His Brand of Beautiful
Page 26
Saffah handed Eva to Richard. “I’ll go find my paints.”
Richard’s gruff features softened as he gazed at his granddaughter, his hair sticking up in tufts where Eva pulled at it. He turned the baby to the window. “There’s your daddy, Princess. You see him?” He yelled back over his shoulder. “Hurry it up, Saff.”
They heard the slide of steel on steel as sack-trucks and ramps were stowed in the back of the truck.
Saffah breezed back into the lounge-room with paint tubes and a brush in her hand.
“What colour, CC?”
“Shit, Saff. I don’t care about the colour. Maybe red.”
“I didn’t think you liked red.”
“Red is fine.” Christina unclipped the catch of the maternity bra and bared the top of her left breast.
Richard put the baby up over his shoulder and Christina made faces at her from the couch.
“Evie-J’s smiling at me.”
“It’s wind,” Saffah responded, not unkindly, loading up her brush. “Okay. Here we go.
This could be cold.”
The brush tickled. The paint slid on smooth and finished dry and smelled faintly of vanilla and candles. It didn’t take long before Saffah stepped back to admire her handiwork.
Lily Malone
“They’re closing up the tailgate,” Richard announced from the window, bouncing Eva so hard her tiny chin bumped his shoulder blade.
The truck engine fired.
“They’re done. He’s coming,” Richard said.
Saffah squealed and grabbed up her paint tubes. “Quick, Dickie. Give CC the baby.”
“I don’t want to smudge the paint, Saff,” Christina said. Her mouth felt bone dry.
“I’ll help you. Don’t move.” Saffah carefully clipped the maternity bra catch to the strap, pulling the material out so it wouldn’t rub the paint.
Richard plonked the baby in Christina’s outstretched arms. “Good luck, sweetheart.”
His eyes were wet.
Saffah patted his cheek. “You’re such a sap, Dickie. She doesn’t need luck, Tate’s been hooked for months.”
They heard the truck’s tyres crunch gravel and the engine worked its way through the gears. Then the front door squeaked and boots scraped against the step. Saffah yanked Richard’s arm.
“No listening you two,” Christina hissed at them under her breath.
She held the baby so that Eva’s booties drummed her thighs and her fat rolls made sweet creases above and below her knees. Christina buried her nose in the puff of caramel-coloured hair and breathed the precious scent from the top of her head. There was no other smell in the world like it. The baby blogs were right.
The front door shut.
“There’s my girls.” Tate crossed to the couch, swept Eva up and she tried to grab fistfuls of his tawny hair, gurgling at him in delight. It didn’t last. Eva let out a cry, shrill and sharp and rubbed her eyes.
“She’s getting tired,” Christina said. “And she’s due for her feed. Bring her here.”
Her heart started beating even faster. She opened her shirt. Her sweating fingers missed the clip on the bra’s catch. It took a few tries. Then she eased the triangle of material carefully off her breast and held out her arms for her daughter, trying hard not to feel silly.
“Dinner time Evie-J,” Tate said, treating the baby like an aeroplane and zooming her up, down, round…up…looping-the‐loop…
Sheesh. It’s the longest damn plane ride ever.
The baby squealed, harder this time, she could smell her milk now and her need for it over-rode her love of the game. Tate zoomed her down.
And stopped, his arms extended.
Eva bounced unhappily.
Gently, Tate lowered the baby onto the pillow across Christina’s lap and dropped to his haunches on the carpet by her knees. Eva’s tiny perfect hand clutched at her breast and the little mouth hunted greedily for her nipple. The baby’s nose scrubbed out the word
‘marry’ and wrinkled, like she didn’t care for the paint smell.
Tate hadn’t said a word.
Christina had to will her shoulders to relax. She felt the tingle as her milk let down, heard the baby’s rhythmic swallows.
“Wow,” Tate said at last. “What brought this on?”
“It’s important to you. I know it means a lot.”
He didn’t like that. “It has to mean a lot to you too, Christina.”
She looked down at the baby, content at her breast, eyes closing. “You told me once that I say things best when I don’t speak.”
“You say more without opening your mouth than any woman I know,” he corrected automatically.
Christina sucked in a deep breath. “A year ago I thought all I wanted was a new wine brand. Then I met you.”
He reached out a hand and rubbed her calf in his fingers.
“I knew when we were at Binara that I wanted a baby, too, and that I wanted to have that baby with you. I know I went about it all wrong, but if this little girl is what I get? Tate, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. She is the most perfect gift.” She wiped a dribble of milk from Eva’s rose-bud lips.
“I love you. I’ve loved you for months, I just didn’t know it. And if the offer is still open, I want to be your wife. Will you marry me?” A dancing beam of light inside her chest seemed to expand and glow with the words.
“Yes or no, Tate?” Saffah cried. “We’re dying out here.”
“Yes.” He said it soft.
He kept his kiss soft too, until Christina returned the pressure and heat stirred through her breast and her thighs, and she heard his muffled sigh against her mouth.
“Looks like a yes to me.” Her father muttered from the doorway.
Tate dropped a final kiss on her nose.
Saffah’s head poked around Richard’s shoulder. “Are you sure Dick? I mean, he kissed her on the nose.”
“About my new in-laws…”
“Don’t be too hard on them,” Christina said. “They never thought they’d see this day.”
“I always knew I’d see the day.” He kissed her once more, let it linger. Then he picked up the now-sleeping Eva-Jolie and carried her through to her bassinette.
Lily Malone
ISBN: 9780857990303
Title: His Brand of Beautiful
Copyright © 2013 by Lily Malone
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 1
9
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28