Matilda Next Door - Kelly Hunter Page 0,40

it going so far? This daughter business?’

Silence.

‘Yeah, I’m good at waiting and watching and not saying much too. Hasn’t always worked to my advantage.’

Rowan seemed to recall that her arms actually belonged to her, and promptly put her left fist in her mouth.

‘Good talk.’

He settled Rowan to sleep again without having to wake Tilly in order to do it. Tilly, who was fast asleep in his bed, and he’d meant to go slow with her, treat her with the respect she deserved, but he’d forgotten how completely without artifice she was and how quickly she made decisions. She didn’t need the full picture before acting. She just owned her decisions and seemed happy with them. It was one way of reasoning.

She’d seemed so happy in his company and in his bed.

Not that he’d ever had complaints in the bedroom, but still …

Her open, wholehearted affection was new to him, and he wanted to nurture their relationship, layer by layer, until it was unbreakable. And if his grandfather’s words that Henry didn’t trust women or know how to relate to them lingered in the back of his mind, maybe it was more that the women in his life had never deserved that trust, than something lacking in him.

He wanted to believe in his own inherent goodness.

He wanted to believe that he had love to give.

Don’t cock this up. It was his foremost thought as he slid beneath the covers of his bed and wrapped his arms around a sleepy, smiling Tilly who laced her fingers between his and drifted back to sleep.

Don’t be that inaccessible thing your mother neglected, your grandmother hated, and your lovers kept secrets from.

*

If life in Wirralong had been good before, Tilly found it even better with Henry and Rowan in it. The bright, heady days that followed their return to Wirralong involved her modifying her old routine to allow Henry to cobble together a workflow that suited everyone. His involved mornings on the farm, evenings talking about possible work projects with his London contacts, and resting after lunch when Rowan went down for her nap.

Tilly spent her nights in Henry’s bed at the Red Hill homestead, rising early with the dawn-loving Rowan and readying her for a quick trip next door to the kitchen where Tilly did her morning baking. She’d tried talking Henry into staying in bed in the mornings, seeing he’d done Rowan’s night shift, but he was having none of it.

If she was up tending the baby, he was up and spoiling her. By the time she and Rowan made their way to the kitchen in his house, there would be steaming coffee sitting on the table, made just the way she liked it, and Rowan’s baby bottle warmed and ready for drinking. He’d be the one to put Rowan in the car carrier and take her out to the Mercedes. His kiss would see Tilly on her way, leaving her feeling all loved up and glowing.

Over at the Moore Creek homestead, Tilly had her baking station and Rowan had a play station set up right next to it. It was all too easy to get used to holding a one-sided conversation with a happy burbling baby who had a fondness for Tilly’s cooking.

Tilly’s spare bedroom turned into a spare nursery. A twin-cab farm 4WD turned up for Henry, and he began to tackle the on-farm tasks that Joe had been neglecting.

Within a week, Tilly couldn’t imagine Henry anywhere but in her life, and not even her mother’s increasingly worried looks could dim her glow. Henry Church lit up her nights and lightened her days and his commitment to doing his very best for his daughter only made her admire him more.

Bethany was in recovery, but her rehab would be a long, laborious process. Henry secured Joe’s apartment for another month and arranged for a driver to be on call to take his grandfather to the hospital and back, as well as anywhere else in Melbourne that he wanted to go. When Henry wanted something to happen a certain way, it happened exactly as specified, and it wasn’t only that he had money to burn and wasn’t shy about spending it.

He paid attention.

Fed a person’s wants and needs into one of his equations and went about solving problems before they happened.

He’d turn up mid-morning, ready to steal at least two of her hot pastries, while looking better than he had any right to look in his old farm clothes that spoke to outdoor