Jack's Baby by Emma Darcy

Author:Emma Darcy
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1997-03-23T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“IT WILL be done first thing in the morning,” Nina assured Juliette Hardwick for the umpteenth time, barely restraining herself from pushing the bride-to-be out the door.

“Don’t worry, Juliette,” Sally chimed in, having joined them to do her public relations priming of the client. Sally never missed a trick in delivering the dream. “I’ll bring you the dress myself tomorrow evening. You’ll look absolutely perfect on your wedding day.”

“You don’t think I’ve got too thin, do you?” came the anxious question.

More lingering, Nina thought in exasperation, desperately eager to get back to Jack and Charlotte. Jack must have coped somehow, since he hadn’t come looking for assistance, but it could be pride holding him back. Nina was full of trepidation at what she would find when she returned to her flat.

Sally soothed and flattered, and finally Juliette bid them good night and left. The door had barely closed behind her when Sally grabbed Nina’s arm, detaining her from dashing away on the instant. Her bright hazel eyes gleamed with the need to know.

“Obliging attitude?” she queried, her eyebrows waggling madly in the direction of the granny flat.

“He offered to mind Charlotte. I didn’t have to ask.” Nina rushed the words out.

“Great attitude!”

“He said he’d had nappy-changing practice.” Incredulity was still bombarding her mind.

“Fantastic attitude!”

“And Charlotte was working up to dirtying her nappy when I left.”

Sally laughed in delight. “That’ll test him.”

Nina was too concerned about the outcome to laugh. She pulled out of Sally’s hold. “I’ve got to go. I’ll collect the wedding dress in the morning.”

“Don’t forget the reward,” Sally called after her and merrily started trilling her favourite song, Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March”.

Which was certainly jumping the gun, in Nina’s opinion. Even if Jack had managed to get through tonight’s testing ground without major damage to the attitude he’d adopted, it was only a start in the right direction. Nina couldn’t blind herself to the consequences of making a wrong decision with him, no matter how much she wanted everything to turn out well.

Hope and desire were traps. When Jack was with her, Nina found it impossible not to respond to him. He tapped so many feelings in her it was all too easy to fall into those traps. If she wasn’t careful, she’d find herself making excuses and compromises instead of facing up to realities.

A panicky tension gripped her as she reached the door to the flat. With her fingers grasping the handle, she paused and forced herself to take a long, deep breath. To appear in an emotional flap would give the wrong signals. Jack had asked her to trust him. She had to assume everything was fine.

She also had to watch out for signals herself, bring an objective view to the scene. Jack might try covering up his real thoughts and feelings about the baby for her sake, but they would come out in the end. No one could hide the truth forever, and once resentments could no longer be contained, they had the potential to explode with devastating effect.

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