Page 14 of Unbreak My Heart

Max swooped down and swept the boy up. He squealed and wiggled then planted both hands on Max’s cheeks.

“Hello to you too, Master Finn.”

The giggles were contagious, and Eva couldn’t keep the chuckle from leaving her own mouth. Max leaned over thewiggling toddler’s head and kissed the pretty blonde carrying a baby girl dressed to the nines in bright frilly pink, her bare legs kicking and dancing excitedly at seeing him.

Max pressed his lips to the forehead of the baby, his face softening so much that Eva’s breath caught.

This must be his daughter. Max had talked about her and her mother a lot.

“How are my two gorgeous girls?” he asked.

The blonde laughed. “No different from half an hour ago when we saw you last.”

Eva’s own mouth tilted in response to the snarky but warm response. Her gaze roved over them all, and she gasped audibly.

Max glanced at her, one eyebrow raised.

“My goodness. How are all you guys so genetically blessed?”

A loud, delighted laugh left the pretty brunette woman to her left who took the wiggling toddler from Max’s arms. “It’s been the bane of my life to have brothers that look like they do.”

She held out her hand to Eva. “I’m Darby. Max’s favourite sister.”

“Hisonlysister,” a man behind her said, a beautiful woman with long, softly curling dark brown hair at his side.

“Shut up, Gabe. Or I’ll disown you as my twin.”

Eva couldn’t help the laugh that left her. She liked these people. Loved the easy relationship they seemed to share. Eva took the offered hand.

“Eva Adams.”

Darby’s eyes lit. “Ahh! Our fabulously talented architect. It’s lovely to finally meet you.” She nodded to the little boy in her arms who struggled to get down. “This little terror is Finn. He’s twenty months, now.”

“Thanks. You, too.” Eva grinned at the happy little boy. “Oh, how could she call you a terror? I bet you’re just perfect.”

Happy chatter had started up all around them, Max’s family’s excitement for the ground-breaking colouring the very air around them.

“You have kids?” Darby asked, her smile at Eva’s interaction with her son easy to spot.

“This is my other brother Gabe. Emma, his wife. Ryan, Darby’s other half, and my parents, Mary and Ed,” Max interrupted.

Eva looked at all the people whose attention was now firmly on her. She raised a hand. “Hi! I apologise in advance if I get your names wrong at first. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of each other over the coming months.”

Murmurs of agreement and nods filled her vision and ears.

The pretty blonde with the baby walked up to her and held out a hand. “Millie. Since he didn’t bother introducing me.” Eva took her hand. “And this is Juliet,” Millie said, motioning to the baby.

Max slid his arm around Millie’s waist and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, not looking at all chastised. “I was saving the most important until last.”

Millie’s quickly hidden grin showed Eva all she needed to see. Millie had Max wrapped around her little finger, and then some.

Conversation peppered the air all around her. She couldn’t help the warm swirl of emotion meandering through her blood.

She missed this. Family. Friends.

She missed her own brother something terrible, but he’d moved to Adelaide for work, and she hadn’t seen him in months, other than via video calls. Her own parents lived near her, but her job took up so much of her time that often she only saw her dad on weekends. Thankfully, her mother had taken on family day care as a new, later-in-life career, and looked after Matty each day. She had two other children under her care one other weekday, so that he could have playmates.

He had the advantage of being in a home he knew, and with his grandmother.

---