Evie's Bombshell - By Amy Andrews Page 0,41

‘That’s good.’

Lydia nodded. ‘Although in the interests of full disclosure we did have a … relationship. A very messed-up one for a few years after Isaac’s death. I was a complete wreck … it was a very dark time … I think we both held on for much longer than we should have because we were each other’s link to Isaac.’

‘Oh,’ Evie said again, still having trouble with sentences but this time because of Lydia’s frankness. Finn and Isaac’s widow had been lovers? ‘Did he … did he love you?’

Lydia shook her head. ‘Not in that way, no. I wanted him to … needed him to at the time … but he’s been through a lot … seen a lot … he’s a complex man. He doesn’t love easily.’

Evie nodded slowly. ‘Tell me about it.’

‘You love him?’

‘Yes.’

‘And yet you won’t marry him.’ Lydia smiled. ‘You have him quite riled up.’

Evie shrugged, looking into the bottom of her cup. ‘He doesn’t love me. And I’m not settling for anything less.’

‘Good for you.’ Lydia laughed. ‘If it’s any consolation, though, I think he does love you.’

She looked up at Lydia sharply, expecting to find her looking as flippant as the remark, but she seemed deadly serious. ‘Well, I think he does too,’ she said. ‘But he has to say it. He has to admit it. To himself more than anything.’

Lydia nodded. ‘Yes. For a man so bloody intelligent he can be exceedingly dim-witted.’

Evie laughed and Lydia joined her. When their laughter died Lydia suddenly sat forward and grabbed Evie’s hand. ‘Don’t give up on him, Evie, please. He needs you.’

Evie was reminded of Ethan’s words. It spoke volumes that Finn had people who loved and cared about him.

‘I need him too,’ she said. ‘But I need all of him.’

Lydia let her hand go. ‘Of course you do.’ She sipped at her coffee. ‘He showed me the house,’ she said after a while.

‘Ah,’ Evie murmured. ‘The house.’

‘You don’t like the house?’ Lydia asked, her brow crinkling.

‘I freaking love the house,’ Evie muttered. ‘But I don’t want grand gestures from him.’

Lydia gave her a sad smile. ‘You have to understand what that house means to Finn.’

‘Oh, yes?’ Evie asked, trying to keep the jealousy out of her voice. ‘And what’s that? Believe me, I’d love to know. But he doesn’t tell me anything. He just wants to install me there like bloody Miss Haversham.’

Lydia pursed her lips again as if deciding what to say next. Evie hoped and prayed she’d say something, anything, that would give her some insight into the man she loved.

‘Finn and Isaac grew up in the system,’ Lydia said. ‘Their mother abandoned them when Finn was eight. Isaac was six. It was … tough. They got passed around a lot. Finn fought to keep them together, which was hard when most families only wanted one troubled child and that was usually the much sunnier Isaac. There was a lot of rejection. A lot of … bouncing around. Finn would tell Isaac stories about their dad coming to take them away to Luna Park for the day and a ride on a ferry then bringing them back to his home by the sea.’

Evie sat for long moments, letting the import of Lydia’s words sink in. Finn had bought his childhood fantasy home for his own son, the house he’d never known, with the hope of providing his child with an upbringing he’d never had.

She sat very still, moved almost to tears. And yet she was blindingly jealous too. Why had she had to hear this story from Lydia? Why couldn’t he have told her himself? If he’d told her this the day he’d taken her to the house she might not have been so bloody angry all week.

‘He told you all this?’ she asked, looking up at Lydia.

Lydia shook her head with a wry smile. ‘Good grief, no. Isaac did. Finn never speaks of it. I doubt he’s ever told anyone.’

It shouldn’t have made her feel better. The story was tragic and awful. But somehow it did. Somehow knowing that he hadn’t told any woman about his younger years gave her hope. Hope that he would open up to her about it eventually.

Over time.

Which was what they had now. Time. Before the baby was born.

Maybe she could use it wisely to get them what they both wanted?

CHAPTER SEVEN

AVA HAD BEEN in her office for one minute on Monday morning when the door opened and Finn stormed in.

‘What do women want?’ he