'Yes.' Barbara's smile faded and she gave a worried frown. 'To be honest, I thought she looked a bit upset. She's in the bathroom and she's been in there for ages.'
Zach's mouth tightened. And he could guess what she was doing. Crying her eyes out.
'Don't worry.' He scooped his daughter up and gave the older woman a smile. 'I'll go and see her.'
'Good. I'll be off then.'
Zach loosened his tie and took the stairs two at a time, Phoebe's arms clutched tightly round his neck.
'Keely?' He called her name through the bathroom door but there was no answer and he cursed under his breath.
'Keely!'
He thumped a fist on the door and Phoebe's bottom lip trembled and her arms tightened around his neck.
'Daddy no shout. Daddy noisy. Daddy say sorry.'
Before he could answer he heard Keely's voice, slightly muffled from the bathroom.
'I'm OK, Zach. I'm just having a bath.'
He didn't believe her for a moment, but he was helpless to do much with Phoebe in his arms. He'd put her to bed first and then sort out Keely.
It was half an hour before he returned to the locked bathroom door, and there was still no sign of Keely.
He called her again and finally she opened the door.
She was wrapped in a towel, the ends of her blonde hair damp from the steam and her sweet face blotched with tears.
'Zach!' She scowled at him and tried to brush away the traces of tears, obviously annoyed that he'd caught her crying. 'I just wanted to be alone.'
'I was worried about you.'
'Well, I'm OK.' Conscious of her nakedness beneath the towel, a soft blush touched her cheeks. 'Leave me alone, Zach.'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'Because you're upset,' he said calmly, lifting a hand to brush a blonde strand of hair away from her face. 'And I think you'd feel better if you talked about it.'
She glared at him. 'You never talk about your feelings— why should I?'
She looked so sweet and defensive he could barely keep his hands off her.
Her half-naked body was testing his self-control to the limits, and the sooner he got her dressed the safer it would be for both of them.
'Why don't you come out of the bathroom,' he suggested, 'and we can talk about it downstairs?'
'I don't want to talk about it,' she mumbled. 'I just want to be left in peace.'
'Well, that's one thing I'm not going to do.' He lifted one dark eyebrow in her direction. 'Are you coming out or am I carrying you out?'
The tears welled in her hu
ge eyes and her voice shook. 'She was only four years old, and if her mother had had her immunised it never would have happened...'
Damn.