Page 83 of Breaking the Ice

“Cyn said she wasn’t your usual type.”

“I don’t have a type.”

A laugh.Definitely notNick’s. “Sure, buddy.”

“Tell Cyn I said no comment.”

“Just try not to corrupt the kiddies, okay?”

“I promise I won’t touch her.”

Samantha smiled. She sincerely hoped not. Watching Nick with his niece and nephew for a few hours was going to be her catnip, she certainly couldn’t promise to not touch him.

“Really?” His brother clearly wasn’t buying it. “She’s pretty gorgeous. I imagine that won’t be easy.”

The compliment did wonders for Samantha’s ego. It seemed the Hawke men were all charmers.

“Until after they’ve gone to sleep,” Nick clarified.

Richard laughed and said, “Attaboy,” and then, “I’d better go.”

Which was Samantha’s sign to reappear, handing Maggie to Nick who made the kids wave at their dad before the door closed and they were alone with the children.

Despite her trepidations about how the children would take to her, they had a really good evening. Nick was great with them and they were easy-going kids. At one stage they all ended up at her apartment because Thomas was fretting so much for his fish that Samantha suggested he visit with hers. The little boy, his eyes agog, had stared at the mighty proportions of Godzilla. “What’s wrong with your fish?”

Umm. Howdidone explain a gland problem to a three-year-old?

“Sam feeds him too much,” Nick said.

“Ahh.” Thomas nodded wisely. “You’re only supposed to feed them a spot,” he lectured Samantha in his small voice. “No more than a spot.”

Nick winked at her. “A Fish Out of Water,” he explained. “It’s his favorite book. He’ll have it with him. You guys can read it together.”

And so Samantha read Thomas his favorite story about a little boy who fed his fish too much and it grew and grew and grew and they had to get the fire brigade and house him in a swimming pool. Thomas obviously knew the story word for word and after it was readthreetimes, they had an in-depth discussion about the merits of fish food.

Nick made a big bowl of popcorn and Thomas sat between the two of them on the lounge as they watchedBlueyon the TV and Maggie crawled around, inspecting things, occasionally stopping to grin at the animated antics. His hand lay alongthe back of the couch and he absently rubbed her neck and Samantha smiled at him over Thomas’s head.

Once they’d watched three episodes ofBluey, Samantha fed Maggie her bottle and Nick lay down with Thomas on the single bed in the spare room. And that was how Samantha found him after she’d placed Maggie in the travel cot in the living room.

Her heart stopped at the sight that greeted her. Nick. Big macho, hockey-jock, Nick, curled up with his tiny nephew, his big strong, arm tucked around Thomas’s waist.

And that was the moment. That was the moment her eggs held their breath and she realized she… loved him. Had been in love with him since he’d offered her the job at Birdie’s.

Her eggs rolled their eyes at her belated epiphany.

Great…Now what?Deciding to throw caution to the wind and mess around was one thing but,love? With a professional hockey player who didn’t want children? Even though she also knew looking at Nick now that she was going to have to give up on the whole baby dream, too. Because suddenly, with love rising in her chest suffocating everything in its wake, she realized she didn’t just want any old baby. She wanted Nick’s baby.

Babies.

And only Nick’s.

God… how was it possible to feel so wonderful and so wretched at the same time? To be falling in love but knowing she could never realize it or even share it with him. Love or no love, their situation was untenable. They were still from two different worlds, on two different paths.

They could never be.

She repeated it to herself over and over as she watched the two males sleep, trying to find a way out of it but coming up empty. There wasn’t a way. All there was, was the now. The time they had left before their real lives called them back.

Refusing to let herself cry or dwell, Samantha pulled herself together with a quick mental shake. So, she couldn’t tell him? So what?

---