His frustrated sigh joined a gust of salty breeze from the nearby ocean. He opened the rear door and held it against the wind so Fiona could secure Nic in her safety-seat.
My beautiful girls.
Nicky wore blue shorts and a white T-shirt with a line of blue-and-silver fish printed on the front; Fiona white shorts and a strappy blue sun-top that showed off her clear golden tan. Two blondes in blue and white.
Fiona turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “Helping, are you?” she asked.
Yep, I could be more useful than leaning on the door, enjoying the view, while you struggle with my wriggly daughter.
“Want me to clip her in?” he asked.
“She’s pretty lively this morning.”
“We’ll see if we can tire her out then,” he said, stroking Fiona’s rump while she leaned into the car.
“Not in front of the children,” she grinned, backing out so he could take over.
The children. Nicky and a couple more from Fiona. A real family.
He tried to banish the too-vivid scenario as he secured Nicky in the seat and made sure she had the cuddly pink puppy Fiona had given her for Christmas.
“You want kids?” he asked, keeping his eyes on Nic as he closed the car door.
“She’s good practice.”
Which didn’t exactly answer his question.
Maybe she doesn’t? She has a job she loves, with travel perks and luxurious surroundings and plenty of glitzy company. Why would she want to trade that for a moody widower and a fractious child?
Fiona had seated herself in the car by the time he’d walked around to the driver’s side. He tallied up the points against her.
Leaving on Tuesday.
To a job she wouldn’t want to give up.
Didn’t seem to crave children.
Maybe the same risk as Jan for breast cancer.
He grimaced as pulled the car door open, sat, and fired up the engine.
“We’re off to the river, Nicola Jane,” he said with false cheerfulness as he reversed onto the private driveway that led to Pounamu Lodge. “Do you remember the river from last time?”
He drove past the Lodge, over a rattling cattle-stop, and turned onto the unsealed farm road running through part of Pounamu Estate. They bumped gently along past the paddocks.
“Sheep!” Nicky squealed from her elevated perch on the child safety seat. The grazing sheep lifted their heads to stare at the passing car but soon resumed eating.
“Sheep, Dadda,” she squealed again, blue eyes wide with delight.
“Baa-a-a-a...” Fiona contributed.
“Maaaaa,” Nic copied.
“Baa-a-a-a,” Fiona replied. “Come on, Chris, join in.”
“Baa-a-a-a...” he muttered with a deep lascivious tone. “The mating call of the rutting ram. That what you had in mind?”
Fiona doubled over with laughter for a few seconds and then her bright eyes found his.
“The rutting ram? Are you?”
“After last night, hell yeah. Baa-a-a-a,” he bellowed again with greater volume. “Ready any time ‘ewe’ are, Blondie.”
Suddenly they were both snorting with laughter, enjoying the silly moment, and his mood lightened.
Why was he looking for what he couldn’t have? Right now she was here with him, in his life, in his bed at last. That would have to be enough. “Unless you’d rather have a whole lotta rampant stallion?” he asked, adding a fierce suggestive neigh.
“Horsie!” Nic yelled, which only increased their hilarity.
“Okay in the back there, Nic?” he asked when he’d stopped laughing enough to speak again.
He checked the rear view mirror. His little girl had caught their relaxed mood and was smiling happily, clutching her pink dog, staring back at him like a naughty angel. “Going to show Auntie Fee how well you swim?”
“She doesn’t, does she?”
“Goes in the water all the way up to her ankles if you’re lucky.”
Fiona grinned and nodded. “A real mermaid, then.”
The river twinkled through the trees. Christian slowed to a crawl and steered the car in under the shady green canopy of a weeping willow. Long feathery streamers of leaves brushed past the windows. Nicky crowed with delight.
Fiona glanced over her shoulder at her niece and felt her heart twist, knowing it should be Jan sitting beside Christian on this lovely day.
Fate had robbed her sister of so much. Jan would never see her precious daughter grow into a beautiful girl and an accomplished woman.
Never again feel the warmth of her husband’s love.
Never return to the amazing cliff-top house she’d transformed into such a welcoming and distinctive home.
Fiona had thought her tears for Jan were almost under control all these weeks later, but suddenly the tell-tale prickling behind her eyes and painful constriction in her throat hit her yet again. She blinked rapidly as hot moisture welled up and threatened to spill down her cheeks. How could her mood change from cheerful to utterly desolate in just seconds?