Feisty Firefighters Bundle

‘So you do accept that she’s yours?’ Shelley smiled for the first time and Laura stared at the perfect teeth in the perfect face. ‘I’m so pleased, Jason. I wasn’t sure that you would.’

‘So that was why you decided to dump her?’ Jason hadn’t returned the smile. His face was set grimly and the hold on the baby in his arms had tightened enough to make Megan squeak softly in surprise.

‘Yes,’ Shelley said surprisingly. ‘I knew if I turned up with the baby you would have no problem in ignoring both of us. Denying fatherhood and simply sending us packing. I knew my only chance was to make sure you had the opportunity to get to know and accept your daughter.’

Only chance for what? Laura stood beside Jason, stony-faced.

‘And now? I suppose you think you can just take her away as easily as you brought her.’ Jason cleared his throat. ‘You might have bitten off a bit more than you can chew, Shelley.’

‘I have no intention of taking her away from you.’ Shelley walked towards where they were standing. Oscar raised his head from where it was resting on Jason’s knee and growled softly. ‘She looks very happy.’ Shelley peered over the edges of the blanket and her blue eyes became very bright. ‘Hello, darling,’ she crooned. ‘Mummy’s missed you so much.’

Laura felt a faint wave of nausea. Surely Jason could see how fake this woman was? He didn’t appear to have thawed yet.

‘What do you intend to do, then, Shelley?’

Go back to England, Laura wanted to suggest tartly. Get the hell out of our lives and stay out.

‘I just want to talk, Jason. We’ve got a lot to talk about, haven’t we?’

‘I suppose so.’ The agreement was grudging. ‘I guess you’d better sit down.’

Shelley didn’t move. She looked directly at Laura for the first time since entering the house. ‘It really is a private matter.’

‘I don’t have any secrets from Laura,’ Jason responded. ‘And she’s as involved in all this as any of us.’

‘Really?’ Shelley’s glance was almost amused. As competition, Laura had just been summarily dismissed.

Seething inwardly, Laura sat on an armchair. Shelley sat on the couch but Jason remained standing, the baby in his arms, the dog pressed firmly against his leg.

Laura watched the longest, most elegant legs she had ever seen cross themselves and display a significant amount more thigh. No matter how toned or thin she herself became, she would never possess legs like that without some kind of transplant. Then Shelley reached up to flick long blonde hair over one shoulder and the movement raised her short top enough to reveal a flat belly with a glinting jewel in her navel. A glance at Jason revealed his gaze was riveted to the woman on the couch and Laura felt something cold and hard form inside her.

He was attracted to Shelley. What man wouldn’t be? And Shelley Bates had a card Laura could never play. She was Megan’s birth mother. She could take Jason’s now beloved child away from him…or she could use her to pull Jason back into her life.

Which was clearly what her intention was.

‘I’ve never forgotten you, Jason. It was the most wonderful holiday I’ve ever had and the night with you was the best part.’

‘You could have fooled me. You didn’t even bother to meet me at that pub the next night.’

So, Jason had wanted it to be a little more than a one-night stand, had he? Megan made a distressed noise that fitted how Laura was feeling remarkably well. At least the baby’s discomfort could be eased, however.

‘I’ll fix her a bottle, shall I?’

‘I couldn’t,’ Shelley told Jason. ‘We’d taken a boat trip out to Slipper Island and the weather got rough. We had to stay overnight and when I went looking for you the next day, you had gone. I had no idea how to get hold of you.’ The sigh was heartfelt. ‘I tried again when I found out I was pregnant, of course, but all I knew was your name and that you were a fireman. You wouldn’t think New Zealand was a big enough country to make it difficult to find out where someone lives, would you?’

‘No,’ Jason said. Megan cried again, more loudly this time, and Laura simply got up and walked to the kitchen.

‘After Megan was born my b-brother decided he had to help.’

What was that stammer about? Laura wondered sourly, as she stirred formula. Had she just managed to modify ‘boyfriend’ into something acceptable in time? It hadn’t been a ‘brother’ Mrs Mack had seen delivering the box to the station’s doorstep. And where was he now, anyway? She went back into the sitting room a few minutes later and silently handed the bottle to Jason.

‘Thanks.’ The smile Laura received was distracted, however. Jason’s attention was firmly directed to the woman on the couch. ‘Where have you been for the last month, Shelley?”

‘Just travelling,’ she responded sadly, watching as Jason sat down in the armchair and arranged the baby and bottle into satisfactory positions. ‘I was in Dunedin most of the time. My brother, Darryn, has a friend there who’s trying to find a job. I was just filling in time, thinking about you and Megan and wondering whether you would learn to love her if you were given the chance.’

The longer the silence that fell ticked on, the more significant it seemed to become. Finally, Jason cleared his throat.

‘Yeah…well, I guess it worked.’

Shelley’s huge blue eyes radiated joy. ‘That’s wonderful. Now all we need to do is plan our future.’

‘Our future?’ Jason’s incredulity echoed the word that was sounding a strident alarm in Laura’s head.

‘We have a baby, Jason,’ Shelley told him softly. ‘The result of the love we shared.’

‘For one night,’ Jason reminded her. ‘It was sex, not love, Shelley.’

‘For you, maybe. I think it was more than that. I’ve never forgotten that night, and I’ve never forgotten you.’

Laura could understand that, even if she still wasn’t at all convinced of this woman’s sincerity. If she’d only ever had a single night with Jason, it would be burned into her memory banks for ever as well.

‘I want my baby to have a father,’ Shelley whispered. ‘I want her to have her father.’

‘I have no intention of abandoning my daughter.’

‘But I want her to have a real father. Not someone on the other side of the world.’

‘I’m not planning to shift to Britain,’ Jason said firmly. ‘But Megan can stay here. I’m sure she’ll be allowed to stay in the country on a permanent basis once I’m legally registered as her father.’

‘But I wouldn’t be allowed to stay,’ Shelley said softly. ‘And my daughter is staying with me.’

Stick had hit the nail right on the head, Laura realised. Shelley Bates was out to emigrate and Megan was the ace she hadn’t bothered to keep up her sleeve. If Jason wanted to keep Megan in his life, he was going to have to marry her mother. And that wouldn’t be too much of a hardship, would it?

Shelley was obviously too clever to push the point right now. Instead, she stood up, walked towards Jason and held out her arms.

‘I think it’s time I got to hold my baby, isn’t it?’

For a long second, time seemed to stop. Don’t give her Megan, Laura pleaded silently. If you hand her over then she’s already won. Then Shelley wiped away a tear that was trickling slowly down the side of her nose.

‘Please, Jason?’

The lone tear had done the trick. Laura watched the conflict play across Jason’s face. Should he do what he wanted to do and hold onto his child or create further suffering for the woman who was, in all fairness, Megan’s mother? Slowly, grudgingly, he transferred his bundle.

To Laura’s immense satisfaction, Megan took one look at her mother and started howling.

‘Oh, I know, darling.’ Shelley clutched the baby and rocked her back and forth. ‘Mummy’s sorry she left you. But I’m back now. Everything’s going to be fine.’

Laura looked at her. She looked at the overnight bag beside the couch. She looked at Megan. And she looked at Jason, who wasn’t looking back at her.

Everything was not going to be fine but there was very little Laura could do about it.