A woman scorned, she wanted to say, but he wouldn’t have heard her. He and Hope were two of the most physically blessed people she’d ever met and both had an amazing lack of vanity. He was so used to women lusting after him, he probably didn’t notice one more or less.
She closed her eyes. Where do I begin? she thought. ‘I’ve done some things I regret…’
‘If you feel the urge to confess, go see a priest,’ he advised harshly. ‘I’m not here to make you feel better.’
‘Oh, Sam!’ She bit her lip and his eyes became riveted on a single scarlet droplet of blood that trembled on the pale pink fullness. ‘Isn’t there something you can do to stop the story?’
‘You overestimate my powers. Once the machinery of the free press starts moving it flattens everything in its way.’ She dabbed the spot of blood with her tongue and a shudder racked his body. ‘Tell me, Rosalind, do you wreck all your boyfriends’ lives or am I getting special treatment? Should I warn your blond Adonis?’
She looked at him blankly. ‘I don’t…’
‘I saw you outside the hospital. I wanted to catch you alone, but then lover boy showed up. Silver Mercedes,’ he added, with a cynical smile. ‘He must have brought you home.’
God, he thought Adam… ‘He’s not my boyfriend; he’s married.’
‘From the way he was all over you that could soon change.’ Sam could almost see the neon arrow over his head inscribed with the word ‘jealous’. He read compassion in her eyes and wanted to break something—he didn’t need Rosalind Lacey’s pity!
‘I’ve popped the boys in the bath. Would you be an angel and keep an eye on them for me, Lindy?’ Anna breezed into the room.
‘Yes, of course.’ Lindy seized on the opportunity to escape. She didn’t want to let Anna see how upset she was or she’d begin to ask some very awkward questions. Subtlety wasn’t her sister’s strongest point.
She was halfway up the broad, curving sweep of stairs when Sam’s long legs caught up with her. ‘Your sister suggested I keep you company.’
‘She would!’ Being an only child had distinct advantages, she reflected. ‘You could have refused.’
‘It would have taken a braver man than me.’
‘Sometimes I don’t know how Adam puts up with her!’ Lindy pushed open the twins’ bedroom door and picked her way over the clutter of toys.
‘Is their marriage in trouble?’
Lindy gave a laugh. ‘They’re still at the honeymoon stage; maybe they always will be. I think they fell in love the first moment they met.’ She paused to pick up a large red truck that blocked her way. ‘It’s not exactly a tranquil relationship. It wouldn’t suit me, but they seem to like it that way. Boys, stop that!’ The bathroom floor was swimming with water.
Kneeling beside the bath, Lindy returned half the plastic bathroom toys to the tub. ‘Try to keep some of the water inside the bath, please.’
She got up, the steamy atmosphere already turning the fine wisps of hair around her face into a halo of curls. ‘You don’t have to stay. I won’t tell Anna.’
‘I saw Ben in the bath, once.’ The depth of longing in his voice made startled tears stand out in her eyes.
He tore his eyes away from the children and looked at Lindy.
‘Don’t you mind giving all this up for your married stud? Domesticity, children,’ he elaborated harshly.
Lindy knew he resented the fact that she’d witnessed his expression of loss. ‘I have my career.’ She didn’t bother correcting his assumption that Adam was her lover. While he thought that, he couldn’t know how incomplete her life felt without him. He couldn’t know she still loved him. I love him and he actually hates me, she thought.
‘Is that enough?’
‘It is for you. Do you think my biological clock makes me so different?’
‘Were you always so slick at avoiding giving a straight answer? You must be pretty crazy over this guy, Rosalind.’
‘Why?’ She pulled the plug on the boys. ‘Time up; the water’s getting cold.’ She held open one fluffy bath sheet and wrapped it firmly around the first body to clamber from the bath. Rather to her surprise, Sam did the same for his namesake. ‘Get in your pyjamas before you clean your teeth,’ she instructed as they both emerged from their vigorous rubs dry and glowing.
Sam took hold of the opposite corners of the bath sheet she held and they folded it corner to corner. They both took a step forward to finish the job. Sam pressed his end of the towelling square in her hands, but didn’t quite release his grip.