‘I should tell James,’ she said. ‘He sounded really worried. At the moment he’ll be thinking the worst.’
Her message with the photo attached went straight to blue ticks and her phone rang seconds after that. She mouthedSorryat Ore and Dina, and swiped to answer with one hand while she tissue-wiped the scan jelly off her tummy with the other.
‘Hello.’
‘Cassie. Thank God. I’m so relieved. I’ve been so worried about you. And the photo’s great, thank you. If you have others, I’d love to see them.’ He sounded genuinely interested. If he reallywasproperly interested, what an idiot not to have been in touch before now. Or maybe she was being harsh. With his family background it was understandable that he would have panicked somewhat.
‘Yep, I’ll send them all through.’
‘Thank you so much. I hope you’re okay. You must have been so stressed. I certainly was. And it’s obviously worse for you. Could I ask a huge favour? I mean, please feel free to say no, obviously, but I wondered if I could come to the anomaly scan with you?’
‘But the hospital’s here in Maine and you live in London.’
‘I’ll fly to Boston and drive up.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course I’m sure.’
‘Okay.’ Cassie didn’t know whether to beam with happiness that he wanted to come to the scan or throw her phone out of the window with frustration that it took a scare for him to be able to express his interest. ‘So I’ll see you then.’
Wow. She was going to see James again soon.
He was still talking. ‘I’d love to know your due date, too. I should have asked about the exact date before.’
Wow, again. Would he want to come over for the birth?
She was going to have to develop emotions of steel to deal with seeing him from time to time, if he wanted involvement in the baby’s life.
Shit. What if he wanted some form of custody?Shit. She shouldnothave got pregnant by James. They should not have got so carried away. An anonymous sperm donor wouldn’t want custody. Bloodyhell. This was going to be so complicated.
She pulled her skirt waistband back up over her tummy and swung her legs over the side of the bed. ‘I’m going to have to go. We’ll speak later.’ She was pretty sure that any more talk with the gorgeous, wonderful, infuriating father of her baby and she was going to be in tears, so it would be better to be alone.
Thirty-One
James
James wiped his clammy palms against his jeans. Sweaty hands were never a good accessory, especially when you were about to see the woman you loved – he was always going to love her – for the first time in nearly four months.
He checked his watch. All good. They still had fifteen minutes before the scan was due to start. Cassie would have texted him if they were going to be late.
A large jeep, Dina’s – he recognised it – screeched round the corner of the medical centre and came to a very sudden stop just in front of him.
And there was Cassie sitting in the passenger seat on the right of the car, looking slightly wide-eyed and clutching the dashboard. Probably most of Dina’s passengers finished journeys looking like that.
James stepped forward and opened the car door. Good grief. His heart rate was sky high.
‘Hi.’ He knew that he was beaming like a madman, but it really was so great to see Cassie. He held his hand out to help her down and wondered immediately if it looked patronising or sexist. He hoped not. But she was pregnant and the car was high and it was icy underfoot.
She placed her right hand in his and her left hand on the door and clambered down.
He was truly pathetic. It felt fantastic to have her hand in his, support her weight for a moment.
Cassie had to be really nervous about this scan. He was nervous too; you probably would be in any pregnancy, but it was particularly nerve-wracking given what had happened to Cassie before.
‘Thank you,’ Cassie said, standing up straight next to him.
They both kind of hovered for a moment, and then James leaned in and kissed her cheek.
