The Secret Baby Bargain by MELANIE MILBURNE

Author:MELANIE MILBURNE
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘BUT I don’t want to go to crèche!’ Lachlan whined for the fifth time a few days later on the Friday morning.

Ashleigh’s patience was wearing thin. She hadn’t slept properly in days, unable to erase the images of Jake’s haunted past from her mind. Each day she’d spent in the old house seemed to make it worse, especially as he wasn’t coming back until Monday to break the long aching silences. She knew it was disloyal to Howard, but she missed seeing Jake, missed hearing him move about the house and garden. God help her, she even missed his snarls and scornful digs.

‘You have to go, Lachlan,’ she insisted, stuffing his lunch box in his backpack.

‘But I want to come wif you!’ His chin wobbled and his dark eyes moistened.

Ashleigh felt the strings on her heart tighten; her son’s little speech impediment always returned in moments of stress. She put the backpack to one side and squatted down in front of him, holding his thin shoulders so that he had to look at her.

‘What’s wrong, darling? Is someone making you unhappy at crèche?’

He shook his head, his bottom lip extended in a pout.

She gently pushed on his lip with the tip of her finger. ‘You’ll trip over that if you poke it out any further.’ She gave him a smile as his lip returned to base. ‘Now, what’s all this about?’

He shuffled from one foot to the other. ‘I just want to be wif you.’

Ashleigh sighed. ‘Darling, you know I have to work. We can’t live with Granny and Grandad for ever. They need time alone and we need to have our own place too. As soon as Howard and I get married…’ She found it strange saying the words and secretly wished she could take them back.

‘Can I have a dog when we move to Uncle Howard’s?’ Lachlan asked hopefully.

She forced her attention back to her son. His desire for a dog had been so strong but her mother’s allergy to cat and dog hair had prevented it happening. However, Howard’s home with its pristine family heirloom décor was hardly the family home a playful puppy would be welcomed into. She could almost see Marguerite Caule’s look of horrified distaste at the first set of muddy pawprints on the pristine white carpet or one of the linen-covered sofas.

‘We’ll see,’ she said and straightened.

‘We’ll see means no,’ Lachlan said with the sort of acuity that marked him as Jake’s son if nothing else. ‘You always say that, but it doesn’t mean yes.’

She sighed and, zipping up his backpack, reached for his hand. ‘Come on, I’m late as it is.’

‘I’m not going to crèche.’ He snatched his hand away.

‘Lachlan, I will not tolerate this from you,’ she said through tight lips. ‘I have to go to…to that house I’m working at and I have to leave now.’

‘Take me to the house!’ he begged. ‘I’ll be good. I won’t touch anyfing.’

Ashleigh closed her eyes as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

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