Twenty-two
‘Bel, darling, how lovely tofinallysee you,’ Aunt Lois crooned as Bel stepped up to kiss the cheek of her impeccably made-up face. Her aunt’s tone, as usual, felt like a reprimand. Howshewas at fault for not catching up sooner whentheyhadn’t even been in town, she wasn’t sure.
‘It’s been a while,’ Bel agreed, holding her smile in place. ‘How was your trip overseas?’Where you’ve just spent the last three months.
‘Absolutely divine. Europe is to die for. I didn’t want to come back to all this dust and heat.’
And the rather sumptuous mansion you live in. Despite the fact she found the place to be more like a museum, she would never understand why her aunt always seemed to consider it less than impressive simply because ofwhereit was located.
‘Bel!’
Bel’s gaze shot to the top of the staircase to discover her cousin gracefully gliding down towards her.
‘Larkin? I didn’t know you were home.’
‘Just got here this afternoon. I heard you were coming for dinner.’
Bel eyed her cousin cautiously, searching for any lingering animosity, but was greeted with a smile. At least dinner wouldn’t be the awkward experience she’d been dreading, trying to make uncomfortable small talk with her uncle and aunt.
They moved into the living room, and Bel felt a flash of old memories briefly return as she thought back to the last time she’d been here, with Tate during the wedding. She could see him standing at the back of the room, drink in hand as he laughed with the other groomsmen on that first night he’d noticed her. She was relieved she no longer felt any sort of yearning, the way she had back then.
She found her uncle and Tristan sitting on the lounge, talking golf techniques. Both men stood, and Bel was quickly handed a tall glass of champagne.
Larkin slid her hand around her husband’s waist and grinned up at him. ‘We were going to wait until dinner to make the announcement, but I’m just too excited. We’re expecting!’
A loud and somewhat undignified squeal erupted from Aunt Lois as she threw herself at the happy couple, pushing Uncle Stan out of the way in her excitement. ‘I’m going tobe a grandmother!’ she said, dabbing at her eyes with a lace-edged handkerchief.
Bel watched on with a touch of bemusement. Larkin was going to be a mother.
Then, a sudden rush of unexpected emotion ran through her. She’d never wanted kids of her own … well, at least she hadn’t before she’d come back and let herself fall into the somewhat faux family she and Dean had created. She felt a trickle of warmth flow through her as glimpses of snuggling up for bedtime stories popped into her head, and of sharing amused glances with Dean at dinner as they listened to the silly jokes Ben and Ivy had taken to entertaining them with lately.
What was she even thinking? She prided herself on being so responsible and grown up. She needed to stop living in a fantasy world. She hadn’t let her mind run away like this since …
Her stomach dropped slightly. Had she been blindly falling into the same trap with Dean that she’d found herself in with Tate? Surely not. She’d vowed she’d never again allow herself to get caught up in an unrealistic romance. Yet here she was. Dean had somehow swept her off her feet.
She felt a little dizzy as something suddenly occurred to her and she sank down onto the lounge. The hot kitchen sex … the constant distraction of his body, his heart-melting acts of kindness.Oh God.She’d gone from a Jax Lexington-style romantic suspense hero to a hot boy-next-door, enemies-to-lovers trope.
‘Bel!’ Larkin said impatiently.
She looked up quickly.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Absolutely.’ She smiled, hoping her face didn’t show her rapidly growing panic. ‘Congratulations,’ she added, and stood up to hug her cousin. She refused to acknowledge the ridiculous chaos unfolding inside her. Dean was not Tate, and she would not have fallen for something fake after everything she’d been through. It wasn’t possible.
And yet …
Later that night, after she’d managed to sit through the endless chatter about baby plans and then her aunt’s relentless Europe stories, Bel found herself returning to her unexpected reaction.
There was no way her relationship with Dean was anything like the one she’d had with Tate. Dean was … perfect. Not in the dreamy, over-the-top way Tate had been. He was perfect in a forever kind of way. A father kind of way. Bel’s mind began to replay all the times Dean had stepped up to distract the kids and made them feel loved during one of the most unsettled and scary periods of their young lives. He was the decent, good man that Emma had been telling her he was. She’d simply never understood it before now.
But did she want that? And if she did, why was the thought so terrifying?
Craig’s progress was frustratingly slow. This was expected from a traumatic brain injury, but that didn’t make it any less discouraging. The endless game of wait-and-see over the next month took its toll on everyone—none more so than Craig and Emma, but it flowed on through to the kids and to Bel as well, with life pretty much on hold for all of them.
As the time dragged on, Bel began to notice a change in the children’s behaviour. Ben was getting into trouble at school—nothing terribly serious, but enough for Emma to be receiving calls from his teachers, which only added to her worries. Lucy had started going backwards with her toilet training, suddenly having accidents when previously she’d had none. Ayla had been having nightmares, and would only settle if she was allowed to climb into bed with Bel. It didn’t take long before the sleepless nights began catching up with Bel. As a result, she found herself becoming tired and irritable throughout the day.
Adding to all of this, Bel’s business had begun to suffer, with the loss of some larger clients who weren’t happy with her reduced hours and availability. She’d expected her income to take a bit of a hit for a while, of course, and she was still making enough to survive. It just went against the grain, and everything she’d been working so hard for, to have to turn away big clients with deep pockets.
