The Beautiful Widow - By Helen Brooks Page 0,36

two lots of grandmas and grandads.’ This was said in the tone of ‘it’s not fair'.

‘But I’ve explained to you that your daddy’s mummy and daddy died before you were born.’

‘They were very old,’ Daisy put in importantly.

‘Yes, that’s right, sweetpea.’ Toni hoped that would be the end of the conversation but, knowing her daughter, she doubted it.

Sure enough, Amelia wriggled a little before saying, ‘Why couldn’t we get another daddy, like the steel man? Me an’ Daisy liked him. He was nice.’

‘He’s too busy to be a daddy.’

It was the wrong thing to say. She knew it even before Amelia piped up, ‘Daddy was busy all the time but he was still Daddy. You can be a daddy and be busy, and we like the steel man, don’t we, Daisy?’

Helplessly, Toni murmured, ‘But you wouldn’t want another daddy to be busy all the time, surely? If you ever have another daddy it would be nice to find one who can play with you and come on holiday with us, things like that, wouldn’t it?’ Richard had always insisted he was too tied up at work to holiday with them and she and the girls had gone away with her parents for a week in Cornwall each year.

Amelia wriggled some more. ‘Suppose so,’ she muttered reluctantly. ‘But the steel man was nice.’

Toni smiled at the tiny power house who was her daughter and then turned to Daisy, who was watching her with huge brown eyes. ‘It’ll all work out, honeybee, don’t worry,’ she said softly. ‘We’ve got each other and that’s all that matters.’

Daisy beamed back and snuggled up against her, but Amelia slid under the covers without touching her mother. ‘I’d still like a daddy,’ she whispered, cuddling her teddy bear. ‘A proper one, like Nathan’s.’

Hiding her pain, Toni said briskly, ‘Well, who knows what the future might bring, darling? But for now you’ve got to make do with just me and Daisy and Grandma and Grandad. How about we go on a picnic tomorrow and maybe in the afternoon we could visit that swimming pool you like, the one with the big slides and wave machine? We could see if Nathan and David want to come with us.’

‘Yes, yes, yes!’ Both girls bounced up and threw their arms round her neck.

Once the twins were asleep Toni sat watching them for a long time, her heart breaking. She had expected the sort of questions Amelia had put to her one day; just not so soon.

She rubbed tense neck muscles and walked over to gaze out of the window. In some of the other little gardens families were having barbecues or sitting enjoying the last of the sunshine together, and directly below the window her parents were reading over a cup of coffee at the patio table. As she watched them her father leant across and touched her mother’s cheek. A simple gesture but one filled with love.

Jerking back into the room, Toni found she was fighting the tears, a poignant sadness gripping her. She had never felt so alone and lost and for a moment it seemed she was shrinking, disappearing into a little speck of nothing as she contemplated endless evenings like this one in the future.

And then one of the girls stirred in her sleep, muttering, ‘Mummy,’ before settling down again.

Toni walked across to look down at them and as she stood there her heart filled with thanksgiving for her babies. She had to count her blessings and the biggest two were right here, healthy and happy and safe. She was all at sixes and sevens at the moment, but was it any wonder with all that had happened in the last months? And she didn’t know why she was feeling like this tonight; she had coped so well up to this point.

For a moment a dark male face was there on the screen of her mind, a pair of stunningly beautiful silver-blue eyes challenging the thought before she shook her head determinedly. No, it wasn’t Steel Landry who had so unsettled her tonight. She wouldn’t let it be. She worked for him, that was all, and she could dismiss the memory of what had happened that night in the garden just as easily as he apparently could.

Poppy was right. She’d fallen into a terrific job, which she absolutely loved, and she had got everything she wanted. She had to relax and go with the flow. Life was what you made it and she was going to