Did Charlie mind him being here? Or was she about to kick him to the moon? He couldn’t decide if she’d truly been happy to see him or not. Initially she’d all but thrown herself at him, but only moments later she’d pulled back, hard.
He stepped into the warm interior and paused to suck in a breath. It had been a long haul to get here, no point in retreating now. Until today he’d never retreated—unless his life had been in danger. Or his buddy’s.
His mouth soured. Now was not the time to be recalling that bleak day in hell. Fronting up to Charlie could never be as painful as dealing with what had happened to Rod. The man after whom he’d promised to name his first son, if and when he ever got around to settling down and raising kids. Some time around when he reached fifty.
Stepping along the wide hallway, he glanced at the framed black-and-white photos on the walls. Most of them featured Lake Taupo with the mountains in the background. They were very good. ‘C Lang’ was signed across the bottom-right corner. Charlie did photography? Darn, he knew so little about her.
He found her in the kitchen with the child. Definitely thinner than he remembered. Had pregnancy done that to her? Most women put on weight, didn’t lose it. Could she have taken getting back into shape too seriously? An image of running along the beach in Honolulu with Charlie at his side sprang up and he smiled. Yes, Charlie had been a fitness fanatic. Had loved her sports almost more than anything else. Almost. Sex had been top of the pops. But that was a kind of sport too, she’d told him one day, a cheeky grin lighting up her face.
‘What did John have to say?’ the woman in question asked in a strained voice as she kept her back to him and supervised the little girl drinking juice. Most of the liquid made it into the child’s mouth but the pink tee shirt had a yellow streak down the front.
The pranged cars. Of course. Focus, man. ‘He seemed okay with it all.’ Marshall tried for a nonchalant shrug to hide these oddball emotions charging around his head. He needn’t have worried because Charlie continued focusing her attention elsewhere. He told her, ‘I’ve phoned the rental company and they’ll sort it out, including supplying me with another car.’ His eyes were stuck on the child. She was so cute. Except for the eyes, she had her mother’s colouring right down to the freckles on her button nose.
‘Bet they loved that,’ Charlie sniffed, and he knew she was crying.
Three long strides and he stood in front of her, reaching his fingers to trace the wet lines on her face. ‘Hey, babe, don’t cry. Sorry if I’ve upset you by turning up out of the blue. If you want me to disappear, I’ll go. Pronto.’
Panic flared, widened those damp eyes that flicked from him to the child and back again. ‘You can’t go. Not yet.’ She hiccupped through her tears and swiped at her face again.
Why the panic? Then he was holding her, wrapping his arms around those thin shoulders and tucking her up close to his big, warm body. Protecting her. From what? Himself? Hell, he hadn’t even thought about taking her in his arms. It had just happened. And Charlie hadn’t slapped him across the face and pulled away. He liked holding her. Liked feeling her small frame against his larger one, even if there was a frailty to her that hadn’t been there before.
‘Charlie?’
‘Yes?’ came the muffled reply against his chest.
‘Why are you shaking?’ Tremors had begun rocking through her. ‘Why the tears?’
She said nothing.
Placing his hands on her waist, he tipped back a little to put some space between them. Hell, she was thin, bony even. Was she all right? ‘Talk to me. Please. Tell me about you. About your daughter.’
Charlie’s face whitened, and again panic flared in those haunting eyes. She nodded. ‘Yes. Of course.’
What was going on here? Didn’t she want him asking about her family? That seemed odd. What about her partner? Only one way to find out. ‘You married now?’
Her head swung from side to side, that distinct unease still all over her demeanour. ‘No. What about you?’
She wasn’t going to change the subject that easily. ‘Is this your house?’
