Page 45 of The Trouble With Love

‘You don’t have to. I’ll be fine, I’ll follow the track. Even I can’t get lost following a track five yards wide.’

‘You can in snow. Hold on, I’ll get my coat.’

I looked at Kai, pulling on a ghastly overcoat and tucking the scarf down inside it, his hair stringing along the collar. He was different. How different I wasn’t sure. But his whole appealing, sexy, insightful, slightly crazy thing was definitely causing a major shift in my relationship paradigms. And, damn if my nipples weren’t chafing too.

We wrenched the door open and stood for a moment on the apocalyptic threshold. ‘Bloody hell,’ Kai stared out into the blind whiteness.

‘You don’t have to come,’ I said again.

‘You can’t go alone. I don’t want your frozen body found huddled feebly at the root of a tree. It’d be too much of a cliché.’

‘Kai,’ Cerys appeared again, in the hallway this time.

‘We won’t be long. Stay here with Nicholas.’

‘No. I mean . . . ow.’

‘Ow?’ I looked at her. ‘Is this ouchy, or mortal pain time?’

Cerys gave me scared eyes. ‘At the moment it’s ouchy, but I think this is it, Holly.’

‘Sit tight. Phones are down here but we might be able to call from Vivienne’s.’ I patted her hand. ‘You’ll be okay.’

Kai looked at both of us. ‘What on earth are you on about?’

We rolled our eyes at each other. ‘Your daughter is going into labour.’

‘What!’ He nearly skidded down the steps. ‘Now?’

‘Er, Kai . . .’ Cerys waved at her enormous belly. ‘Don’t tell me it’s come as a shock.’

‘But . . . I mean . . .’ Kai looked from me to Cerys, then back again. ‘I should . . .’ he performed a little pirouette on the spot, obviously trying to be in two places at once. ‘This . . . Holly, we could stay here . . .’

‘We’re going to need an ambulance.’ I was torn too. Cerys was obviously scared and in need of comforting, but she was most definitely going to be in need of obstetric assistance as well. Twins, I knew, could be awkward. ‘I’ll go to Vivienne’s, Kai, you stay here.’

‘You can’t go alone, it’s too dangerous. How about if I go?’

‘Vivienne’s not going to let some bloke she’s never met into her house. She’s not stupid.’

We all stared at each other for a moment. Then Cerys made the decision. ‘Both of you go. It might be a false alarm, and we’re going to look totally mental if we all sit in the house and I’m still here going “ow” in three days’ time. And even if it’s not, labours take hours and Nick’s here to look after me.’ She paused, and rubbed her back. ‘Just.. Holly, you will come back, won’t you?’

‘We’ll both come back,’ Kai said firmly. ‘It’s Yorkshire. Bears aren’t going to eat us, you know.’

‘I meant . . . I want Holly with me. If the twins are coming, now, here, I want Holly there when they arrive.’

‘Gosh,’ I said, pleased. ‘All right. I’ll ask Vivienne to drive over to my place, and get straight back.’

‘Go and sit down,’ Kai said. ‘Don’t . . . I dunno, jump off any tables or anything.’

‘Okay, boss.’

He nodded. ‘Still ought to hurry though.’

‘Oh yes.’

The cold took our breath away and the wind took it even further. Stepping out onto the track was like being punched by feathers. I put my head down and walked, Kai in front acting as a partial windbreak. He’d jabbed his hands into fists and swung them as we went, using his bodyweight to carve a way through the spiralling snow and I plodded on behind, exhausted after the first half mile. Every time I looked up there was a Kai-shaped hole in the air in front of me, I walked into it and he made a new one. Trees were down all over the place, several across the track and we had to divert through rapidly accumulating snow to get round them, and the walk began to feel endless.

After a mile or so, he stopped and turned around, his face nothing but a nose, two eyes and a bearded chin poking through a veil of rapidly melting flakes. ‘Not far now,’ he said. ‘You okay?’

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