Page 55 of Harry

Well, to hell with her then. If she wants to ignore him, then that’s her bloody problem. But he felt his heart twisting with guilt. He had woken up to find her sitting on the commode, a look of extreme distress on her beautiful face.

She told him she had not wanted to wake him up and he supposed it was his fault. He could either walk out of the room and go someplace else or try to soothe her.

Deciding, he rose and climbed in next to her. And pulled her into his arms, ignoring her effort to resist him. It was only when he turned her to face him, he saw the tears on her cheeks and realized she was crying.

“Oh Christ.” He whispered. “Darling, I’m sorry. I’m such a jackass.”

“No arguments there,” she sniffed, “I hate you.”

“You should.” He murmured, using the pad of his thumb to wipe her tears. “I hate myself too. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you.”

“I don’t expect us to get married now.” She moved into his arms and buried her face into the column of his throat, inhaling his scent. “I just want to know you’re here to stay.”

“I am,’” he promised. “Baby, I’m so sorry.” He rubbed his hands up and down her back soothingly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

*****

“Want to take a break?” He was keeping a careful eye on her. It was barely a week left for the Christmas holidays, and she was intent on dressing up the tree with minimal help from him.

He had told her he did not do Christmas, and she had been horrified, but determined to change his mind. She had put on some weight, which the doctors were pleased with and seemed to be doing much better.

At nights, he had to rub cream on her back to help with the strain. The babies were progressing, and she had officially started to waddle instead of walking. And she was spending more time working from home, since half the time, her ankles were too swollen for her to move around.

“No. Hand me the red tinsel please.”

She was sitting on a plump cushion in front of the towering tree, with Shep busy nosing around the box of decorations.

“It’s overdone!” He declared as he handed her a handful.

“Is it?” Tilting her head, she stared at it quizzically. “It’s perfect.”

“It is top heavy. And will fall on someone’s head if they’re not careful. Either that, or Shep will end up eating the bulbs.”

He grinned as she turned to give him a dirty look.

“We don’t need Mr. Grinch hanging around. Do we boy?” With one hand, she draped the tinsels and used the other to absently scratch behind Shep’s ear. “Go away.”

“I’m not going anywhere and you’re going to need help getting off your cute ass.”

“I can more than help myself.”

“Want to prove that point?”

“Okay, fine. Stay.”

“You’re welcome.” He told her smugly. She was about to give him a pithy response when her phone rang.

“It’s on the table.”

Picking it up, he was about to pass it to her when he saw the name.

“Why is he calling you?”

“I cannot see…”

“The David guy. Why is he calling you?”

“I won’t know until I answer it, will I?” She stretched her hand out. A battle of will was ensued and for a moment, she thought he was going to disconnect the call. Slapping the phone into her palm, he rose and left the room.

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