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  To Laura’s immense satisfaction, Megan took one look at her mother and started howling.

  ‘Oh, I know, darling.’ Shelley clutched the baby and rocked her back and forth. ‘Mummy’s sorry she left you. But I’m back now. Everything’s going to be fine.’

  Laura looked at her. She looked at the overnight bag beside the couch. She looked at Megan. And she looked at Jason, who wasn’t looking back at her.

  Everything was not going to be fine but there was very little Laura could do about it. She had competition now for what she wanted most in her life and while she would be prepared to fight if she knew she had any chance of winning, the odds were rapidly stacking against her.

  Even Megan seemed to be letting her down as her cries died away. Shelley continued rocking her and another tear rolled down her cheek.

  ‘I don’t know how I’ve lasted this long without her,’ she sighed. ‘She was all I had left that really mattered.’ She looked up through dewy lashes to smile brokenly at Jason. ‘I have a lot to thank you for.’

  He simply raised an eyebrow. An unwanted pregnancy for a teenager wasn’t usually a cause for celebration.

  ‘When Sharon died I felt so terribly alone,’ Shelley continued softly. ‘To lose a sister is bad enough but being a twin made it unbearable.’

  ‘What happened to Sharon?’ Jason sounded disconcerted.

  ‘She had a blood clot that they said was caused by her being on the Pill. It caused a massive pull…pum…something that wrecked her lungs.’

  ‘Pulmonary embolism?’ Laura suggested.

  ‘That’s it.’ Shelley didn’t bother to look at Laura. Her gaze was still fixed on Jason. ‘She was put on the waiting list for a heart-lung transplant but it didn’t come in time.’

  Jason’s face softened noticeably. ‘That must have been rough.’

  Shelley nodded and Laura closed her eyes. Jason was starting to feel sorry for Megan’s mother. Any judgmental attitude was undergoing reconsideration. She could almost feel another chunk of the fantasy future she’d been building being ripped away.

  ‘When did it happen?’

  ‘She lived just long enough to see Megan. To…hold her.’ Shelley’s lip quivered and she struggled to maintain control. ‘It was Sharon who chose her name. And she made me promise that I would try to find you and give her a real family. She said my life…and her baby’s had to go on, and what better way to make a new start than in a new country?’

  Jason’s expression plainly revealed the level of sympathy she would expect from someone as kind as he was. The story had touched him deeply, which was hardly surprising. Even Laura could feel a lump the size of a small boulder lodged in her own throat. How factual this story was didn’t matter a damn. Shelley had just cracked any barrier Jason had in place and it was only a matter of time before she broke through completely.

  Megan must have sensed the tension in the atmosphere because she began crying again.

  ‘I’ll have to go soon,’ Shelley said. ‘I’ve got nowhere to stay in Wellington so I’ll have to find a motel or something.’ She looked around. ‘Is Meggie’s blanket here somewhere?’

  ‘You’re not planning to take Megan to some motel, are you?’ Laura was horrified.

  ‘She’s my baby.’

  ‘You’re not taking Megan anywhere,’ Jason told her firmly. ‘Not until we get a few things sorted out.’

  ‘I’ll have to stay here, then. I’m not going without her and I’m too tired to talk any more tonight.’

  Megan hiccuped, then burped and then her crying stopped. The silence stretched on even longer this time. Laura tried desperately to make eye contact with Jason to warn him not to fall into the trap, but he was avoiding her gaze.

  ‘I suppose you could have Mitch’s room for a night or two,’ Jason conceded at last. He looked at Laura finally, a plea of his own written across his face. But Laura wasn’t prepared to go along with this. Megan might be this woman’s child but it just felt wrong to see the baby in her arms. She couldn’t stay in the same house as Shelley Bates.

  ‘It’s time I went home for a night or two, anyway.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I think Shelley’s right. This is something the two of you need to sort out.’ She couldn’t bear sitting here like a piece of the furniture, watching her future unravel before her eyes. It was simply too painful.

  ‘You can’t just walk out.’ Jason followed her to the door a short time later. ‘What the hell am I supposed to do with Shelley?’

  ‘It was you that invited her to stay, Jase.’

  ‘Only because I don’t want her dragging Megan off to go hunting for a place to sleep.’

  Laura shook her head. ‘You don’t need me here. I think you’ve got more chance of dealing with all this if I’m not here. You’ve got the rest of tonight and all day tomorrow to try and sort things out with Shelley.’

  ‘I don’t know how to sort things out.’

  ‘You need to decide what you want and don’t let her manipulate you into anything else.’

  ‘I want you to stay.’

  ‘What about Megan?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jason said miserably. ‘I know Shelley’s her mother but something doesn’t feel right.’

  Laura said nothing. Of course it didn’t feel right. Any concern Shelley had for her child was blatantly fake. Jason, however, had developed a very genuine bond with his daughter and if he decided that Shelley wasn’t going to give Megan the love and security she deserved then he would do whatever it took to put things right. And of course he wanted Laura to stay. If he did end up keeping Megan, he would never manage on his own, would he?

  Love came in so many shades. Laura knew that Jason was perfectly sincere in telling her he loved her, but did his love come anywhere near measuring up to the depth of her feelings for him? John used to say he loved her often enough when what he really loved was having someone around to love him.

  Laura suddenly felt very, very tired. If Jason didn’t feel as strongly as she did right now, he never would, and she was not going to spend the rest of her life trying to earn a love that came anywhere near being reciprocal.

  Megan was the key to all of this. The magic had begun with her unexpected arrival in their lives and now reality was kicking back in and choices had to be made. Jason had accepted responsibility for his daughter. Now he had to take responsibility for making those choices.

  Laura knew she could never happily accept a future that didn’t contain Jason. Now it was time to find out whether he felt the same way about her, and the only way that could happen was if she stepped back.

  Standing on tiptoe, Laura planted a soft kiss on Jason’s lips. ‘Good luck.’

  ‘I’ll need it.’ The last glimpse of his face as the door closed showed an expression as grim as his tone.

  But it wasn’t Jason who needed the luck, it was Laura. And she had a horrible feeling that she had used up more than her fair share already in the last month. The fairy dust had well and truly worn off.

  CHAPTER NINE

  F OR once, the baby’s whimper at 5 a.m. came as a relief.

  Jason rolled from his bed, tightened the frayed cord supporting his pyjama pants and reached into the nearby bassinet. At the touch of his hands, Megan fell silent. As Jason picked up his daughter, she smiled at him.

  ‘I don’t think you’re that hungry, are you?’

  Knowing that Shelley was in the house made Jason reluctant to leave his room. He had transferred the bassinet in here last night, and closing the door firmly had given him a sense of safety. His own space to consider developments in the company of the things that had become most important to him.

  Shelley had simply shrugged when he said he’d keep Megan in his room. ‘I guess you know where all the nappies and bottles are,’ she’d said. ‘We’ll sort all that out tomorrow.’

  She might have raised an objection if she’d seen Oscar slipping through the gap before the door closed, but the dog was now part of the fam