Kissing Maggie Silver (11 page)

Oh for goodness sake stop feeling so sorry for yourself she told herself crossly as she kissed Mrs
. O’Connor goodbye and promised to see her again very soon. Then she held onto Sophie and Amy to stop them running out into the street while Ruairi, having said goodbye to Mark, bent to kiss them. When he straightened up he looked directly at her.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, a slight frown between his eyes.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She wished his eyes weren’t so changeable. There were specks of gold in there, and green, and yellow, all circled by a dark ring like the eyes of the big cats he’d told her he sometimes filmed. And they were just as piercing too. For one stupid moment she was almost persuaded he could see inside her head and that he knew exactly what she was thinking, then commonsense took over and she hastily swung a fidgeting Amy up onto her hip, anxious to distract him.

“I don’t know,” he
admitted. “You just seem…well a bit quiet. You are okay with tomorrow’s plans aren’t you?”

“Of course I am,” she lied.
Then she shifted Amy from her hip to her stomach, effectively making a barrier between her and Ruairi because she wasn’t going to let him kiss her cheek the same as he had just done to Sophie and Amy. Recognizing the preliminary move, she was determined to stop him. To be put on an equal footing with her nieces while he lusted after the soon to be with them Johanna…well she could bear almost anything but that.

* * *

A loud wail from Amy brought her back to the here and now. Abandoning the rest of the laundry she hurried indoors. It was only a bumped knee, the result of a tumble from the chair near the window where she was waiting for Ruairi, but by the time Maggie had kissed it better, persuaded Sophie to run upstairs to collect sweaters for both of them, and checked her own hair in the hall mirror, Ruairi had arrived.

With no time to gather her thoughts, Maggie shepherded both girls through the front door, slung June’s capacious shopping bag over her shoulder, picked up the plastic bags containing the rest of Johanna’s
groceries, and locked up the house. By the time she reached the car Ruairi had strapped both girls into their seats and was waiting for her beside the passenger door.

He looked, if anything, more devastating than usual
even though he was only wearing denims and an olive green sweatshirt. It’s because it matches his eyes, she told herself. Then she remembered it was all for Jo anyway and tried not to let her misery show as she settled herself into the passenger seat and deliberately didn’t watch him walk around the car to the driver’s door.

* * *

Ruairi frowned. There was definitely something wrong, he just couldn’t figure out what. She was smiling in all the right places, saying the right things and yet…his mind went back over the years to the younger Maggie. Even then he’d always known when she wasn’t happy although getting it out of her had never been easy. Too used to being teased by her brothers she could never quite believe he was prepared to take her seriously, and it had often taken him days to get past her armor of self-protection. Nor had he ever really understood why it was so important to him to know what she was thinking, not until now.

He glanced sideways at her as he started the engine. She
looked lost somehow, diminished. Something had changed and she was a different Maggie from the laughing girl he’d met at her parent’s ruby wedding celebration. Then she had been full of life, her grey eyes alight with humor, those fascinating dimples constantly shadowing her cheeks as she chattered away. She’d been funny too, bursting into peals of laughter every time she remembered something funny from her childhood.

Her smile, the way they had caught up on ten years of history without a pause, had soothed him in a way that nothing else had, not the genuine welcome fro
m the rest of the Silver family nor their exclamations of interest when he’d answered questions about his work. After so many years he was used to that, in the same way he was used to expressions of astonishment and admiration when he was asked about some of his scarier wildlife encounters. He was even used to the invitation he’d seen in the eyes of some of the women at the party although he hadn’t taken them seriously. He never did nowadays although years ago, when he was much younger, he hadn’t always been so circumspect. Nowadays, however, he knew the look for what it was. It wasn’t really about him. It was a fascination with the unknown, a wish, however vicariously, to experience a life that from the outside seemed exotic but from the inside, if only they knew, was often anything but.

Maggie hadn’t been like that though.
Her welcome had been for him, not for who he had become. She hadn’t acted impressed. He wasn’t even sure she’d seen any of the TV documentaries he’d filmed. If she had then she hadn’t mentioned them. She’d just been happy to see him. To her he was Ruairi, not someone with a growing reputation in the world of wildlife documentary, and once they’d got past that silly crush thing she’d had on him when she was a child, it had been fine…well it would have been fine if he hadn’t found himself falling for her big time. And that was why he was in such a dilemma now because although he hated to see her unhappy he wasn’t sure he could do anything about it, not when he was doing everything he could to avoid intimacy while trying as hard as he could to showcase the cheery, avuncular image that seemed just about the safest thing he could manage.

Not that any of it mattered
right now because by the time they reached the end of the road Sophie and Amy had taken over and for the rest of the journey both he and Maggie were too occupied with answering questions, acting as arbitrators when arguments got out of hand and, as they approached the airport, offering their services as tour guides, for either of them to worry about their own personal dilemmas.

* * *

As Ruairi had predicted, the sight of aircraft approaching and leaving the runways transfixed both children and it was all Maggie could do to persuade them to take a little time off for lunch. Then, full of fish fingers and chips, and each clutching a small teddy bear dressed in a pilot’s cap and jacket that had been bought for them by Ruairi, they clamored to be allowed back into the observation area to watch for Johanna’s plane.

Following them as they raced towards the lift, Ruairi gave Maggie a wry smile.
“They’re pretty full on aren’t they?”

She gave
him what looked like the first genuine Maggie smile of the day. “Try a class of twenty five-year-olds, then you’ll know what full on really means!”

“Twenty! Really?” The look of horror on his face filled her with amusement as she nodded.

“In that case give me a herd of rampaging elephants any day!”

