled up close to a set of French windows and a pile of books stacked next to her, an open book on her lap. ‘What are you doing? And why here?’
‘I like it here,’ she answered, sliding a bookmark between the pages and folding shut the book and inviting him to pull up a chair. ‘I can see the sea but not burn to a crisp or get distracted by Sven the pool boy.’
He frowned. ‘Since when did we have a pool boy called Sven?’
This time she did smile. ‘That’s my fantasy. You get your own.’ He liked the smile. He liked that for once it was directed at him, even if she was laughing at him at the same time.
He glanced at the cover of the book she was reading, his eyes scanning the titles of the others in her pile. He felt himself frown. ‘Those are all birthing books.’
‘Go figure. I can’t imagine why.’ Her words were tart but there was another smile lurking there behind her own mock frown, he was convinced of it.
‘Do you really need them, though?’
She blinked. ‘I am having a baby, Dominic, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘Sure. But… Don’t you… Surely… I mean, I didn’t think you’d actually want to have it, if you know what I mean.’
She blinked again, shook her head. ‘I don’t think I’m following you. I just want to be prepared for what’s going to happen.’
He finally pulled over a chair and sat down, putting down the package he’d brought with him while he ran the fingers of one hand through his hair. ‘But why put yourself through the actual birth? Why go through all that pain and discomfort?’
‘Because that’s how women have babies?’
He shook his head; it made no sense to him. ‘Wouldn’t you rather have a Caesarean or something, though? So at least you can get organised?’
‘You imagine Caesareans come without pain and discomfort?’
‘But why do that to yourself?’ God, Carla had been talking Caesarean from day one and that had been for her own child. A planned caesar, a personal trainer to get her back into shape, a plastic surgeon for the bits that refused to be trained. She’d had it all worked out. It wasn’t as if he necessarily objected, but he just didn’t understand. ‘It’s not like it’s even your baby.’
She looked out to sea, at the rolling swell and the shifting diamonds sprinkled upon the surface of the water by the sun. No. It wasn’t her baby. It had never been her baby.
But the more her body changed and the longer she harboured this other tiny life, the more she felt herself wishing that things could be different. ‘I know,’ she said on a sigh. ‘Why don’t we talk to the doctors about that? I just don’t want to take any unnecessary risks with this child, whoever it belongs to. Okay?’
He’d upset her, he could tell, but for the life of him, he couldn’t work out why. He’d thought he was being considerate, thinking about her. He didn’t expect her to go through hell to have his baby.
‘Why did you come looking for me?’
‘Oh.’ He retrieved the parcel by his side, pulled out a stash of picture books. ‘I went to a bookshop today. I wanted to get something I could read to the baby. To get it used to my voice before it’s born. They say it can hear from a few months, maybe not quite yet, but given you are leaving, I should do something to bond with this child.’