Page 108 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

Shereallydidn’t want to tell him what she’d been doing. His heart plummeted.

When he didn’t move, she frowned. ‘I was helping Mrs Buscot.’

The name was familiar but he couldn’t place it. ‘Mrs Buscot?’

‘Our elderly neighbour.’

Finally recognition dawned. The spry, grey-haired woman who’d befriended Portia, or vice versa. Lex had only seen her to wave to. ‘Go on.’

‘She’d had bad news. Her daughter in Cornwall was rushed to hospital after a car accident. She’s got three young children and her husband is on an overseas work trip. Mrs Buscot had to get down there as quickly as possible to see her and take care of the children. But she was so upset she didn’t trust herself to drive yet she needed the car in Cornwall because her daughter’s car was written off.’

Lex drew a steadying breath, his racing pulse easing a little. ‘So you drove her then stayed overnight.’

She nodded. ‘I helped with the children a little today while she went to the hospital again to see her daughter. I caught an afternoon train but there were delays on the line so it took forever to get back.’

He planted his hand on the countertop as relief weakened his knees.

Portia hadn’t been running away. The invisible chains weighting his body fell away.

After long moments his brain started processing the rest of what Portia had said. ‘How’s her daughter? And how’s an elderly lady going to look after three young children?’

‘Her daughter is doing well. She’ll be released in a day or two and her husband will return by the end of the week.’

‘I can arrange home help in the meantime. Three little children might be too much for an old lady who’s probably still in shock.’

‘That’s a lovely idea. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.’ An expression he couldn’t read flitted across Portia’s features. ‘You really are good at thinking of practicalities and getting things organised.’

Lex narrowed his eyes, trying to identify something in her tone that made his nape prickle. Ostensibly it had been a compliment. It felt more like a double-edged blade.

‘You don’t like me being organised?’

‘That would be stupid. It’s a valuable trait.’ Portia sipped her tea. ‘It’s what you do. You see a problem and you fix it.’

He waited but she said nothing else.

‘What is it you’ve seen me fix?’

But he had a good idea.

She lifted one shoulder. ‘Our situation. Our baby.’

‘You think I’ve beenfixing our situation?’ Something lurched in his belly at the idea she thought he was so cold-blooded. Sheknewhow he felt about their child.

But she doesn’t know how you feel about her.

Lex met guarded dark eyes and felt the rush of blood, the adrenaline surge he sometimes experienced, on the cusp of a major breakthrough.

Could that be it?

He’d avoided confronting his feelings for Portia because of the atavistic fear they might undo him once and for all. He’d told her he’d put her behind him years before but the truth was that had been impossible. It was one of the reasons he hadn’t found a permanent partner in the years since they’d separated.

She looked down at her tea. ‘I wouldn’t put it quite like that. I know the baby means everything to you.’ She looked up again, her gaze challenging. ‘I admire you for going to so much trouble to create a family for our child.’

Not just for our child.

The words hovered on his tongue, eager to burst free.

But how will she respond if you tell her?

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