Page 13 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘So, here they are. The reason I assume that you were so keen to come here in person and finally acknowledge my existence,’ Lexy remarked brittly, unable to resist inserting that last little provocative reminder.

Nic stared down at a rug containing a virtual scrum of babies. The littlest one gave him a huge smile and, that fast, Nic was dropping down on his knees to try and reach their level and not be scary to them. The little one crawled on hands and knees straight over to him with the most charming air of acceptance and clambered up onto his lap.

‘And this is...?’ He had been meaning to pick Lexy up about that crack about his failing to acknowledge her existence, but the approaching baby had trumped that urge.

‘Ezra. That’s Ezra.’ In truth, Lexy was disconcerted by Ezra’s attitude because he was usually the wariest of her trio. ‘Ethan’s twin.’

‘Why’s he so much smaller than his twin?’ Nic asked straight off.

‘He wasn’t thriving in the womb like Ethan and Lily, which is why they all had to be delivered early, and initially he had breathing problems,’ Lexy confided reluctantly. ‘But he’s slowly catching up by growing faster than his big brother.’

‘So kind of you to keep me informed,’ Nic voiced between gritted teeth while smiling because Ethan, the larger twin, was coming his way, but his daughter, Lily, was still staring, undecided, from the other side of the rug.

‘I made every possible effort under the sun to keep you informed but I met with a blank brick wall,’ Lexy framed very politely.

‘You’re lying and you know you are,’ Nic murmured softly.

And that fast, in the wake of that toxic exchange, Lexy wanted to kill him stone dead, all her recollections of being pregnant and alone and a mother and alone piling up inside her like a threatening avalanche. ‘I hate you,’ she said equally softly. ‘I hate you so much I can’t stand having you here but I’m trying very hard indeed to be civilised.’

‘Civilised is not always what it appears to be,’ Nic quipped as Ethan clambered onto his lap, trying to stand up, failing, trying again, grabbing at Nic’s hands to show him how to play the game he wanted. Reminded of Jace and his indomitable spirit, Nic smiled down at his son and let him jump up and down happily with the support of his hands.This, he decided, was what was truly important,nother and her poor attitude.

Lily was sidling closer to him, big brown eyes fixed to him as though he might bite and, in her, he saw her mother, more anxious, more scared than any Diamandis had ever been, and it annoyed him. His daughter was afraid of him and thatwasunmistakeably Lexy’s fault.

He freed Ethan to the toy that was stealing his attention and reached for Lily. She came to him with huge, troubled eyes and he judged Lexy even harder for that distrust. On his lap, she settled and kept on gazing up at him with a growing steadiness that entranced his cynical soul. Then, without the smallest warning, she clawed her way up the front of his tee shirt and wrapped both arms round him. It was unexpected but very welcome and he hugged her close with gratitude that she was still sufficiently trusting to offer a stranger that affection. Even so, Lexy’s outright hostility took him aback. Why was she lying to him? She hadn’t got in touch with him, indeed hadn’t made the smallest attempt to contact him.

Tense silence reigned while Nic engaged the babies with the toys on the rug. Lexy could feel her own face growing stiffer and stiffer because she was so angry with him and she couldn’t express it.

‘Would you like coffee?’ she asked curtly.

‘No, thank you. I won’t be staying much longer,’ Nic murmured flatly.

‘Good. I have to give them lunch soon and that’s a very messy deal,’ she declared, striving to lighten the atmosphere a little for the sake of good manners.

Lexy could not recognise the man in front of her as the man she had met and shared a bed with, which she supposed was her warning that she had mistaken his character from the outset. He was cool and guarded and irredeemably superior, very much a posh, sophisticated Diamandis male. He hadn’t been any of that when they had met, not even at first and not later either, she recalled with lingering pain.

‘We could leave the kitchen door open and have a word in there,’ she proffered, very keen to ensure that he did not have an excuse to make a second visit.

Nic vaulted upright with easy athletic grace and scanned her where she stood in the doorway. ‘Whose house is this?’ he asked.

‘My best friend, Mel’s parents own it,’ Lexy divulged reluctantly. ‘They’re abroad. I’m the house-sitter. I look after their pets, plants and try to keep the lawn down.’

‘You don’t rent or own it, then. You have a home elsewhere?’

Lexy was wondering why he was being so nosy. ‘No, I don’t. Between having three young children and being unable to work full-time for more than a year now, my options are few.’

‘You’re virtually homeless,’ Nic informed her, as if she mightn’t already have grasped that fact.

‘And that could be because the father of my children has paid nothing whatsoever towards their support!’ Lexy fired back at him without hesitation.

‘Skase!’Nic shot down at her, because she had almost shouted that response.

‘And what does that command mean in English?’

‘Keep quiet,’ Nic translated the politer term frigidly, because all he could see was the three babies who had crawled over to join them, all three faces raised and brimming with curiosity and possibly even a little annoyance that they had been abandoned as the centre of attention. He scolded himself for that fanciful thought, not even convinced that babies that young had much in the way of thought.

And then to his horror all three faces crumpled and they burst into tears. Lexy brushed past him and got down on the floor to comfort them and they swarmed her like little vultures, nestling, clutching, grabbing, howling.

‘It’smyfault. I raised my voice to you and it frightened them,’ Lexy framed as the howling subsided to more manageable levels.

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