Page 35 of Milo
“Yes. Death would not be an excuse for missing the mud run.” He straightens up with Cora cradled in his arms. He lays her next to me. “Here. Watch her while I get her bottle.”
He exits the room and I listen to his footsteps thundering down the stairs. I look down at Cora lying next to me in her little Babygro decorated in pink flamingos. She gives me a gummy smile and windmills her arms and legs about, stretching after her long sleep.
I lean down and kiss her head, inhaling the scent of baby shampoo and sleep that clings to her. “I’m going to miss you when your daddies come back,” I say softly and she coos, reaching one tiny hand and clutching a hank of my hair in a grip that’s fucking tighter than The Rock could manage. It makes my eyes water.
When I’ve untangled her hand, I lie peacefully in the bed. It’s still dark out there and I can hear the wind blowing in the trees outside. It makes me feel safe and warm in our little nest.
I shake my head and wince at the pain that catapults across my forehead. I’m trying to recall the evening but I’m coming up blank. It’s a bit of a hazy mess from the point that Simeon had ordered a third bottle of wine. I scrunch up my face in concentration.
“I remember putting the kettle on,” I say slowly to Cora who’s watching me intently with her bright button eyes. “And I remember Niall making tea.”
Realisation flashes across my brain with the speed of a comet. A comet that’s intent on destroying a planet.
“Oh myGod,” I gasp to Cora. “I kissed him.” I pause. “And then told him I was crap in bed and threw up on him.”
“It’s a charming story, but even if you put ‘once upon a time’ in front of it, I’m not sure you could market it as a fairy tale.” Niall’s voice makes me jump, and I look up to find him staring at me from the doorway. He paces into the room, unscrewing the lid. I hold my arm out automatically for him to test the bottle and nod as Cora works herself up into a frenzy. He passes me the bottle and plops himself down next to me.
I eye him nervously as I give the bottle to Cora. She grabs it quickly and possessively, her eyes sliding shut in total contentment as she sucks. The room is full of the sounds of her surprisingly loud gulps for a long minute.
He rummages in his pocket and produces a packet of painkillers. “Open up,” he demands and pops two of the tablets on my tongue, handing me a bottle of water to wash them down and taking control of the bottle while I do it.
Silence falls again until eventually I stir. “I’m so sorry,” I mutter. “I’m m-m-mortified.”
“Milo, no,” he says immediately, his hand coming down on my leg. “Relax.”
“No, I said you were like Thomas. You’renothinglike Thomas.”
“Baby, I know you say that, but there’s a tiny part of you that thinks it.”
“I really don’t.” I hesitate. “It’s just that you’re so competent and confident that it’s daunting to someone like me.”
“Someone like you?” He pauses. “Ah, let me think. What did you say last night? Plain and boring?”
I feel myself flush. “I think we should try and forget last night’s conversation.” I nod determinedly. “Yes, that should beone of our yearly goals. We can put it as number one, just outranking world peace and working out what exactly Kanye West is talking about.”
He smiles. “I don’t want to forget last night’s revelations.”
I groan. “Oh God.”
He shakes his head. “We haven’t got time to discuss this, but we are going to.”
“I vote no.” I shrug. “It’s embarrassing, Niall, but it’s the truth.”
“No, it’s not. It’s someone else’s words, but the truth has nothing to do with that.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I know you,” he says sharply. “Sweetheart, you’re warm and full of life. You’re quirky and earthy. No fucking way you’d be bad in bed. You just need someone to show you how.”
“Oh my God, who would do that?”
“Anyone,” he says firmly, his eyes dark with some feeling I can’t work out. “Some lucky bastard can teach you and think himself the luckiest man on earth.”
“I could never tell anyone what I’ve just told you. It would be far too embarrassing. I’m practically a virgin. Ugh!”
He hesitates for some reason before saying abruptly and rather gruffly, “Then maybe don’t look too far afield. I’m always here for you.”
“What?”
