‘But you’ll have this perfect little family, a loving girlfriend, maybe wife one day, a baby that’s yours. Etta won’t fit into that.’
Xander felt the anger rise in him. ‘Etta is mine too. I don’t care if we share the same DNA or not, she’s mine. I was the first to hold her, seconds after she was born. I held this tiny crying baby in my arms and she just stopped and looked at me. I fell in love with her there and then and promised I would give her the world, that I would protect her and love her forever. That hasn’t changed. I was the one that stayed up with her throughout the nights, doing all the late-night bottle feeds and nappy changes, I was there when she spoke for the first time, her first word was “Dada”, I was there when she crawled, when she took her first steps, I helped her to ride a bike, I took her for her first day at school. She is mine and she will always be mine. This relationship with Immy and the new baby doesn’t change any of that.’
They looked doubtful. ‘A baby is a lot of hard work,’ Margaret said. ‘And when you get tired of dealing withthat and Etta at the same time you can’t just palm her off on us.’
‘I know that and I have no intention of doing that, not least because you’ve made it very clear you don’t want to spend excessive time with her.’
‘What does that mean?’ Tom said, clearly affronted.
‘You take her out for the day and then bring her back after a few hours, you take her for the weekend and sometimes you bring her back after only one night, because there’s always an appointment or a thing you have to do that you’d completely forgotten about. Right now, she doesn’t fully understand it but when she’s older she will.’
‘Well, she’s got so much energy and we are getting on a bit now, we can’t keep up. She runs everywhere, she wants to ride her bike, she wants to rollerskate or use the skateboard, she wants to swim. It’s exhausting,’ Tom said.
‘She’s six, of course she has a ton of energy. But she’d equally be as happy watching a movie, or doing some arts and crafts.’
‘Oh we’ve tried that, but she always wants to use glitter and that stuff gets everywhere,’ Margaret grumbled.
Xander shook his head, letting out a deep breath of exasperation. This wasn’t a battle he was going to win. ‘I appreciate the time you do want to spend with her, but I can assure you, I will never ever dump her on you. She is loved here and she will still be loved when the baby comes.’
They still didn’t look happy but it was a lot to take in: a new girlfriend, a baby, him moving on from Brook. Hopefully they would be happier about it all once they’d got used to the idea.
‘We should go,’ Tom said. ‘We have that thing.’
‘I’m sure you do,’ Xander said.
Margaret moved to the back door and called out to Etta in the garden below who was sailing high on her tree swing.
‘We’re off now, darling.’
Etta gave her a big wave and they walked out without another word to Xander. Etta climbed off the swing and started playing with Jacob and Immy climbed up the stairs back into the lounge.
‘How did it go?’ Immy asked quietly while they watched Etta play.
‘Not well.’
She winced. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘What are you sorry for?’
‘Well, me being pregnant is making your life a little bit stressful right now. First you get grief from Logan, now Etta’s grandparents. I never meant to bring this on you.’
‘I’m not stressed. I’m going to be a dad again, I can’t tell you how excited I am about that. While I don’t want to upset anyone, I don’t really care what anyone thinks about this. The only person I really care about is Etta, I want her to be on board with it. I want her to be as happy and excited as I am. Everyone else can think or say what they want.’
Etta came running upstairs from the garden with Jacob in hot pursuit. ‘Can I do some painting? I want to paint Jacob.’
‘Yes of course,’ Xander said.
‘Can I use glitter?’
He smiled. ‘You absolutely can.’
CHAPTER TEN
The credits rolled onBrave, Etta’s favourite Disney film, and Immy had never felt as happy before in her life as she did right now. They’d eaten enough pizza for lunch to feed an army, Etta was cuddled up between her and Xander, and Jacob was snoring on her lap. Xander’s arm was over the back of the sofa and, every now and again, he would catch a curl of Immy’s hair and run it through his fingers, which gave her delicious goosebumps every time he did it.
She’d always wanted a family and while she had loved living with her sister, Alex and her daughter Zara over the last few years, it had made her yearn for a family of her own even more. And here was this perfect ready-made family, this wonderful man, the father of her baby, his brilliant daughter. Was it too perfect to think she could just step into his life and the four of them could be a family together?
She didn’t want to hope for that, it was so early forthem and Xander didn’t have the best track record in their relationship. But she was so contented right now. Maybe it was the baby hormones but she wanted this life more than anything.
