Page 16 of Expecting His Billion-Dollar Scandal
And when she closed her eyes, his image took shape in her head with such clarity that she felt that if she tried hard enough, she would open her eyes and he would be there. Standing in front of her, so tall and so bronzed and so sinfully sexy.
He’d gone, though, and he hadn’t looked back. Not a text, not an email, not a phone call. Nothing. He’d warned her that he was just passing through and he’d cautioned her about getting emotionally involved with him and she’d nodded and agreed and said all the right things and had promptly done just the opposite of what he’d asked.
She’d laughed in the face of common sense and flung herself into a one-sided relationship with a guy who didn’t believe in love.
And now she was pregnant and it was like walking in a dense fog with her feet in treacle. Every thought aboutwhat happened nextrequired such effort that she had spent the past few days just wanting to crawl into her bed and close her eyes and sleep for a hundred years.
As it had turned out, fate had had an excellent way of galvanising her into action. No taking time out to think things over! Or hiding under the duvet and pretending to be an ostrich!
‘And I don’t want you fretting that something’s going to happen to me,’ she said briskly, sweeping aside her fear of the big unknown and plastering a reassuring smile on her face.
Her father knew nothing about the pregnancy and that was something that she would broach in due course. When she reached the right levels of courage. That time was certainly not now.
‘Things happen,’ her father responded morosely. ‘We both know that.’
‘And we have to move on, Dad.’ God, she missed having her mum. She adored her dad, with all his endearing, frustrating, lovable little ways, but, Lord, what she wouldn’t have given for the emotional support of a mother, a hand to reach out and hold hers right now when she so desperately needed it.
‘You’re young. The wisdom of youth is fleeting. Take it from me. I’ll say no more except that I’ll miss you. Maybe you could leave a list of what needs to be done while you’re away.’
‘Ah.’ She paused and waited until her father was looking at her. ‘There won’t be any need for you to worry about anything while I’m away, Dad.’
‘I’ll be out fishing all day.’ He frowned. ‘The haul is good just at the moment. I won’t have time to sort out that business with the rentals. And food. No, forget I said that. I can buy in some tins. Baked beans. Soup. You go and enjoy yourself, Cordy. You deserve it.’
Cordelia thought about the enjoyment lying in wait for her and shuddered. ‘Dad—’ she inhaled deeply ‘—you won’t have to worry about food or the rental because Doris is going to take care of all of that for you.’
She waited for the explosion. She almost closed her eyes. Doris Jones was her father’s arch enemy. Buxom, blonde and with a personality that could send strong men scurrying for cover, she had had her eye on Clive Ramsey’s business for as long as Cordelia could remember.
‘We could be a team,’ she had ventured years ago. ‘My three boats with yours. We could have ourselves a proper little business.’
Clive had been incandescent with rage at the bare-faced cheek of the woman. There and then, she had become his nemesis. As fate would have it, nemesis was going to be taking charge while Cordelia was away, whether her dad liked it or not.
Of course, if he refused to oblige, she told him once he had finished ranting and raving, which made a change from his stoic, barely concealed gloom, she would ditch her plans and stay put...because he certainly wouldn’t be able to cope on his own and she had no intention of spending her one week of the year when she should be relaxing worrying about him.
Cordelia knew that she was taking a gamble. If her father dug his heels in, then what was she going to do? Her ticket was all booked and even though this trip to Italy filled her with sickening apprehension, it was something that had to be done. For better or for worse, the guy who had vanished out of her life and hadn’t looked back would have to be told about the baby he had never expected to father.
Her father caved in.
‘It’ll be fine.’ She hugged him.
It’ll be fine for at least one of us, at any rate.
‘Don’t think I haven’t noticed you and Doris having a laugh now and again at the pub over a pint.’
Clive Ramsey flushed and he glared at his daughter. ‘A man can’t be rude all the time,’ he countered defensively.
She’d won this round. There was no way she intended to let on to her father that she had found herself between a rock and a hard place when it came to Doris. If life were a fairy tale, she would laugh at the crazy coincidence of being caught red-handed emerging from a bathroom clutching a pregnancy-testing box by the one person who shouldn’t have been anywhere near the area. But Doris had been there, larger than life and bursting with curiosity and she hadn’t given up asking questions until she’d got the truth. Cordelia could only console herself with the thought that at least her father would be well fed, if nothing else. Doris was well known for her pies.
‘So it’s agreed, then...’ She looked at him anxiously and she saw him visibly soften.
‘I don’t like it...’
‘Those rentals need to be sorted. I know the timing’s awful, but I had no idea...’
No idea that I was going to find myself carrying a child...that all that longing to see new places would end up as a nightmare journey to deliver a message that was definitely not going to brighten Luca Baresi’s day...
‘I had no idea that that problem would blow up like a squall, just after I’d booked to go away on the spur of the moment.’
‘Well, Ireland isn’t a million miles away, I suppose. And I know you’ve been wanting to do a little research into your mum’s family tree.’