He was still chuckling as they pushed their way through the doors leading to the open-air observation area. Then it was back to answering questions, pointing out the different insignias on the tail fins of the planes, and waiting for Johanna.

At three o clock Ruairi pointed upwards. ‘There it is! That’s Jo’s plane.” He lifted Amy up and gently tilted her face in the right direction.

“How do you know?” Sophie demanded.

He shrugged. “I just do.”

“Ruairi has done a lot of travelling,” Maggie explained, wishing she could shoot the plane down before it landed.
“He’s been to lots of different countries all over the world.”

“Even as far as Cornwall?” asked Amy.

“Even as far as Cornwall,” she agreed solemnly, knowing this was the furthest Amy had travelled in her three years.

“He’s been further than that silly,” said the all-knowing Sophie.
“He’s been to countries where there are elephants and tigers and…and…and other things too.”

“So have I,” came the indignant rejoinder as her sister remembered her one visit to a zoo.

Trying very hard not to laugh, Maggie explained the difference and then, all too soon, Ruairi was looking at his watch and telling them it was time to go and meet Johanna.

“Her plane will have landed by now,” he explained.
“And we must be there waiting for her once she has collected her suitcase or she’ll think we’ve forgotten to meet her.”

Agreeing that this was indeed a necessity, Sophie led the way while Amy, suddenly shy at the thought of meeting a stranger, clutched pink rabbit to her chest with one hand and clung onto Maggie with the other.

* * *

I so do not want to be here.
The words were like a mantra in Maggie’s head. They had been waiting for Johanna for quite a while now. Families had arrived and been greeted by grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends. Tired looking businessmen and women whose trips had been too short for them to adjust to their jetlag had rushed by laden down with executive briefcases, lap tops and identical luggage. Couples, mostly suntanned, some young, some older, had all hurried onto the main concourse searching for loved ones, or to find a taxi. Now the doors through to the Baggage Claim remained mostly closed, only opening occasionally for a final straggler or two.

Maggie began to feel hopeful.
Perhaps Johanna had missed the plane. Perhaps she was going to have a reprieve. Her hopes were dashed when the automatic door swished open again and another flurry of passengers came through.

“There she is,” Ruairi said, the pleasure in his voice far too obvious.

“Where?” Sophie stood on tiptoe to see over the barrier while Amy clutched Maggie’s hand even more tightly.

“There! That’s Jo!” Ruairi pointed to a tall fair-haired woman pushing a laden trolley. She was walking towards them with a broad smile on her face.

She was everything Maggie had expected her to be.
Her hair was streaked blonde from the sun and she topped Maggie by a good six inches. Plus she was really lovely to look at in a healthy outdoor sort of way; all long limbs, smooth tan skin, bright blue eyes and good teeth. Everything about her was to hate except for one undeniable thing. She was very obviously pregnant.

“I’m so sorry I kept you waiting,” the accent was
faintly Scandinavian. “There was a mix up over the baggage. Someone nearly walked away with one of my suitcases.”

Ruairi grinned at her.
“When were you ever on time for anything?” he said, kissing her on both cheeks before introducing her to Maggie and the children.

She ignored his jibe as she turned to Maggie.
“Am I pleased to meet you,” she told her. “After nearly six months of mostly male company I am so overloaded with testosterone that when Ruairi told me that he was bringing you to the airport I burst into tears.”

“That’s a hormonal thing too,” he teased.

“Probably true given this,” she patted her swelling stomach with a smile, but there was nothing more than casual affection in her response.

Maggie immediately pushed aside the shameful thought that had flashed across her mind when Jo had first appeared.
This baby was nothing to do with Ruairi, anymore than Jo was. Jo was just a work colleague, a friend. She gave her a smile of welcome. The one that lit up her eyes and highlighted her dimples, the one that turned Ruairi’s stomach upside down and made him forget to breathe.

He felt an overwhelming
sense of relief. The old Maggie was back. He didn’t know what the problem had been but whatever it was, it had gone, and she was happy again. She also seemed to like Jo. Two problems solved in less than a minute. What more could a man ask for? He perched a giggling Sophie on top of Jo’s over-laden trolley and led the way to the exit.

Jo and Maggie followed behind with a suddenly much more confident Amy swinging from both their hands.
He glanced back at them as he made his way across to the car park. They were deep in conversation.

Chapter
Ten

“Everything has been such a rush,” Jo was telling Maggie. “I didn’t know I was pregnant when I set off for New Zealand. I only found out when I kept throwing up on the flight out, except that, at the time, I stupidly thought it was some sort of stomach bug. Once I realized the truth though, we had to rethink our plans.”

“We?”

“Ollie and me. Ollie’s my husband. We were both contracted to spend a year in New Zealand, the same as Ruairi, but although New Zealand has excellent medical facilities we both decided we wanted to come home for the birth.”

She saw the question in Maggie’s eyes and laughed.
“England is home for both of us. I love Sweden but I left such a long time ago that it barely seems relevant to my life anymore. Now we just go there for holidays. Being back in the UK will make it much easier for my parents to fly over to visit their first grandchild too. They would never have made it to New Zealand and nor would Ollie’s parents. They’re all quite elderly and Ollie’s Mum has poor health as well, although she’s not so poorly that she isn’t head-over-heels excited about this baby.”

“Is a first for them too?”

Jo gave a peal of laughter as they paused to let a taxi go by and then crossed into the car park. “Far from it. They already have so many grandchildren that I’ve lost count. It’s Ollie they’re pleased about. Becoming a father, getting married even is a cause for celebration as far as they’re concerned. They had long given him up as a lost cause. He was always too busy travelling the world to think about his future.”