‘There's a man outside, Mummy,’ Andy told her excitedly.
She stood up slowly, feeling a moment's panic before she instantly calmed again. Probably Sinclair Thornton had come to apologetically explain that he was going up to the Hall for dinner. Yes, that would be it. ‘Finish dressed, children,’ she told them in a preoccupied voice. ‘I—I'll go and see who it is.’ She hadn't mentioned the possibility of a guest for dinner to them, they were too often let down by their father without a complete stranger doing it too!
She checked her appearance in the mirror in the hallway before going to the door. If anything she looked even younger than she had this morning! She released her hair about her shoulders, wishing she had time to change from the cut-off denims and cream sun-top. But the doorbell ringing for a second time made that impossible.
As she had guessed, her caller was Sinclair Thornton, a bunch of tulips in one hand as his eyes gleamed at her mischievously over the petals. He wore fitted brown trousers and a lemon shirt tonight, but he looked no less ruggedly attractive in this slightly more formal clothing.
‘Hi,’ he greeted softly. ‘I'm not too early, am I?’ he added as she made no move to let him in.
‘Er—no,’ she blinked her surprise. ‘It's just—Caroline—Miss Masters, said something about inviting you up to the Hall tonight.’
‘She did,’ he nodded. ‘But I had to refuse her, after all I had already accepted your invitation.’
‘Oh but——’ She was stopped from further speech by the clatter of small feet down the stairs behind her, turning to see the twins arrive at the bottom together, looking adorably innocent with their newly washed faces and hair, wearing identical blue T-shirts and denims.
Robyn turned back to apologise to their guest for keeping him on the doorstep, her eyes widening as she saw his stunned expression, his incredulity obvious as he stared at the twins. Whatever he and Caroline had discussed after he had refused the other girl's invitation this afternoon he certainly hadn't been told of the twins’ existence!
‘PLEASE, come in,’ she huskily invited the still silent Sinclair Thornton, relieved when he did so, taking him into her small but comfortable lounge. The twins stared back at him, as wide-eyed as he was, and she put a protective hand on either of their shoulders as she looked at Sinclair Thornton with challenging eyes. ‘I don't think we introduced ourselves properly this morning,’ she told him softly. ‘I am Robyn Warner, and these are my two children, Kim and Andy.’
Considering how shocked he had been seconds earlier he was recovering well, the gleam back in his blue eyes as he began to smile. ‘I'm sure it was just an oversight on your part,’ he drawled mockingly. ‘And in that case, these are for you.’ He held out the tulips for her. ‘I'm afraid I forgot the cup, Mrs Warner,’ he added pointedly.
‘My friends call me Robyn,’ she returned much as he had done this morning.
‘Can I?’ he teased.
‘Please,’ she nodded, relieved that he had taken her deception so well.
‘Well, Kim and Andy, you just have to be twins,’ he spoke to them in a pleasantly interested voice, and not down to them as so many adults tended to do. ‘And both as cute as your mother,’ he teased.
Andy giggled at this description being given to his mother. ‘Mummy isn't cute,’ he scorned. ‘She's beautiful.’
Appreciative blue eyes swept over her blushing face. ‘So she is,’ Sinclair Thornton said slowly.
‘I'll just go and put these in water,’ Robyn said awkwardly, instantly annoyed with herself for appearing so gauche. No doubt Caroline would have accepted the compliment with much more aplomb! But then, the younger girl was used to the meaningless charm, she wasn't. ‘Perhaps the children would like to show you some of their toys while I'm gone,’ she added briskly.
It took her only a few minutes to put the tulips in water and check that the dinner was ready, stopping in the lounge doorway when she got back. She should have known Sinclair Thornton was one of those men who found children's toys as fascinating as they did! He was down on the floor with Kim and Andy, with little regard for his clothes, seemingly fascinated by the workings of the dolls’ house and fort the two of them had received recently for their fifth birthdays.
He looked up sheepishly as he sensed Robyn watching him. ‘I never can resist these things.’ He put one of the soldiers up on the battlements.
She smiled, sure that all men were still children at heart. ‘Do you have children of your own, Mr Thornton?’
‘Not at the moment, no,’ he shook his head. ‘And it's Sin,’ he reminded.
She knew what his name was, she just felt uncomfortable saying it, the name Sin making her feel wicked too! And what did ‘not at the moment’ mean? Was he, like Brad, a part-time father who chose to forget about his children when he wasn't actually with them, or did he mean he was contemplating fatherhood? Maybe what she should have asked him was whether or not he was married.
‘Sin was once a reporter like Daddy,’ Kim put in eagerly, obviously considering that anyone who was remotely like her father was okay by her.
‘I know,’ she replied stiffly, amazed that had been revealed in the short time she had been in the kitchen. ‘Can you put some of those things away while I serve dinner?’ They had managed to get out an awful lot of toys during her absence too!
‘Did you lose your husband very long ago?’
Robyn almost dropped the vegetable bowl she had carefully been pouring peas into at the sound of that husky voice just behind her, having been unaware of the fact that Sinclair Thornton had followed her.
‘Careful.’ Sin took the bowl out of her hands. ‘The twins have gone to wash their hands for dinner so I thought I would join you. I didn't mean to startle you.’
‘You didn't,’ she assured him stiltedly.
‘Then my question did,’ he said shrewdly, watching her with narrowed eyes. ‘Which means it must have been recently. I'm sorry, I——’
‘I wouldn't call four years ago recently, Mr Thornton,’ she dismissed briskly. ‘Now shall we go in to dinner before everything gets cold?’
She was slightly ashamed of her waspish behaviour as he did everything he could through the meal to be interesting and interested in her children, effectively covering up any prolonged silence on her part. He had caught her offguard with his question about Brad; having lived in Colton for so long she wasn't used to having to explain her single-parent state to anyone, every-one already knew! But of course this man couldn't be expected to know anything about her past life, and after the trick she had played on him this morning he was entitled to be curious.
He didn't even attempt to interfere in her nightly ritual of putting the twins to bed, as some other over-eager adults had done in the past, and because he didn't Kim and Andy made the request for him to go up to their bedroom and say good night to them, an honour few were granted.
‘You're very good with children,’ Robyn turned to smile at him as they returned to the lounge.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘I try to be.’
That was the whole point, he didn't ‘try’ at all, and the children loved him for it. ‘Coffee?’ she offered.
‘Let me make it.’ He followed her through to the kitchen, the four of them having already done the washing-up, a hilarious affair, with Sin pretending to drop things. ‘You sit down and rest for a few minutes, you must have had a long day.’
Robyn sat as he deftly prepared