Page 40 of Consequences of Their Wedding Charade
‘Dramatic word.’ But he smiled, amused, and raised his eyebrows. ‘Hence I am very grateful you decided to...indulge in a very gentle white lie that will smooth the path for all of us.’
She followed him towards the kitchen. The cottage was cosy and comfortable. No sharp edges or stark colours or empty spaces. Nothing jarringly modern. She loved it. This was the first time she’d felt nervous being here but she sidestepped the feeling. Curtis was right. It was better to say what had to be said and get it out of the way. It was also a good thing that they would be indulging in this harmless white lie because William would have been devastated to think that she was going to have a baby with his godson without any attempt at a relationship to cement them. Who could blame him? He was an old-fashioned man who had grown more and more jaded and impatient with Curtis’s choices when it came to the opposite sex.
‘So,’ he greeted them both from the doorway of the kitchen, arms folded, his eyes sharp, ‘what’s this big thing the pair of you want to talk to me about?’
Jess smiled and kissed him fondly on the cheek. ‘That’s a very gruff way to greet me, William. A girl could be offended. What’s on the menu today, chef?’ She sniffed the air and noted how he relaxed, which then made her realise just how keyed-up he was about Curtis, braced, no doubt, for another speech about his godson not wanting to relinquish his casual approach to relationships, but this time withherin the starring role of discarded victim.
‘Lamb. Your favourite. And don’t think I’m going to fall for you trying to distract me, young lady. Now, tell me what it is you have to say.’
But he was moving off, nodding at the table, because dining was always casual, in the kitchen, at the eight-seater wooden table by the French windows that led into the neatly manicured back garden.
‘Would I do that?’ Jess teased, exchanging a quick glance with Curtis. Her face betrayed none of her nerves as they all sat, as Curtis looked at her, as they said, speaking briefly over one another—
‘We’re having a baby...’
Remove all the signposts and how was anyone supposed to know where the next misplaced step might put them?
We’re having a baby.
Those four words had removed the signposts. That was what kept running through Jess’s head as, two days later, she and Curtis sat in one of the old-fashioned tea rooms in Ely, looking at one another over a pot of tea and a plate of scones at three-thirty in the afternoon.
Outside, wintry skies were leaden with the promise of snow. In here, though, it was warm enough for them both to have shed outer layers and she had to try very hard to ignore his intense masculine appeal, as she had been for the past day and a half, during which time, at William’s insistence, she and Curtis had been spending a crazy amount of their free time together.
‘You kids might go back a ways,’ he had announced with satisfaction over the perfect lamb lunch, ‘but that doesn’t mean a courtship isn’t a good thing and, correct me if I’m wrong, but have you two ever courted one another? You are having a baby together and I may be an old-fashioned fool but I feel it’s important you make the most of the free time you have together before a demanding little one starts calling the shots! Not that this old fool won’t be more than happy to babysit!’
So here they were, having tea and scones in the middle of a freezing cold Friday afternoon. She should have been at home, prepping her syllabus for the following week, taking advantage of the fact that it was a class-free afternoon, thanks to an induction day for new students. He should have been in London, working. She vaguely thought that they should have been communicating by email or WhatsApp, whereby she would not be forced to try and sublimate responses that ambushed all her efforts at self-control the minute she was in his company.
The evening before, William had cooked them both a fabulous dinner and then promptly abandoned them so that he could go to the pub, where he’d planned on meeting a couple of old friends.‘What friends?’His answer had been vague.‘Why the urgency?’Answer also vague.
‘When do you have your first scan? Have you been to the doctor? Booked anything?’
‘Huh?’ Startled out of her brief reverie and surprised because the weather and the possibility of snow had been the last topic on the agenda, Jess looked at Curtis with wide-eyed surprise.
Their eyes tangled and she blushed.
‘Not for ages and no, I haven’t been to the doctor.’
‘Shouldn’t you register?’ He looked at her narrowly and she reddened even more.
‘I’ve been busy.’
‘When you go, I want to be there.’
‘Do you?’
‘What did you expect?’
‘Well... I know we’re pretending to be involved for William’s benefit, but he’s not earwigging here, Curtis, so there’s no need to...er...show an interest at this...um...early stage.’
‘I’m not,’ he told her abruptly. ‘I want to be there every step of the way.’
A vision of intimacy swamped her as she imagined him standing next to her while they looked at a scan in a darkened room with her swollen belly exposed.
She changed the subject quickly, to clear the image from her head. ‘How long do you think we’re going to have to pretend that we’re...serious about one another for William’s benefit?’
Curtis tensed. Could she make it any clearer just how little she enjoyed the situation?
Of course, neither of them had thought that William would have stuck his oar in to the extent of insisting they spend quality time togetherinstead of just talking to one another on the phone.
