My heart swooned when, a few seconds later, he darted back to where I hovered in the doorway and grabbed hold of my hand, looking me straight in the eye. ‘Thank you.’
I could only nod in response.
‘Ah, hello, birth partner.’ Nicky poked her head out of the kitchen door. ‘Glad you could make it.’
He followed her into the kitchen, only to find Isla, Finn and Toby set up with a Boggle game.
‘Is there somewhere we can talk?’
I led him into the dining room.
‘How is she?’
Nicky met his anxious gaze with honesty. ‘She’s coping well so far. I’m not sure what might be floating around in her system, but at the moment all the vital signs are good and baby’s doing fine.’
We quickly filled him in on what we knew.
‘Is it safe, her being here?’
Nicky grimaced. ‘It’s not my first choice, but it’s as safe a second choice as we’re going to get right now.’
Jonah gripped the back of a chair with both hands.
‘It’s a lot safer than being with Damon,’ I said, wishing I dared put a reassuring arm around him. ‘We won’t take any chances.’
Nicky had no such reservations, placing both hands on his shoulders as she looked Jonah right in the eye. ‘Time to pretend everything is calm and under control and go and be a birth partner.’
For the next few hours things were as fine as we could have hoped. Ellis did a few laps of the garden, watched television while we rubbed her back or feet, and dozed on her brother for a while.
I busied myself creating the kind of birth environment I dreamed all my clients could have. Soft lighting, gentle music, a cool breeze from the open window and everything a mum could possibly need on hand, ranging from heat pads to ice chips.
Before the kids went to bed, Ellis had a bath under Nicky’s professional eye. After spending longer than I’d intended chatting to Toby in the cabin while fetching some aromatherapy oils, I found Isla and Finn under the kitchen table in a pile of cushions and both their duvets, reading in the light of a new camping lamp.
To my utter astonishment, Jonah was hunched under there with them.
I stood, transfixed, listening to him readingThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They were facing away from me, completely engrossed in his brilliant voices, and I watched as Isla, exhausted after a busy day and dramatic evening, nestled her head against his arm.
Whenever I thought I couldn’t possibly love this man any more…
‘Hey, this looks cosy,’ I whispered, when Jonah reached the end of the first chapter.
‘Oh, hi.’ He ducked his head around to face me. ‘They wanted to get comfy, and we thought it best to avoid the living room,’ he explained.
‘Keep reading!’ Isla said, jabbing the page.
‘Ahem,’ I said, pointedly.
‘Keep reading,please.’
‘Just until Ellis has finished her bath,’ I said. ‘Then it’s straight to bed.’
A short while later, when I was tucking her in, Isla said to me, ‘I don’t know why you didn’t make Jonah your boyfriend, Mummy. He’s really lovely and not a bad prince at all.’
‘Well, I have been a bit too busy to think about a boyfriend.’
‘Yes, but it’s the summer holidays now so you aren’t that busy any more. And anyway.’ She rolled over, snuggling under the covers. ‘Jonah could help you with all the busy, like Toby does. I think he’d be good at it.’
I pictured him again, back curled over the book, head scraping the underside of the table, his voice deep and tender, and I couldn’t disagree.
