The Doctor's Lost-and-Found Bride by Kate Hardy Read Free Book Online Page A

you doing that, you know.’
    Marina laughed. ‘No, they don’t. Iris knows that I’m not going to interfere with the way they’re looking after you. And this saves her some precious time—she doesn’t have to spend ages with me while I grill her about how you really are.’ She took the clipboard from the holder next to her sister’s bed. ‘Good. Your temperature’s fine, your urine’s fine…Hmm; your blood pressure’s still not what I’d like it to be, but it’s holding. And Bambino here seems to be doing very nicely, thank you. Excellent.’
    ‘I’ve been here for ever and ever,’ Rosie complained. ‘I want to go home and play with my little girl.’
    ‘I know you miss her, but she’ll be here in a minute.’ Marina gave her sister a hug. ‘Hang on in there, sis. You’re doing brilliantly.’
    As if perfectly on cue, their mother walked in, holding Phoebe’s hand.
    ‘Mummy!’
    Louise Petrelli lifted her granddaughter so Phoebe could sit next to her mother, and Rosie enfolded her in a hug, holding her tightly and pressing her face to the little girl’s hair so she could breathe in her scent.
    If things had been different, Marina would’ve met her baby from school with that same mother-daughter hug. The one that said how much they’d missed each other, even though both had been happily busy all day. The one that said how glad they were to be together again.
    She envied Rosie that closeness. Funny; she thought she’d cried herself out over the miscarriage. But even now she was still yearning. Still wishing things had been different. Still not really over it.
    Whereas Max…She had no idea how he’d felt about it, back then, and even less idea as to whether he still thought of their baby that might have been. He hadn’t broken down the way she had—which didn’t mean that he’d felt nothing—but he’d pushed her away, hadn’t let her comfort him. Hadn’t given her the support she’d needed so desperately.
    Pushing the thoughts away, she gave her own mother a hug. ‘Hi, Mum. Have you both had a good day?’
    ‘Brilliant. We went to the park this morning and played on the swings, and this afternoon we’ve been busy making cookies, and pictures with glitter and glue—oh, and singing songs.’
    Just the kind of thing that Marina remembered doing in her own childhood. The Petrelli household had been noisy, chaotic and messy, and chock-full of love. There had always been a tin full of fresh-baked cookies or cupcakes in the kitchen, and all the neighbours had seemed to congregate at their house. The mums would be round Louise’s kitchen table with mugs full of good coffee, and the children would be playing noisy, messy games in the huge conservatory that opened off the kitchen, far enough away to feel independent, and yet near enough to be scooped up and kissed better within seconds if they fell over.
    Completely the opposite of Max’s family home, where nothing was ever out of place and the silence was practically deafening. She’d just bet that Max had never been allowed to do anything with glitter, and there wouldn’t have been a cork board in his mother’s kitchen where his newest paintings from school had been pinned up—because a cork board would have looked so out of place and scruffy in Kay Fenton’s immaculate designer-kitchen.
    ‘Sounds like fun,’ Rosie said, looking as wistful as Marina felt.
    ‘Hey, Mum, guess who’s been visiting me this week?’ Rosie asked.
    Uh-oh. Marina had hoped that the delight of seeing her daughter would push the subject out of her sister’s mind. Now she’d have two of them on her case.
    ‘Who?’ Louise asked.
    ‘Max. Marina’s Max.’
    ‘Oh, really?’ Louise looked intrigued.
    ‘He’s not my anything. We just work together.’ Marina rolled her eyes. ‘Mum, don’t listen to her. She’s bored and making up stories to amuse herself.’
    ‘I am not,’ Rosie said indignantly.
    Phoebe snuggled into her mother. ‘Story?’ she