For His Baby's Sake. Jessica Hart

He must be reeling from jet-lag and cultural shock, let alone the terrifying and unexpected responsibility of fatherhood.

      But, dammit, she didn’t want to feel sorry for him! How could he turn up here with a baby, after all he’d had to say about not wanting to be a father, and just assume that she would drop everything to help him?

      ‘So you thought of me?’ she said, her voice hard.

      ‘I was going to come and see you anyway,’ said Drew. He wanted to tell her that the thought of seeing her again had been the one thing he had held onto in the muddle and chaos of leaving, but this was clearly not the time. He hadn’t really thought about how she would feel when he turned up with a baby, but it had clearly been a tactless thing to do.

      ‘I was looking forward to seeing you,’ he persevered, ‘but I thought you’d be working until the evening, and when I heard about Hannah I felt I should go and see her parents straight away rather than keep putting it off.’

      He hesitated. ‘When I saw Molly and understood the situation…you were the first person I thought of, Rose.’ He couldn’t explain how strong his feeling had been that she was one person he needed, and that if he could only find her and show her Molly that everything would be all right. ‘You know what my mother’s like. She was never exactly hands-on with her own child, so I can’t imagine she would be much help, even if she could be persuaded back from Spain. My father might have helped, but he’s ill, and my stepmother is taken up with him at the moment. I could only think of you.’

      ‘You didn’t think that I might be busy? That I might have my own child to look after?’

      ‘No,’ said Drew. ‘I never thought of you having a baby. I thought you’d be just the same, and that I could rely on you the way I’ve always done before.’

      His green eyes looked straight into hers. ‘There’s nowhere else I can go right now. I knew you would know what to do with a baby, and I had to bring Molly somewhere.’

      ‘And this is your house,’ Rose added for him in a dull voice, her gaze sliding away from his. ‘Don’t forget that bit.’

      ‘I hadn’t forgotten, but I don’t want to use that to threaten you. You live here, and nothing’s going to change that. You can tell me to leave if you want to, and I’ll go, but I’m begging you, for Molly’s sake, to help me. I’m a water engineer, Rose. I don’t know the first thing about babies. I’ll get a nanny for Molly tomorrow, but for tonight I really need your help.’

      Rose looked at Molly. She was just a baby. How could she refuse to help her? Drew had known that she wouldn’t be able to do that. Her grey eyes lifted to meet his green gaze once more.

      ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll help you tonight, but then we need to talk about this, Drew.’

      ‘Whatever you say,’ said Drew, unable to hide his relief.

      As if she had been waiting for some signal, Molly’s face puckered and she began to squirm. Rose saw the relief in his expression wiped away by panic.

      ‘Oh, God, she’s going to wake up,’ he said desperately, sitting rigidly still, as if he could will the baby back to sleep. ‘What shall I do?’

      The words were barely out of his mouth before Molly began to wail, startling Jack, who looked up from the box of toys he was emptying.

      ‘Ga?’

      ‘It’s all right, Jack, it’s just the baby,’ said Rose, getting up to take Molly from Drew, who looked frankly terrified. ‘Let me take her.’

      Lifting Molly against her shoulder, she held the warm little body close and rubbed her back soothingly as she bawled. ‘It’s all right, sweetheart…Shh, now…you’ll be all right…’ she murmured, swaying in a comforting rocking motion.

      Drew watched them both nervously. ‘Is she OK? Why’s she crying like that?’

      ‘She’s woken up in a strange place with strange people, Drew. Wouldn’t you want to cry if you were Molly?’

      Out of the corner of her eye, Rose could see that Jack had stopped what he was doing and was regarding her with a scowl, jealous of the attention she was giving the baby. She badly wanted to tell Drew exactly what she thought of him, but that was going to have to wait.

      ‘Jack needs his supper,’ she told Drew, ‘and Molly will need something to eat, too. Did her grandmother give you food for her?’

      ‘I’ve got a whole car full of stuff.’

      ‘Why don’t you go and bring it in?’ she suggested, resigning herself to the inevitable. ‘We need to get both these children in bed, and then, Drew, we’re going to have to talk.’