regular payments into that. He’d never set up a college fund for Holly. Why was he doing it for this baby? Out of guilt, to make up for not being a husband to Emma and a proper father to the baby? Or was he simply trying to have a connection with Emma?
He couldn’t stop thinking about her and about the night they spent together on the cruise ship. Before he’d run into her, he’d hoped and expected that the cruise would ease his way back into the dating scene. Instead it had the opposite effect. He hadn’t been with anyone else since that night. He’d lost interest in flirting. If a woman he met in the bar or at a friend’s house got too interested, he politely moved away. It was driving him crazy. The last thing he wanted was to be hung up on his ex-wife.
Emma walked into the pub around eleven o’clock. Even knowing she was seven months pregnant, Darcy wasn’t prepared for the sight of her round swollen belly, clearly defined by her blue dress. Her face had rounded, too, softened by the few extra pounds she’d gained in pregnancy. Nor was he prepared for the way she made him feel protective and resentful at the same time.
“Hey, Emma.” He closed his laptop. “It’s nice of you to patronize my establishment, especially tonight when I’m competing with the wine bar opening.”
A pink flush crept up her neck into her cheeks. “I, uh, I’ve just come from there. Um...someone’s blocking my car in your parking lot. A black Hilux with lights across the roof.”
“You parked in my lot and went to the wine bar.”
“Darcy, I’m sorry. I know it was shabby of me.” She pushed back the red hair curling loosely about her shoulders. “The venue was Alana’s choice. She organized the party. I shouldn’t have parked in your lot. I just...” She waved a hand, looking beautiful and tired, as if at any moment she would be on her knees with fatigue.
Darcy pulled out a chair at his table. “Sit down. The Hilux is Tony’s. I’ll get him to move it. If you give me your keys, I’ll bring your car around. I see a parking spot has opened up.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s not a big deal.” He dragged another chair over. “Put up your feet.”
Emma sank onto the chair and slipped off her shoes before settling them on the other seat with a sigh. She handed him her keys. “Thanks, Darcy.”
Darcy found Tony at his usual corner table in the back of the room with his girlfriend. “Tony, can you move your truck? You’re blocking Emma.”
“Sure thing.” The tattooed brickie dug in his jeans pocket for his keys. “Emma doesn’t usually come in here. Are you two back together?”
“No.” He didn’t elaborate. Many of his regulars knew Emma and knew about the divorce. But this new development—her having his baby and them not being together—didn’t reflect well on either of them, in his opinion. He didn’t like to think of her as the subject of gossip, even though she, not he, would undoubtedly get the sympathy.
Not that she needed anyone’s sympathy. Emma was the most confident, organized person he knew and if anyone could successfully raise a child by herself, it would be her. But some people might not see being a single mother as something to celebrate. Frankly, despite his respect for Emma’s parenting skills, he was one of those people who thought kids should have two parents.
On the other hand he didn’t agree with continuing a relationship for the sake of a child, either. His brother Mike had stuck out an unhappy marriage for ten years before finally splitting up with his wife. Before that, the tension hadn’t been good for him, his wife or for their kids.
Cool winter air penetrated Darcy’s light pullover as he wove his way through the jammed-in cars. His lot had parking for twenty cars. There had to be thirty in here. He could imagine the double-parking offenders saying to themselves, Darcy’s so easygoing—he won’t mind. And they could be forgiven for thinking that. Every year at the annual Summerside Fete he opened his parking lot to all comers and even got one of his staff to act as a parking valet, purely out of community spirit. But making it easier for Wayne to take business away from the pub? There was a limit to his altruism.
Emma was sipping chamomile tea when he got back from retrieving