Page 22 of The Baby Plan

“Thank you,” Sophie said, hiding her disappointment, but Samson was already heading back to his bedroom.

She went back downstairs by herself and heated up the leftover food, which she ate watching some Netflix in her bedroom. She heard Samson moving around after she’d gone to bed, but she didn’t get up again. She was in her pyjamas and maybe Samson had waited until she was out of the way to go downstairs so he could have the place to himself for a bit. More deflated than she ought to be, she lay in bed trying to buoy herself up with her achievements today until sleep came.

* * *

Sophie didn’t wake up until almost half eight, by far the longest lie-in she’d had since she’d met her niece. She lay in bed for a moment, luxuriating in not being woken up by a crying baby far earlier than this, before fully registering the time and beginning to worry something was wrong. Why hadn’t Alana woken up yet? She rushed out along the hall and into Alana’s room to the baby’s cot. Alana wasn’t in it. Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. Samson had obviously beaten her to it this morning and had been kind enough to let her stay in bed.

The now-framed photograph again caught her eye as she turned to leave the room and she reflected once more on how good Samson was being to both her and Alana. Maybe they could all do something together today if Samson wasn’t too busy. They could take Alana swimming, or to the aquarium Sophie had read about.

She returned to her room and grabbed her super comfy but extremely faded and huge, dressing gown. She’d decided to brave Samson seeing her in her nightclothes. They were sharing a house after all and it was going to happen sooner or later.

With a smile on her face anticipating seeing her niece, and, yes, Samson, Sophie hurried down the stairs, pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she went. However, her mood abruptly changed when she saw a woman she didn’t know sitting at the kitchen table next to Alana.

Samson was by the kettle making tea. He turned when Alana gave an excited squeak at the sight of her aunt. The woman at the table peered up at Sophie, her face impassive. She was tall from what Sophie could make out and very beautiful, with long, flowing red hair and pale, pale skin. She immediately reminded Sophie of some sort of Celtic nymph as she perched on a chair, picking at a bowl of chopped fruit.

“Morning, Sophie,” said Samson cheerfully. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, thanks,” said Sophie automatically, trying to work out the scene in front of her.

“This is Helena,” Samson said in introduction. “Helena, this is Sophie, Alana’s aunt.”

“Nice to meet you, Helena,” said Sophie politely, and held out her hand for Helena to shake.

Helena took it limply. “So, I understand you’re living with my boyfriend,” she said bluntly, while she artfully teased her tumbling locks into a cool topknot.

Sophie turned desperately to Samson for help, but he just looked uncomfortable and went back to fiddling around making tea. Unfortunately for him, Sophie wasn’t about to let him get away with not explaining properly what was going on though.

“I wasn’t aware Samson had a girlfriend,” she pointedly responded.

She turned to make a fuss of Alana and could feel the glare Helena was giving Samson fill the room.

“I’ve been away,” Helena snapped. “Filming in Prague.”

“Helena’s a model,” Samson explained.

Of course, she would be, thought Sophie.

“Has Alana had her bottle?” she asked, trying to act as normally as possible, despite the tumult of emotions running through her.

“Yeah, a while ago,” Samson replied. “I was going to give her some porridge in a minute.”

“I can do that if you like?” offered Sophie.

Before Samson could respond, Helena said, “Great, so we can finally get going then.” She got up, and marched out of the room.

“We were hoping to fit in some surfing this morning if you’re OK to have Alana?” explained Samson.

“Of course, no problem.” Sophie trusted she was managing to completely hide the disappointment she felt.

Samson turned to leave, but stopped. “About Helena...” he began but was interrupted by the woman herself calling for him. “Sorry, I’d better go,” he said and left the kitchen.

Sophie put on a podcast for some company and set about giving her niece her breakfast. Once Alana had her porridge and was happily mushing banana into her tray, Sophie got herself some cereal and sat down heavily at the table. What on earth had happened? Here she was fantasising about Samson when she hadn’t even considered the possibility he might not be single despite him being kind, handsome, fit, intelligent and wealthy. But why hadn’t he told her he had a girlfriend? Surely that was a piece of information which should have come up in conversation in the last few days? They were living in the same house for goodness’ sake! Presumably, Helena had been in Samson’s bedroom last night when Sophie got in and Samson had chatted to her in the hallway outside Alana’s room. Thank goodness she hadn’t asked him to come downstairs and join her for a cup of tea! What would his response have been? “Sorry, I’m going to go back to bed with my model girlfriend and her awesome hair, but enjoy your hot beverage.”

She heard Samson and Helena coming downstairs again. Samson came in and kissed Alana goodbye. “I’ll see you guys later,” he said.

“Sure,” Sophie replied, not looking him in the eye, but doing her best to sound bright and breezy.

“Hey, maybe you could both come down to the beach? Alana, wouldn’t you like to see Daddy surf?”

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