Page 36 of The Spaniard's Surprise Love-Child

Clapping happily, the toddler skipped ahead. They had come within sight of the driveway when a car sped around the bend in the drive with a squeal, kicking up gravel. Gwen grabbed Ellie and pulled her back into her body, reacting to instinct rather than any actual danger as she watched the speeding car vanish with one hand shading her eyes.

Rio’s brother drove like a lunatic—or perhaps a very angry man?

‘It’s none of my business,’ she said, addressing her remark to a cloud of dust, which was all that was left of the powerful car driven by Rio’s twin.

Like every other room in the house, the kitchen of the beach house was built on a palatial scale. There were free-standing units in a bleached wood down one long wall, with an old-fashioned range that was gleaming and unused, presumably preserved from the original building, on the opposite wall. Gwen opened a cupboard in the massive island and pulled out a plastic tumbler, and watched as Ellie headed like a heat-seeking missile to the corner where a brand-new playhouse, complete with a garden filled with plastic flowers, took centre stage. Ellie marched straight to the little gate and stepped inside.

Gwen went across to the nearest of the massive fridges, and swung a door open. ‘Orange, apple oryummywater, darling?’ she asked, but Ellie was already engrossed in her make-believe game and didn’t respond. Before she could repeat her question a figure appeared in the doorway to the adjoining utility room.

A choking sound escaped her throat and her stomach took a sickening dive as she took in Rio’s condition.

‘Sorry, I’ll just...’ With a bloodied hand holding up an equally gory towel pressed to his face, Rio glanced towards Ellie, who continued to offer drinks from an invisible glass to dolls she had lined up in front of her.

‘You carry on with Ellie. I was just washing up, then I might just...’ He trailed off.

Rio’s glance drifted back towards Ellie, who was animatedly talking to a teddy bear now.

‘I don’t want to alarm her.’

‘You won’t, although she might want to stick a plaster on you once she notices the blood.’ Pity he wasn’t so concerned about alarming me, Gwen thought acidly, trying to assess the damage behind the towel he was holding as she struggled to maintain at least the illusion of calm. ‘What happened? Shall I call an ambulance?’

‘Dios, no, it’s just a nose-bleed. I’ll wash up and get rid of this towel.’

Not fooled for an instant, she followed him into the utility area and asked her question in a firm tone that made it absolutely clear she expected an answer.

‘What happened, Rio? And do not give me the nose-bleed story again. I’m not stupid!’ Except she already was for imagining for one more moment that she could carry on pretending, even to herself, that she was not in love with Rio. The pretence had already grown thin, but seeing him standing there hurt and bleeding had peeled away the last of it, exposing the nerve of the truth. She had fallen for the father of her child, a man who would never love her back because he was too damaged from his own childhood experiences. ‘What happened? Who did this?’ There was only really one candidate to choose from but she wanted him to tell her. It was important to her for him to share at least this much.

‘It’s fine, don’t fuss,’ he said, his voice muffled by the towel.

‘If you think all the machismo stiff-upper-lip stuff is going to impress me, you’re very mistaken.’ But then he wasn’t trying to impress her, was he? She wanted to impress him; she wanted him to need her the way she needed him, and he wasn’t going to, not ever.

‘Let me see—’

‘No!’

She ignored his protest and reached up to pull the towel away from his face. She swallowed a gasp, and thought,Right, so your objectivity has gone out of the window; just wing it, girl!

‘That looks painful.’ Turning so he couldn’t see her own face, she walked across to one of the deep stone sinks inset into a smooth work surface made of the same material. ‘I hope the other guy looks worse.’ If it was Roman, as she fully suspected, he definitely would after she got her hands on him!

When Rio said nothing it only confirmed her suspicions. It seemed ironic that she had always wanted a sibling, but now she felt lucky she was an only child.

‘Where’s the first-aid kit?’ It didn’t even cross her mind that there wouldn’t be one on his tick list when he had made this house a child-friendly haven.

‘First door on the right.’ He nodded to the open cupboard at the far end of the room. ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m fine,’ he said, sounding irritated now.

She didn’t have to feign anger to hide her feelings. ‘You’re an idiot!’ she snarled, before muttering under her breath as she yanked the cupboard open. The label on the first-aid kit was in four languages just in case you made a mistake, and as she pulled it out and placed it on the work surface she opened her eyes wide.

‘An EpiPen,really?’ As a teacher, she knew a lot more than the general public about such things. ‘You really did anticipate every disaster, didn’t you?’

‘Not me... I—’

‘Yes, I know, you delegated the task,’ she said in a flat voice. He might not give himself credit for getting this house ready for them, but she did. He hadn’t personally painted the nursery or made every corner of this place as child friendly as was humanly possible, but he had instigated it all.

The effort he had made to accommodate a child into his life at incredibly short notice touched her deeply.

‘What can I say? I was a Boy Scout,’ he said, and she couldn’t help but be aware of his intent stare following her as she selected the items she was looking for.

‘Liar!’ she denounced confidently. ‘They’d have turfed you out after your first bad joke.’

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