Page 5 of The Baby Behind Their Marriage Merger

And, at that moment, Addi had finally grasped the lesson that life had been trying to teach her: that people would always let her down, normally at a time when she needed them the most. It was always, always, better to rely on oneself. And she would never put her faith in anyone other than her sisters again. She’d vowed that Joelle’s girls would be smart, responsible, independent andbetterthan their irresponsible mother.

But she, responsibility personified, was the one who was pregnant. Addi was embarrassed and furious, but she was also scared. After Dean had absconded, she’d imagined that, since she had no intention of marrying ever again, having children wasn’t on the cards for her. And maybe that was a good thing because, unlike Lex, she’d never managed to fully connect with her half-sisters. While she’d gone to work and tried to keep their financial heads above water, Lex had scooped them up, dispensed hugs and kisses, dried their tears and listened to their rambling stories.

Okay, sure, she wasn’t around them as much as Lex, but when she got home they didn’t rush to hug her as they did Lex, didn’t curl up into her lap as they did Lex. Hers wasn’t the bed they ran to when they had bad dreams, hers wasn’t the opinion or reassurance they sought.

Lex was warm and she wasn’t. While she had Joelle’s features, her blonde hair and blue eyes, she came across as being haughty rather than sensual. Being naturally shy and very guarded, she disappeared behind a cool mask and talked in a clipped, no-nonsense style, fast and sharp.

She knew her work colleagues considered her stuck up, and she was never invited to join the younger staff members for a drink after work or go to their houses for a barbeque at the weekend. They didn’t understand that she had all the responsibilities her older colleagues did, children to raise, a salary to stretch.

And now she had a baby on the way. How was she going to work, have a baby, raise Nixi and Snow and support Lex so that she could finish her degree? And, with Thorpe Industries being put up for sale, she’d be out of a job in a few months. The thought of going through the stressful interview process, trying to impress and convince owners or managers that she was worth taking a chance on, pregnant or not, made her throat close.

Panic filled her. She needed to work; she couldn’t be without an income. She had three and a half people relying on her—what was she going to do? What plan could be made? All she could do was send out her CV and look for a new job. But was that enough? She didn’t think so.

As Addi stepped back into the stall to get her tests and bag, she heard the door to the bathroom open and a few seconds later she heard a familiar deep voice bouncing off the walls. ‘Addi, are you in here?’

She could easily imagine Greg, her assistant, stepping into the ladies’. He didn’t have a reticent bone in his body.

‘I’ll be out in a minute, Greg.’ Jeez, couldn’t a girl take half an hour to do three pregnancy tests and have a mini panic attack without someone hunting her down?

‘Cole Thorpe is looking for you. He’s tried to video-call you twice.’

Her head shot up and she swept the pregnancy tests into her bag. She walked over to the basin and flipped the tap to wash her hands.

‘Did he say what the urgency is?’ she asked Greg. Why did the big boss and owner want to talk to her? What was she missing? What hadn’t she done?

‘No, but he told me to find you and that he will be calling back in fifteen minutes.’ He drew a circle in the air, gesturing to her gaunt face. ‘You need to put on some lipstick and blusher, and I’ll make you a cup of coffee.’

Her stomach rebelled at the thought. ‘Make it a cup of rooibos tea and you’re on.’

Greg stared at her. ‘You hate rooibos tea,’ he pointed out, frowning.

Yeah, but she’d hate throwing up in front of her boss more.

‘So, it’s settled, then? Addi will be your liaison between you and Thorpe Industries. Nobody understands the division better.’

Jude looked at the two squares on his screen, the smaller one containing the face of his friend Cole Thorpe, the larger one reflecting the very lovely face of his one-night stand from two months ago. Jude rubbed his hand over his jaw, dropping his eyes briefly to look at the small block showing his reflection. He looked reasonably impassive. Unlike Addi, he wasn’t wearing awhat is happening here?expression.

Cole’s eyebrows pulled down into a frown and impatience flickered in his eyes. ‘Guys? Has my sound cut out?’

Jude nodded and managed a thin smile. ‘Sure, that’s fine. Let me have a look at all your hospitality assets and I’ll let you know what properties I am interested in.’

‘I’ll give you a better price if you take all of them,’ Cole shot back. Jude sighed. He knew Cole wanted to rid himself of an inheritance he hadn’t wanted or expected but, old friend or not, Jude wasn’t going to buy hotels, lodges or camps that didn’t suit his, or Fisher International’s, needs.

But to make an offer, or even look at what his friend owned, he’d have to work with Addi. It made sense on a business level. Her title was Operations Manager, and she was, per Cole, the hospitality division’s trouble-shooter. Judging by the wealth of documents he’d already received from Cole, she had spreadsheets to keep track of her spreadsheets, and every entity was broken down to the smallest cup, blanket and spare part. The woman was scarily efficient.

She also, Jude noticed, looked exhausted. With her hair slicked off her face and red lips, the woman on his screen looked cool and composed on the surface. But her eyes were dull with fatigue, and she’d lost weight since he’d last seen her. Yet his heart still kicked up and the fabric of his pants suddenly felt one size smaller. There was something about her that heated his blood, that made his heart stutter, that closed his throat. And, whatever it was, he had to get over it before he met up with her again.

Talking of... ‘I suppose we’d better check our diaries, Ms Fields.’

‘Mr Thorpe has instructed me to make sure I’m available to you,’ Addi replied in a cool voice. ‘So I am completely at your disposal, Mr Fisher.’

His eyes met hers in cyberspace and he saw hers darken and flicker with want, or need. But an instant later they returned to being a murky blue. The woman on the balcony had fizzled and sparked; she had been sassy and confident, at ease in her skin. This Addi looked and sounded like a faded version of herself. In a very vague way, she reminded him of the way his mum had looked shortly before she’d died—worn down, exhausted, emotionally battered. He’d been young when she’d died from an ectopic pregnancy, just eight, but he’d had to grow up super-fast, becoming self-reliant almost immediately. That was what happened when one parent died and the other checked out. Then checked out permanently by dying.

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Cole said, and with a tap on his keyboard disappeared from the screen. Jude made sure he was gone before resting his forearms on his desk.

‘I didn’t know you worked for Cole,’ he said, picking up a pen and tapping the end on his desk. He was working out of his study at his vineyard in Franschhoek, just an hour from the city. He glanced to his right, enjoying the view of vineyards rolling up to the edge of the sawtooth ragged peaks of the Franschhoek Mountains. This was the first day he’d seen the sun for a long time, and when the next cold front rolled in they would be having weeks, possibly months, of cold and wild weather.

‘How would you?’ Addi asked, shrugging. ‘We didn’t spend that much time talking.’

---