“To hell with dinner. I’ll cancel it. I want to know what’s going on withyou.”
She couldn’t deny it again. She didn’t want to lie to him – nor did she want to tell him how jealous she was. A tangled web seemed to be ensnaring her, making every breath difficult.
“So what? I have to spill my inner-most thoughts just because you click your fingers when you won’t evertalkto me about anything?” She glared at him, anger bubbling over, getting dangerously close to hysteria. “Go to hell, Gray.”
“I think I’m already there,” he muttered, so she flinched, the words landing against her like stones.
She whipped around to face him, staring at him, her heart in her throat. “If you have a problem with this, then just say so. We don’t have to get married, you know.”
His eyes bore into her, twisting her insides into knots. “Don’t we?”
She closed her eyes, pain impossible to fight. Of course they did. Charlotte was all the reason either of them needed. Lots of people raised children on their own – including her mother – but for both Abby and Gray, they had their own reasons for wanting to do this side by side. And those reasons all began and ended with their beautiful daughter.
“I’m going to shower.” She stalked off before he could say another word.
Chapter13
“ANOTHER GLASS, ABS?”
Abby’s head was spinning. All of the anger of earlier that evening was still there, but it was complicated now by a Gray Fortescue who’d spent the last four hours acting as though she were the beginning and end of his world. Any nerves she’d felt at meeting Max had been tempered by the way Gray stuck to her like glue – first when they’d arrived at the penthouse, and then, at the restaurant, when he’d kept a hand on the small of her back as they’d walked to their table, then on her thigh as they’d sat down, and occasionally, on top of her own, or his arm, resting along the back of the chair, his fingers lightly stroking her shoulder, exposed by the halter neck style of her black dress.
“No, thank you,” she found it hard to look at him. Gray was always heart-breakingly handsome, but in the guise of doting, besotted fiancé, he was her wildest dreams come true. He was, in fact, everything she’d hoped for when they’d dated before.
And it was all for show.
She focused on Max, with her gorgeous mane of silky blonde hair and wide eyes, and kind smile, and wondered why she’d been so nervous to meet the woman. Where Gray was enigmatic and emotionally closed off, there was something so relaxed and welcoming about Max that Abby had warmed to her immediately. And not just because Max seemed to gloss over the fact that Abby had kept a baby from them all.
Instead, Max cooed over the little girl, doting on the similarities between Charlotte and Amelia, smiling at the coincidence of their birthdays, and insisting – in that gentle way she had – of arranging a play date between the cousins later in the week. “If you’re comfortable with it?” The last little question had been so respectful and thoughtful that Abby had nodded immediately.
“I’d like that.” Her voice had cracked and Gray had pulled her closer. She wassoangry with him, but in this situation, he was her ally, and being close to him was better than not. So she held onto her anger, leashed it low in her belly, knowing she’d experience it fully later, when they were alone again. For now, she was enjoying a night out with other adults.
Max and Noah were clearly a well-matched pair, and Noah, having grown up in Brooklyn, had a lot in common with Abby. She found they could talk easily about their childhoods, politicians, experiences. But she knew Noah had been in the army, that he’d gone to Iraq at the same time as Gray. That was, in fact, how they’d met. And she knew that subject was one Noah wouldn’t welcome.
Not that it came up. They kept things light over dinner, and now, as their dessert plates were cleared, Gray topped up their wine glasses. Abby put a hand over her own glass. More wine might make her forget her anger, and she knew she’d need it later.
“We should be getting home,” Max said.
“Who’s looking after Amelia tonight?” Abby asked, with a hint of guilt, because it felt a lot to her like they’d stolen Max’s babysitter.
“Ashton, a good friend of ours. He’s got a young family so one more kid isn’t a problem,” Noah smiled easily.
“But my days of partying until the small hours are well behind me,” Max confided with a wink at Gray.
“Thank Christ,” Gray laughed, lacing his fingers through Abby’s. Her nerves jolted at the contact, at the feeling of how right it was – and the knowledge of how fake.
“He always worried about me,” Max confided with a roll of her eyes that was both affectionate and endearing.
Abby’s heart thundered. She’d never really missed the idea of a sibling. She knew she’d grown up alone, but it hadn’t bothered her. Yet seeing Max and Gray she felt the specialness of their bubble and felt how safe that must feel. She wondered about Charlotte and if she would want a sibling one day.
The thought speared her heart and left her breathless.
A sibling? Another baby? With Gray?
She gasped, then covered it by feigning a yawn.
“Tired?”
She glanced at Gray, remembering her disrupted night’s sleep, the interruption of his nightmare and then the tortured realization he’d gone to someone else’s place when she’d rejected him. Heat stained her cheeks, heat borne of anger, but it was likely Noah and Max read something else into it, because Noah chuckled softly. “We can take the hint.” He lifted a hand, signaling for the bill, but when it arrived, Gray put his credit card on top of the dish.