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It was an afterthought that mystified Rose—it was his kitchen, after all—but when she walked into the room, the tinge of something close to embarrassment made perfect sense.Slightlymessy did not cover it. The place looked as if a bomb had hit it, cupboards and drawers open, the work surfaces cluttered with their contents.
She cleared enough of the mess to be able to prepare the baby feed, while nudging the baby in his rocker chair with her foot.
Zac made a few calls and checked his emails, and made a few Internet face-to-face calls. The last-minute nature of the Greek trip had involved his office making some major changes to his diary. The only one that he had refused to cancel was a dinner for a director who had been with the foundation since its inception and whose dedication and expertise, given freely, had gone a long way to its success. Charles deserved more than a handshake and he had plenty of gold watches.
Flying back to London for the event had seemed the only realistic solution. It was one of his team who had suggested half jokingly that he could shift the party to Greece, fly everyone out and make a weekend of it.
The idea had appealed to Zac and he had set the plan in motion.
After being holed up for an hour, when he left the room Zac was hit by the smell of coffee and a blissful silence. He resisted the coffee aroma, sent up a prayer of thanks for the silence and headed for the shower.
Zac’s dark eyes squeezed closed as he lifted his head, enjoying being pummelled by the darts of hot steamy water ironing out the kinks in his spine left by the night he’d spent afraid to move in case the baby woke.
He found his thoughts turning to Rose’s relaxed competence with the baby. He doubted he would ever feel relaxed. He doubted... He pushed the thoughts away but the insecurities lingered. At least the child did not have his DNA to deal with, he just had a parent who left a lot to be desired. He would never be able to fill Liam’s shoes, he knew that. The loss of his friend lay like a cold boulder in his chest. Zac was determined to do his best, whatever that turned out to be, but for the first time in his adult life self-doubt plagued him.
He deliberately let the image of Rose’s face float into his head and the rest faded away. She was the biggest problem of all and one, despite everything, he would have given a lot to enjoy. The fact he was even torturing himself with the possibility said how big his problem was.
CHAPTER EIGHT
HETURNEDTHEshower to cold. The icy jets only partly solved his problem, which was that he wanted something that he couldn’t have... Not complicated, Zac. The control that he had grown to take for granted was being challenged because he was allowing it to be, he told himself. He had to stop indulging in fantasies and fulfil his promise to Marco and get Rose Hill out of his life and reunited with the family she appeared to long for.
Rose, the baby tucked on one hip, was talking away as though the infant could understand every word as she set about the task of untangling the straps on a baby rocking chair. She didn’t immediately realise that Zac had entered the room until his shadow fell across her.
‘Oh, good,’ she said, focusing on the practical use he could be and not how her stomach had gone into butterfly mode. ‘Could you lend a hand with this? It’s got in such a tangle.’ She clicked her tongue in irritation.
Before he knew what she wanted—his thought processes were a little slowed by the distraction of her behind encased in blue denim—she had got to her feet and thrust the baby at him.
‘Could you? I need to use two hands.’
‘What...?’
Rose watched as he looked at the baby as if it were an unexploded bomb. ‘That’s right, support the head...you’ve done it before, yeah, that’s perfect. You’re a natural,’ she lied.
The pat-on-the-head lie made his jaw quiver. If he could have risked taking his eyes off the baby, he would have glared at her for daring to patronise him, a circumstance that should have made him more annoyed than he was.
Zac Adamos lookingalmostvulnerable, not arrogant and in control. Who’d have thought? she mused, fighting off a smile that faded of its own accord as the worddangerousfloated into her head.
She shivered. ‘You can breathe,’ she offered in a tight little voice as she bent back to her task. The task she was getting paid for. Among all this domestic familiarity, it was good to remind herself of her position here.
The baby looked up at him with what Zac imagined was disappointment... Sorry, mate, Zac thought. You did pull the short straw.
‘He’s not crying.’
Rose straightened up. ‘I can’t take the credit. Janet said he had colic, poor scrap. She had had a tough few days, but he’s feeling better—aren’t you?’ She moved in close, pursing her lips as she threw the baby a kiss and smiled.
Zac clenched his jaw at the resultant hormone surge he had zero control over and stood rigid as she took the baby from him. Some of the tension slid from his shoulders as he was relieved of the warm bundle and she stepped away, not far enough to stop his nostrils flaring in response to the scent of her shampoo, or was it just the scent of her?
‘Janet?’he repeated, frustration and the irritation he felt with himself putting harshness in his deep voice.
She looked surprised by the question. ‘Janet, my predecessor. Oh, her mother’s op went very well...’ She slung him a cheery smile over her shoulder as she crouched down to clip the baby in the chair, sounding as though she expected this to be good news to him.
‘How on earth do you know that?’
‘She texted me a few minutes ago.’
‘You appear to have bonded.’
She straightened up. Maybe he was always this grumpy in the morning? Or maybe just on a morning after he had spent the night in a chair with a baby on his knee when he might have had other plans.
