reduced even further.
‘He’s a little marvel!’ Lexi exclaimed.
Finn couldn’t have agreed more and to see Evie with her eyes glittering and her skin glowing was a sight for sore eyes.
‘You’re just in time,’ Evie said. ‘I was about to go and express. You can entertain Lexi.’
Finn glanced up. ‘Actually, would you mind going solo for a bit, Lex? I wouldn’t mind having a chat with your sister.’ He looked at Evie. ‘If that’s okay with you?’
Evie felt her breath catch a little at the intensity in his blue, blue gaze. She’d forgotten with all the madness of the last couple of days and a side whammy of maternal hormones how it could reach right inside her and stroke her.
Was she okay with him watching her express? It should have been an easy answer—it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her naked before. They’d made Isaac together, for crying out loud. But she hesitated anyway. It was pretty damn obvious he’d already relegated her to mother status—surely that would only enhance his opinion more?
Lexi noticed her hesitation. ‘Why don’t you let the poor woman and her leaking breasts be, Finn Kennedy? I won’t bite and after she’s done I’ll stick around so you can take Evie outside and talk without the slurp and suck of a breast pump serenading you.’
Finn looked at Evie. He could tell she was relived at her sister’s intervention and he didn’t know what that meant exactly. He’d felt on the same page with her during their getting to know each other weeks but due to the rather dramatic interruption of Isaac’s early arrival he wasn’t sure about anything any more.
He was, however, grateful for a little bit of sanity from Lexi. What had he been thinking? Breast-pump music was not the ambience he was after.
‘Of course.’ He smiled. ‘Good plan.’
Forty-five minutes later Finn and Evie were ensconced in a booth at Pete’s. He’d chosen it over the canteen for its relative quietness at this time of the day. Weekday hospital staff didn’t tend to arrive until after six o’clock so they had plenty of time to be uninterrupted. Unlike the canteen, where they’d have been swamped with well-wishers, their conversation stifled.
And he could do without their private life being aired on the grapevine—for once.
‘So I was thinking,’ Finn said as he placed a sparkling water in a wine glass in front of her and a Coke in front of him, ‘that you should move into the penthouse with me while we’re getting the Lavender Bay house set up.’
Evie, who had chosen that moment to take a sip of her drink, almost choked as she half-inhaled it in shock. She coughed and spluttered for a while, trying to rid the irritation of sparkling water from her trachea.
‘Is it that shocking?’ Finn joked as he waited for her to settle.
‘Yes,’ she rasped, clearing her throat and taking another sip of water.
Finn reached across the table and covered Evie’s hands with his. ‘It makes sense to me. We’ll be getting married as soon as Isaac is home and as we both live in the same building anyway, it seems silly to keep two places going.’
Evie looked down at their joined hands as the very practical reasons for her moving in with him sank in. ‘Right,’ she murmured. She had to admit he made good sense even if it had been thought about in that logical way of Finn’s.
But … where was the emotion?
The I can’t live without you one more day. The I love you, never leave my side.
She drew her hands out from under his. ‘Finn … I don’t think this is something we should be worrying about at the moment. I just want to focus on Isaac. On what he needs.’
Finn felt her withdrawal reach deep inside him. He knew she was right, that Isaac had to come first, but they also had to look after themselves. There was no point being run down from stress and lack of sleep when Isaac finally came home.
Home.
The word resonated inside him and settled easily, warming him from the inside out instead of echoing around all the lonely places as it always had.
He had a home. And a family to share it with.
‘You still need a base, Evie. A place to have a quick shower and change your clothes, lay your head for a few hours maybe, collect your mail … that kind of thing.’
She nodded. ‘Fleeting visits, yes. But I plan to spend as much time on the unit with