do it now, not during this simply amazing moment when she and her baby bonded, skin on skin.
On the fifth morning Evie woke early and couldn’t go back to sleep, trying to decide if Finn would mind having his time cut short. Or at least sharing a bit of it with her. It made sense to go in—all she was doing was lying there thinking about Isaac anyway and she could feel her breasts were full.
May as well head to the hospital and pump.
Evie was being buzzed in through the main entry doors half an hour later. She noticed a group of nurses standing off to one side of the station and frowned. She smiled at them as she went past and they smiled back, indicating for her to hush and stay with them for a moment. Bemused, Evie turned to see what had them so agog. Her smile slipped as she realised they were watching Finn kangaroo-cuddling with Isaac through the isolation room’s windows.
It was a touching, tender moment, stealing her breath and rendering her temporarily paralysed.
Her two darling boys.
‘The great Finn Kennedy,’ one nurse whispered.
‘Who’d have thunk?’ said another.
Evie left them to their amazement. Not that she could blame them. She doubted anyone, Finn included, would have ever thought he could be brought to his knees by a tiny baby.
She stood in the doorway for a moment, just admiring them from the back. Finn sitting in the low chair next to the cot, obviously shirtless if the bare shoulder blade just visible through the folds of the blanket was any indication, skin on skin with his son.
She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat, preparing to enter. But then she realised that Finn was talking quietly to Isaac and she hung back, not wanting to intrude on a father-son moment.
‘There we are,’ Finn said, ‘I think we’ve got you comfortable now you’ve realised no matter how much you look for it, I’m just not your mummy. She’ll be along later. She won’t really talk to me because she’s mad at me and she’ll only have eyes for you anyway.’
Evie’s ears pricked up at the conversation and she leaned in a little.
‘My fault, I’m afraid, little mate. Totally stuffed everything up there. Take it from me, women may be complicated but in the end all they really want is for you to love them. I’ve never been good at that stuff, couldn’t even tell your uncle Isaac I loved him until he was dying in my arms. You’re a lot like him and I promise I’m going to tell you every day. And hopefully I’ll get a chance to tell your mum as well. Trust me on this, matey, never make I love you sound like an afterthought. Stupid, stupid, stupid.’
Evie held her breath.
‘And now she thinks I only love her because she’s part of some package deal with you. That I only see her as your mother. And I can’t tell her she’s wrong, that’s she’s the sexiest, smartest woman I’ve ever met and I’m crazy about her because I promised her I wouldn’t talk about it until you were home. So you need to hurry up and get home, you hear?’
Evie blinked back a threatening tear as she listened unashamedly now.
‘Because the truth is I don’t want to live a day of my life without her in it. I love you, little guy, and the same applies to you, but it’s different with your mother. I want to hold her and touch her and kiss her and make love with her and do all those things that people in love do. You probably won’t ever realise this because she’s your mum, but she’s one sexy lady.’
Evie blushed at the rumble in Finn’s voice.
‘And of course I love her because she’s your mother and there are things she can give you that I can’t, but I love her also because she can give me things that you can’t—a different kind of love. And I never thought I’d hear myself say this but I need that. And I want to give her the love that you can’t. I want to love her like a woman deserves to be loved. And I never want to stop.’
Evie let the tears come this time. She didn’t try to stop them. She pushed off the doorframe and was at his side in five seconds. Bending her head and kissing him two seconds after that.
‘Why,’ she demanded face wet, eyes glistening, ‘didn’t you