The Beautiful Widow - By Helen Brooks Page 0,52
some toast for you right now.’
‘Yes! Yes!’ Hot buttered toast was the twins’ favourite.
It was Daisy who said—once the girls had a slice of toast each—'Can we sit with you?’ as she stood in front of Steel, all brown-eyed entreaty.
‘I don’t see why not.’ Steel made room for the girls on each knee, careless of his designer suit and the dripping butter.
Toni looked into the chiselled male face and knew she would love him for ever. Which was terrifying.
By the time Toni’s parents made an appearance the twins had already been upstairs to inform their grandparents the steel man was in the kitchen having breakfast. Consequently Vivienne and William were remarkably matter-of-fact, congratulating Steel on becoming an uncle when he showed them the pictures of Miranda and acting as though it were commonplace to have a multimillionaire eating breakfast in their tiny kitchen.
Every moment was bittersweet for Toni. It was impossible not to imagine how it would be if the twins were Steel’s children, his flesh and blood, because he was so good with them and they seemed to have taken to him big time. For such a masculine man he definitely had a way with children, and she found this surprising, although she reflected she shouldn’t have. He had brought Annie up, hadn’t he? And she’d noticed he had a compassion for anything small and defenceless, even going to the bother of catching a spider and putting it outside when one had found its way into his office a few weeks back. On the other hand he was ruthless and uncompromising in business, annihilating the competition without any remorse and showing no weakness.
An enigma. She nodded mentally to the thought as she and the girls disappeared upstairs to wash and get dressed. Steel had suggested he give her a lift. He just needed to visit his apartment to change his clothes and have a shave first, he’d said blandly, as though the two of them arriving at the office together would provoke no comment.
Once the girls were ready for school they disappeared downstairs again leaving her to finish getting ready. By the time she came down they were jumping with excitement owing to the fact Steel had suggested he take them to the school’s breakfast club in his car.
‘It’s called a Rapide,’ Amelia informed Toni very seriously. ‘Because it goes fast. An’ it goes really, really fast, doesn’t it?’ she added, turning to Steel.
‘Like the wind,’ he assured the little girl gravely.
‘But not when it’s taking you two to school,’ Toni cautioned. ‘Then it goes nice and safely.’
‘Oh, Mummy.’ She was clearly the spoilsport this morning.
Toni could just feel the neighbours’ eyes boring into her back when she and Steel and the girls climbed into the car a few minutes later. Curtains were twitching and no doubt speculation would be rife. And this was just the beginning of it. Steel was larger than life in every respect and consequently people took a healthy—and not so healthy—interest in what he did. Mind, she supposed she bought the celebrity gossip mags now and again, which perhaps wasn’t so very different.
As luck would have it—bad luck—the first person Toni saw when she got out of the car with the girls was Poppy with Nathan. Poppy’s husband usually dropped Nathan off every morning on his way to work to save Poppy having to try and get the other three children dressed and out of the house so early—no mean feat since the new baby had arrived.
‘Graham’s taken a couple of days’ holiday so I can get on with some Christmas shopping without the kids,’ Poppy said as Toni reached her, talking to Toni but with her eyes fixed on the Aston Martin. ‘Is that him? Steel Landry?’
‘Uh-huh.’ Toni continued walking to the school gate but once the children had gone in Poppy caught hold of her arm. ‘You sly old fox, you. What’s going on?’
‘Nothing.’ She didn’t feel ready to discuss Steel this morning.
‘Nothing? He’s dropping your children off and you say nothing?’ Poppy’s eyes sparkled. ‘Did he stay the night?’
‘He called by early this morning, that’s all, and offered me a lift, and Amelia and Daisy wanted a ride in his car. That’s all there is to it. And—and we’re probably going to have the odd date now and again, just as friends.’
Poppy stopped dead and then as Toni carried on walking hurried to catch her up. ‘Since when has all this happened? You didn’t say a word about it at the