Page 227 of Lovers' Dance: Vol. 2

“An ugly excuse of a boy,” Nicki volunteered with a laugh as she flicked her blond tresses back. She had cut hers too, not the daring pixie style as her sister, but a sleek lob – yeah, I think that was the correct name for the long bob – which fell attractively around her neck.

Dang. I needed to sort my wild curls out, it was growing like mad due to the pregnancy hormones. I suddenly wanted to look like a fresh-faced teenager again. Damned young’uns filling me with envy.

“Stop crowding her, girls,” the smooth cultured voice of their mother broke through our girlish frenzied exchange of greetings. Hannah approached us, gaze trained on my face as she sent me a decidedly nervous smile.

“Madison,”

“Hannah,” I assumed we were doing the ‘state the other person’s name’ game.

She bit her lip before rushing over in a flurry of vibrant silk top and long black trousers. I hadn’t yet seen her shoes but I was loving the matching silk scarf that held her chestnut hair off her face. It reminded me of my night-time hair scarf. Classy elegance. The simple tennis bracelet on her wrist looked vaguely familiar. Had Matt re-gifted the jewellery I returned to him? Cheap bugger. He had better not given away my stuff…ah, not that I cared about those material things. I had returned the jewellery all those months ago, I had no claim to it anymore.

“Please forgive me,” she begged after enveloping me in a tight hug. “I’m terribly ashamed of myself for treating you in such a way. Please forgive us. I wish I hadn’t been so quick to judge – Matt never went into details – I’m sorry I never contacted you.”

“Mum, you’re suffocating her.” Natty warned tartly.

I wanted to be angry but in the face of such genuine remorse and with tears already creeping past her lashes, I couldn’t hold on to my righteous anger.

“It’s ok,” I hugged her back. “We all made mistakes. Um, this is a bit left-field but did you have a natural birth or did you go for the C-section? I’m undecided.”

She laughed, still crying though, and pressed a light welcoming kiss to my cheek as she gently touched my stomach. “We have much to talk about.”

“Darling, stop blubbering over the girl,” Stuart’s jovial voice had me tensing right up.

He was here also? Matt said it was only supposed to be the girls. I leaned away from Hannah and peered past her shoulder. Oh no. Matt was already striding through the rest of them congregating in the large foyer. That apologetic look had taken up residence on his face once more.

“I had no idea,” he explained then gave Hannah a hard scowl. “Hannah told them about the meal and,” He shrugged his shoulders in frustrated defeat.

“I didn’t expect them all to show up.” Hannah defended herself as we officially stopped hugging.

“You shouldn’t have said anything to begin with,” Matt hissed back under his breath before he peered at me to gauge my reaction. “I had no idea they would all be here, you have to know that.”

Gritting my teeth, I fought the urge to yell ‘frigging set-up’ and tried to smile. My mouth wasn’t having any of it and remained in a stretched grimace. Fucking set-up. Hmm, I really hadn’t done a good job of giving up unnecessary mental swear words. There they stood, silently waiting behind the approaching Stuart. The remaining brood of Bradleys.

“Madison,” Stuart beamed at me as if we were long-lost siblings. “You look lovely, pregnancy suits you to a tee.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Matt was suddenly animated, he simmered right back down when noticing my stony expression hadn’tdisappeared.

Ignoring my less than warm demeanour, Stuart wrapped me up in an awkward hug. He managed five long seconds of hugging my wooden frame before releasing me and reaching out to tenderly pat my stomach.

“Jolly good news about the twins. Was Rylan nice to you? I told him you must have only the best treatment. We both did our placement at the same hospital back in the day. I can tell you a story or two about him which will make you laugh.”

“Dad,” Natty piped up with her usual cheekiness. “No one cares about your boring medical student days.”

“He was reasonably nice, curt but nice,” I relayed with the tiniest of gratitude. “Thank you for getting me in to see him. Matt said he’s usually unable to squeeze in expectant mothers like this.”

“Think nothing of it,” Stuart interrupted. “And you’re right, his bedside manners have always been lax.”

“As are yours.” Hannah teased.

I hoped there wasn’t a double entendre in that loaded comment. Nicki looked squidged out, Natty simply exhaled with an exasperation only a first-born could get away with. If I had ever done such a slow, deliberate exhalation with that amount of derision infused into it at my aunt when I was her age…I might have ended up with a fat lip.

“Well,” Stuart winked at his wife before reaching over to pat my tummy once more. “I’m just glad I could be of help.”

The touching thing was making me antsy, it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t mind the girls, and Hannah had been crying so it would have been churlish to tell her off for rubbing my tummy, but I was definitely getting antsy now. When Stuart gave me another quick hug, I reluctantly hugged him back. Ok. I would be nice because he used his connections to get me a great private doctor who rarely took on any new patients below a certain income bracket. We pulled apart, both seemingly glad the physical aspect was over. Stuart stepped aside as Matt’s parents walked towards us.

Portia got to me first. “Can you ever forgive me?”

I bit my inner cheeks and watched her blue eyes swim with tears. She was no doubt waging an internal battle to stop the moisture from leaking down her face. My eyes sought out Matt. There was no pressure coming from him, his expression openly showing it was upto me.

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