Page 50 of Bound By Her Baby Revelation (Hot Winter Escapes)

He had no idea what she was thinking about Boston. If she decided to stay put in Vancouver, then there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. He couldn’t drag her kicking and screaming to some house he’d chosen for her.

And he’d been looking. It was a job he could have farmed out to his PA, but he had spent time looking himself, getting in touch with the biggest relocation company that dealt with that area and outlining the sort of thing he was looking for.

He looked at his mobile phone and, fed up with the business of dealing with his chaotic thoughts, he scrolled, found her number and dialled it.

Kaya was tidying the last of the rooms in the house. It had been a labour of love and a useful way of getting her mind off what was happening in her life.

So he’d changed his mind about marrying her. Was it that surprising? Maybe he’d made love with her that last time and it had dawned on him that sex, for what it was worth, wasn’t going to be quite enough to see them through a baby and everything that would come afterwards.

He’d broken it off, she’d looked at him while her world had been falling apart and she’d smiled and kept on smiling, nodding her agreement with his decision for the rest of the short time they’d been at the villa.

She was sure he’d been relieved that she’d had the decency not to kick up a fuss or to tell him that he should have listened to her in the first place. It was hard to tell. When he chose, it was impossible to read what he was thinking.

And, once she’d returned to the house, he had called daily to find out how she was doing. He was solicitous and zealous in his concern for her health, the pregnancy. He asked her questions and she replied, but all the while she wondered what he was doing, what he was getting up to.

Out of sight, out of mind—wasn’t that how it went? He’d walked away from her and was living his life as it had been before they’d met. Had he met someone else? Someone to take the sting out of the hand he’d been dealt? Had he idly started casting his eyes around for the women who would step up to the plate, expecting no more than he considered himself capable of giving?

He’d mentioned Boston.

When Kaya thought of going there, of looking around houses knowing that she wouldn’t be sharing any of them with him, she chickened out and made excuses for not being ready.

‘Still stuff to do here...’

‘I have to go to the halfway house and go through the books...’

‘I can’t spare the time right now to go to the estate agents... Maybe later, maybe next week...or next month...’

‘Is there really a rush just yet...?’

Now, sitting back on her haunches with little piles of paraphernalia around her, and the growing emptiness of the house reminding her that decisions couldn’t be put off for ever, she looked at her phone and saw his name. He could have phoned her on the hour and, every single time his name flashed up, she’d know that her heart would skip a beat.

‘Leo, hi.’

What was she doing...? How much left was there to pack away...? Did she need any assistance? He could have a team assembled within a day to finish everything off for her... She shouldn’t be doing anything that required manual effort, not in her condition; it was important she took care of herself...

Kaya stared off into the distance as she heard the dark, velvety smoothness of his voice and listened to his concern, always at the forefront, always reminding her of the kind of guy he was, so much the opposite of what she had originally thought.

‘It’s good for me, doing this,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s a lot of personal stuff. It wouldn’t feel right for a team of people to be here going through it.’

‘I get that, but you’re pregnant.’

‘You worry too much. I’m fine. I... Leo...about Boston...’

‘It’s actually why I was calling you.’

Down the end of the line, Leo vaulted to his feet and strolled to the bank of windows that overlooked Wall Street. He was going to pin her down. A decision had to be made. His head was exploding from not knowing, from her being so far from him, her voice so distant down the end of an impersonal line.

‘I’ve been working on this and I’ve found somewhere I think would be suitable.’

‘Really? For me, Leo? How do you know what I would find suitable?’

‘I’m going on instinct and, as you don’t seem that interested in finding anywhere there, it’s all I have to go on.’

‘I’m sorry. There’s been a lot to do here, with the house and everything.’

‘Granted, but time won’t be standing still.’

‘Maybe you could email me the details and I’ll let you know what I think of the place, you know? Save all the bother of travelling from Vancouver to Boston.’

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