‘We share it with Dad. I grew up here. I do have a house in town, which I bought a couple of years ago, but it’s rented out at the moment. Dad helps with looking after Aimee.’ She drew a long breath and opened her mouth, and another torrent of words spilled out. ‘We both work at a medical centre—’
Marshall placed a finger on her lips, felt an electric sizzle up his arm. ‘Slow down, Charlie.’ Under his hands the trembling continued. Because of him? Did his touch disturb her? Or was she afraid of something? He dropped his arms to his sides and stepped back, putting space between them. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked again. She’d better be. He couldn’t bear it if something bad had happened to her.
Her chin ducked abruptly. ‘I’m fine.’ Then, ‘I’m still getting over the shock of seeing you outside our house. Why were you driving away?’
Because I’m a prize idiot. ‘Don’t get the wrong idea here.’ I’m not a stalker. ‘I’d been parked outside for a few minutes, watching you and wondering if you’d welcome me or not. Then I saw your father walking around to the back of the house and got the wrong idea.’
‘So you drove away.’
‘I didn’t want to give you any problems. We had an agreement back in Honolulu and obviously I’ve broken that.’ Had to. Had needed to get over her by seeing her again. But already doubts were creeping in under his skin. Would he ever be able to get over Charlie?
‘So if you hadn’t gone all American and driven on the wrong side of the road, I’d never have known you were here?’ Anger laced her tone and those eyes fired up. ‘You’d have gone away without a word?’ she hissed, leaning closer.
‘I thought I was doing the right thing by you.’ Now he was on the back foot. What had just happened?
Her forefinger jabbed his chest. ‘Do you have any idea how hard I’ve tried to find you?’ Jab. ‘Agreement or not?’ Jab. ‘I have spent…’ jab ‘…untold hours on the computer, searching for you.’ Jab. ‘And you were driving away.’ Then her anger disappeared as quickly as it had risen. Her chest rose and fell fast. ‘Sorry. It’s just that I wanted to find you and now you’re here and I don’t know how to tell you something important.’
Warning bells started blaring in his skull. Nothing Charlie said made any sense and yet he was on high alert. Incoming attack. Stepping back further, he leaned one shoulder against the wall and crossed his ankles, to all appearances totally at ease. But inside his head he was pulling up every scenario imaginable. Because something big was about to go down. Something very big.
Then Charlie glanced from him to the little girl. A sob broke across her lips.
And shocked realisation slammed into him. The green
eyes should’ve warned him.
‘Aimee’s mine.’
CHAPTER FOUR
ALL THE AIR in Charlie’s lungs whooshed out. Her arms instantly wrapped around her waist. And she stared, like her eyes were glued to Marshall’s stunned face, watching and searching. His gaze, firmly fixed on Aimee, showed nothing of his thoughts. Not a hint.
Her heart crashed repeatedly against her ribs as fear and hope warred in her brain. Would he walk? Would he stay? At least stop long enough to hear the rest? Would he shout at her? Call her all sorts of names for not telling him, even when she’d tried so hard to get in touch? Or blame her for getting pregnant in the first place? The skin on her arms lifted in chilly bumps. Why had she not prepared for this moment? Yeah, right. Like how?
‘Mum, mum.’
Charlie reluctantly dragged her eyes from Marshall and checked out her daughter. Their daughter. Oh, hell. Her stomach clenched. She clamped her hand over her mouth as nausea rose. This was so—so big. So difficult. Swallow. Swallow.
‘Charlie? It’s true, isn’t it? I’m a father.’ Those beautiful green eyes shifted their focus to her. Questions fired out at her.
Another swallow and she answered his first one. ‘Yes.’ The word whispered across her bottom lip. She swallowed, tried again. ‘Yes, Aimee is your daughter. She…’ Then the words locked into a lump at the back of her throat, refusing to budge.
‘Holy Toledo.’
That was a good response. Wasn’t it? It didn’t sound bad. At least he was acting calm. So far. She managed, ‘She was born a little over eight months after I got back from Honolulu.’
‘You didn’t have any way of contacting me.’ A ton of regret darkened those words but no blame. Then, ‘So this is why you’ve been trying to find me.’
‘Yes.’ He didn’t need to know the rest yet. ‘It’s a lot to take in.’