Page 28 of The Venetian One-Night Baby

‘No. This one’s perfect.’ She glanced at him again. ‘But I’ll have to only wear it in secret for another month because if either of our parents see this giant sparkler on my hand—’

‘Maybe we should tell them.’

Sabrina frowned. ‘But I thought we agreed to keep it quiet until the twelve-week mark?’

He took her hand and toyed with the ring on her finger, his inscrutable gaze meshing with hers. ‘I know but we’ve had the first ultrasound and everything looks healthy so—’

She tugged her hand out of his and held it close to her body. ‘No, Max. I think we should wait. It’s only another month and then we can tell everyone about the baby and...and set a date for the wedding.’ Every time she thought about the wedding she had a panic attack. How was she going to get a dress made in time? What if she ballooned and looked nothing like the picture she had in her mind of the bride she had always wanted to be?

But it wasn’t just about looking the part...what if Max never came to love her? People who genuinely loved you never deserted you. It was love that sheltered and sustained a relationship, not an overblown sense of duty.

Max captured her hand again and stroked it in warm, soothing motions. ‘I don’t want you to think I’m hiding you from my parents out of shame or embarrassment, like we’re having some tawdry little affair. I’m proud to be your partner.’

Sabrina squeezed his hand. ‘Oh, Max, that’s so sweet of you. But I’m kind of enjoying our little secret. I’m surprised we’ve managed to keep it quiet this long. But I’m sure that’s only because my mum and dad are away on holiday at the moment. I told Mum when she phoned me that I was moving out of my flat to stay with a friend. Unusually for her, she didn’t ask which one, but it won’t be long before she does.’

‘But would it be such a problem to tell her you’re staying with me? I don’t want to come between you and your parents, especially your mother. And especially now you’re pregnant.’

Sabrina rolled her eyes. ‘You know what my parents are like, always telling me what I should do. I know they mean well, but as soon as they know I’m pregnant they’ll whip out their medical bags and whisk me off to have every test under the sun. I just want to have time to get used to it myself. I’m enjoying the secrecy and the privacy for now.’

Max turned her hand over and traced a lazy circle in her palm. ‘I’m enjoying it too.’

‘You are?’

His eyes glinted. ‘So much so, I think we should go away for the weekend.’

A bubble of excitement formed in her chest. ‘Where to?’

‘It’s a secret.’

Sabrina gave him a coy look. ‘You kind of like your secrets, don’t you?’

He gave a quick grin that transformed his face. ‘More than I realised. Can you take the time off work? I know you usually work on a Saturday but—’

‘It’s fine. My assistant Harriet is getting better all the time so she can take over while I’m away. I figured she’s going to have to do more and more for me the further along I get with the pregnancy.’

Max stroked his hand over the back of her head. ‘How long will you work? I can support you if you’d like to take more time off and—’

‘I love my job, Max. Pregnancy isn’t a disease. I’m perfectly healthy and—’

‘I just worry about you doing too much. Running a business more or less singlehandedly is not an easy task. You need to outsource so you’re not overburdened with unnecessary work. We have a wedding to plan and a baby on the way and that needs to take priority, surely?’

How could he suggest she take time out from the business she loved as if it was nothing more than a fill-in job? Sabrina swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood. ‘Will you stop lecturing me about what I should do? You’re starting to sound like my parents.’

‘Yeah, well, maybe your parents are onto something.’ Max’s tone tightened.

She glared at him, stung by his betrayal in siding with her parents. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

He released a rough-sounding breath. ‘Look, I don’t want to argue with you. I’m just saying you need to do things a little differently. You’re a talented designer, no question about that, but you can’t possibly make every single dress yourself.’

‘I don’t make every one myself. I have a small team of seamstresses but I do all the hand-sewing myself because that’s my signature touch.’

‘Would it help if I set up a workroom for you here?’ Max asked. ‘You could work from home and get your assistant to run the shop so you can rest when you need to.’

It was a tempting offer. She had often thought of working from home without the distraction of phones and walk-ins who were ‘just browsing’. Some of her hand sewing was complicated and painstaking work and she needed to concentrate. And truth be told, she had been feeling a little overwhelmed with it all even before she’d found out she was pregnant. ‘You wouldn’t mind?’

‘Why would I mind?’

‘I don’t know... I just thought weddings weren’t your thing.’

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