‘Were you going to tell me? Or would you let me go back to London, oblivious to the fact that I am a father?’ Thadie heard the anger in his voice, and she didn’t blame him. She would be angry too.
Feeling as if she were holding onto a frayed rope, Thadie walked to the kitchen area of her all-in-one room and yanked open the door to the cabinet next to the fridge. She banged two glasses onto the counter and reached for a bottle of whiskey she kept behind the cookie jar. She poured them both a healthy slug, thinking that they needed it. It wasn’t every day that you heard you were a father...
Or that you came face to face with the father of your twins. Thadie handed him a glass, knocked her shot back and looked longingly at the whiskey bottle. No, she had to do this sober. Not that she was in the habit of using alcohol to get through life and its many ups and downs.
Thadie told him to take a seat on one of the barstools on the opposite side of the island and, when he did, she rested her elbows on the marble countertop and tried to rub away her headache with her fingertips. ‘These past few days have been the craziest of my life,’ she muttered, mostly to herself.
‘Still waiting,’ Angus told her.
Right, here goes.She forced herself to meet his eyes. ‘I’m going to explain why I didn’t contact you first. Let’s get that out of the way.’
He nodded and she continued her explanation. ‘I lost my phone, remember? After I left the hotel, I got a new one and it was operational immediately. I was in the store when I realised that I hadn’t picked up your business card when I left my hotel room. I called the hotel, frantic, but they’d already cleaned the room. I asked them to look for it in the rubbish, they said they would. I pestered them all that day, I went back to the hotel, checked and rechecked the room and talked to the head housekeeper, but they never found it.’
She didn’t tell him that she cried, on and off, for days.
To her surprise, Angus closed his eyes and released a long breath. His reaction suggested that her explanation was a relief, but she didn’t have the faintest idea why. She shrugged away her curiosity and continued her explanation.
‘Since I only knew your first name, I couldn’t track you down. I figured it was just one of those things, we had a moment, and it was over. Eight weeks later, I realised I was pregnant.’
Angus sipped his whiskey, his expression impenetrable. ‘They say that condoms are ninety-nine per cent effective,’ he rumbled, pushing his fingers into his hair.
She hesitated, blushing. The sex they’d shared had been hot and all-consuming, and nothing like the tepid encounters she’d experienced before, and after, Angus. But they’d used protection, except for that one time. They said it only took once.
Judging by the way they’d almost blistered the paint on her kitchen walls earlier, that hot and all-consuming part hadn’t changed.
He grimaced. ‘I’m sorry.’
Shortly after meeting him, and had her brothers not walked into her house, she and Angus might be on round two. Shecouldn’t think when he touched her, and she wouldn’t be hypocritical by criticising him for his lack of control when she had none herself.
‘It was a chance we both took. We knew the potential consequences. And I wouldn’t change a thing. The twins are, no doubt, the best thing that ever happened to me.’
He looked past her to the fridge, as if looking for more proof of their existence. ‘How old are they...exactly?’
‘They turned three a couple of months ago,’ she said.
‘And what are their names?’
She looked down and closed one eye. ‘The oldest, by five minutes, is Gus. His brother is Finn.’
He narrowed his eyes, suspicious. ‘You named him after me?’ he demanded. It didn’t escape her attention that he didn’t thank her, for creating a link between them and the father she didn’t think they’d ever meet.
‘I would’ve given Finn your second name, but I didn’t know it.’
He winced and shook his head. ‘It’s Moncreiffe.’
‘Ah, maybe not, then.’
‘Look, I wanted simple English names for the boys, and I liked yours. It’s not a big deal.’
His sceptical look told her he didn’t believe her. ‘Let’s get back to the subject of my recently acquired set of sons,’ he said.
He made it sound as if he’d just picked up a new car or purchased a new watch. Or had been gifted a new pair of socks. Suddenly furious at his seeming lack of emotion, his focus on the facts, she poked his forearm with her finger. ‘Let’s get something straight right now—they aremysons. You might’ve provided the biological material, but my name is on the birth certificate, I have spent the last three years raising and loving them. They aremine, not yours!’
He couldn’t possibly think that he could slide back into her life and become an insta-dad to the boys. It didn’t work that way. ‘You are going to go back to London, and I will stay here and raise my sons.’
He looked confused and a little shaken and she couldn’t blame him.
‘Look, I’m still trying to make sense of this. I never envisioned having kids. It’s never been on my radar. I admit that I need time to process this but I’m not going to ignore the situation,’ he told her. ‘They are my responsibility. I’m not going to pretend they don’t exist!’