Hollywood Hills Collection - Lynne Marshall Mills & Boon e-Book Collections

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and angry yet there was this twist of a smile on his face that she didn’t get.

      Zack carried on. ‘With all this sexual attraction do Mommy and Daddy do it when you drop the baby off?’

      ‘I don’t know where this is leading, Zack.’

      Oh, my God, Zack thought, she’d just used that voice again.

      ‘Well, you’ve been so busy sorting it out I just wondered if that was covered already. Curious...’ Freya could see that black smile was there and it wasn’t the news he seemed annoyed with but her.

      Freya.

      The woman, Freya knew, that he didn’t want to have a relationship with.

      ‘What about the two of us?’

      ‘No,’ Freya said. ‘I lived through my parents’ unhappy marriage. I’m not inflicting it on my child.’

      ‘You jump straight to marriage.’ His grin was incredulous now!

      ‘I’m saying that I don’t want a marriage, I want to do this on my own. Of course you’ll be entitled to access.’

      ‘Do you know what I like about you, Freya?’ Zack said. ‘You’ve got it all worked out.’

      Freya looked at him.

      ‘Do you know what I don’t like about you, Freya? That you’ve got it all worked out without me.’

      ‘I don’t understand.’

      ‘That’s okay.’ Zack shrugged. ‘I’m not in the mood for explaining. Well, thank you for dropping by.’

      He stood and went to the door.

      ‘Are you asking me to leave?’

      ‘Yes.’ Zack said. ‘Pay attention to the sign next time. If it says don’t disturb, don’t disturb.’

      ‘But we need to talk.’

      ‘We already have.’

      ‘I need your thoughts.’

      ‘Well, you can’t have them yet.’

      He didn’t have a clue what they were.

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

      HIS HANGOVER WAS impressive and instead of going to The Hills, where no doubt Freya would be tapping her feet, waiting for him to snap to her snappy tune, he took the morning off and in the afternoon he drove into South LA and to the Bright Hope Clinic.

      ‘Mila’s not here today,’ Geoff said.

      ‘I know. I’m just dropping by to see how things are going.’

      ‘Well, we’re taking delivery of an MRI machine tomorrow,’ Geoff told him, ‘and I’ve just ordered a state-of-the-art ultrasound that might mean we can have intelligent conversations...’

      It had been frustrating. Knowing that The Hill’s equipment would give clearer answers, there had been a lot of doubling up. Zack wanted state of the art, so nearly every test Geoff had done had been repeated.

      ‘It’s great news about Paulo.’

      ‘I think he’ll be going home soon,’ Zack said.

      They went through the patients and Geoff said he’d like to come and watch the scheduled ablation.

      ‘On a Sunday?’ Zack checked. ‘And it’s Valentine’s Day.’

      ‘My wife is very understanding.’

      Zack saw a few patients and then drove back to the hotel and lay on the bed with his hands behind his head and tried to make some sense of his thoughts.

      He took out his laptop and typed in a few things, and found out that their baby, assuming it had been conceived on the first night, was due on September twenty-fourth.

      He stared at that date for ages and then he texted Freya.

      Are you okay?

      She took less than a minute to respond.

      I’ve told you I’m fine with it.

      He fired back another text.

      Such a well thought-out response!

      Then he deleted it, unsent, and wrote another.

      Let me know if you need anything.

      She wouldn’t.

      That much Zack knew.

      He still couldn’t get over how she’d been the night Cleo had died. Even he had teared up but not Freya. It was like she kept all her emotions inside and yet he had glimpsed them.

      The things she’d told him, Zack knew, only he knew.

      And it worked both ways. Freya knew stuff he would never discuss with anyone else.

      She had pushed too hard and too soon, though, Zack thought, but then he smiled as he did so because that was Freya.

      They were so good together and she had wanted more, and he could see now that she’d probably known she was pregnant and starting to stress.

      His head was a mess and there was no one he could talk to, or was it that there was no one he would talk to?

      His alarm went off and Zack remembered that his mother had reluctantly agreed to try video-chatting.

      Zack sat up and picked up the laptop.

      This should be fun!

      Not.

      After a few goes, there was his mum and she had make-up on, when she only wore it at Christmas or on birthdays.

      ‘How are you?’ Zack smiled when he saw her.

      ‘Sorry about yesterday.’

      It had been a very tense phone call, which was why Zack could not have been more relieved when Freya had arrived.

      ‘It’s fine,’ Zack said. ‘Yesterday was a tough one.’

      ‘You’re right,’ Judy said. ‘Alice deserves to be happy.’

      ‘So do you guys,’ Zack said. ‘Where’s Dad?’

      ‘He’s in with a patient. Max is here for a check-up.’

      ‘How is he doing?’

      ‘Very well,’ Judy said. ‘I was thinking when you come home in April...’

      And that was the trouble with communicating like this. Judy saw Zack close his eyes.

      ‘You’ve changed your mind?’

      ‘No,’ Zack said, but how did he tell his mother that things here in LA had suddenly got very complicated? They didn’t speak about such things.

      Could they?

      ‘I’ve got some stuff going on at the moment...’

      ‘Another patient who needs you?’

      ‘Isn’t Dad the same?’ Zack challenged, and Judy smiled.

      ‘I guess.’

      ‘Anyway, it isn’t work that’s complicated,’ Zack said. ‘I like someone.’

      His mother said nothing.

      ‘A lot.’

      ‘You can tell me, Zack.’

      ‘I’m trying to.’

      ‘Times are changing.’ Judy sat very composed and Zack looked at her, and then his face went right up to the screen.

      ‘Do you think I’m gay?’

      He could not believe it.

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