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Niall lowered his paper and looked at Robina. ‘If that’s all right? We did promise her.’
‘I think it’s a great idea,’ Robina said, ruffling Ella’s hair. ‘We’re all yours, sweetheart. Where do you fancy going?’
‘I can’t make up my mind. Swimming or ice-skating or the beach.’
Robina shuddered. ‘I think it’s a little cold for the beach. And I’m a hopeless ice-skater and not much cop in the water either.’
‘How do you know you can’t ice-skate?’ Niall asked, cocking his eyebrow at her. ‘Have you ever tried?’
‘Not exactly,’ Robina admitted. ‘But I have two left feet, so I’m bound to be hopeless.’
‘You can’t be hopeless. You are good at everything,’ Ella replied. ‘Anyway, Daddy can’t skate either. Can you, Daddy?’
‘That’s what you think, pumpkin.’ Niall chucked his daughter under the chin. ‘Just wait until you see my moves.’
‘He can’t even dance,’ Ella said scornfully. ‘My first mummy said he always stood on her feet.’ She looked glum for a moment. ‘At least I think she said that. I can’t really remember her any more.’
‘Tell you what,’ Robina interrupted hastily, hoping to distract Ella. ‘There’s a place I know, not too far from here, that I hear has a swimming pool with lots of slides, and an ice rink. What if I go swimming with you and Daddy takes you ice-skating, then we can all have dinner together? How does that sound?’
But to her dismay, Ella shook her head. ‘You said I would have both of you—together.’
Niall rose from the table. ‘So we did. And so you shall. If we have to pull Robina around the rink, so be it. Off you go then, and get your costume.’
Ella shot upstairs as if she were scared Niall would change his mind.
Niall grinned at Robina and her heart flipped. Damn the man, why did he still have the power to make her pulse race? It would be so much easier if she didn’t still fancy him rotten. It had been so long since they had spent any time together and, despite the horrors of the ice-rink in store, Robina couldn’t help but look forward to spending time with Niall and Ella. Perhaps this could be the start of them being a proper family?
‘I’ll just go and get my costume as well then,’ Robina said, feeling suddenly shy under Niall’s amused stare. ‘I may not be able to ice skate, and not be much of a swimmer, but I can paddle with the best of them.’
The pool was busy with schoolchildren and the noise was deafening when Robina and Ella emerged from the changing rooms. Ella was wearing water-wings, but Robina warned her to stay close in case she got into difficulty. As soon as they spotted Niall, looking lean and sexy as hell in his Bermudas, Ella ran up to him, dragging Robina by the hand.
Robina was acutely aware of Niall’s eyes raking her body. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks as his eyes travelled from her face down to her toes and back up to her face. He could only have looked at her for a couple of seconds, but to Robina, her body tingling under his gaze, it felt like for ever. She resisted the impulse to shield her body from his gaze. Once he had known every inch of her, and she of him. She recalled the scar he had below his left shoulder, where he had fallen from his bike as a child. She remembered tracing the grooves with her tongue, after tracing the contours of the raised skin with her fingertips. And how Niall had whipped over and grabbed her hands, pulling her down on top of him, kissing her until she was breathless. And then slowly, ever so slowly he had…She shook her head, horrified to feel languorous warmth spreading across her body. She had to stop thinking like that. She had to stop thinking of how it used to be, or she would go mad. But from the way his eyes darkened she guessed he was remembering too. Whatever their differences now, there had been a time when they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other.
Thankfully, Ella was oblivious to the tension between her parents and was soon dragging them up several flights of steps to the slide. Robina tried to protest, the thought of being even the height of the slide frightening her, but one look at Ella’s face and she knew she had to put her fears aside. This was Ella’s day and Robina wanted it to be perfect.
Ella insisted that Niall go down the slide first, and then she followed, leaving Robina to go last. Telling herself she was being ridiculous to be scared and holding her nose, Robina flung herself down the slide and was soon caught up in a circular basin which spun her around in everdecreasing circles. Taken by surprise, she let go of her nose and by the time she plunged into the bottom pool, she was gasping and spluttering. Her head popped up and then Niall was by her side, grabbing her under her arms. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist to keep her head out of the water. Niall’s hands tightened around her waist and she felt her body being pressed into his. Despite her panic, she could feel the heat of his muscles through the cool water and the solid strength of his hips supporting her. Again there was that dizzying sense of the world spinning. She looked down to find Niall looking up at her, his expression unreadable. All of a sudden he released her and in her surprise she sank beneath the water again. This time he grabbed her arms and dragged her unceremoniously to the edge of the pool where Ella was waiting in fits of giggles.
‘I thought you said you could swim,’ Ella accused Robina, still laughing.
‘I can swim,’ Robina said, trying to hang onto her dignity. ‘But no one told me about that bowl thing. It took me by surprise.’ She was damned if she was going to admit there was another thing she couldn’t do. Mairead probably swam in the Olympics, she thought bitterly. And then as Ella and Niall shared a grin, she had to laugh. She wagged her finger at the pair of them. ‘Just you wait, you two, I’ll get my own back.’
But her fear had left her, and for the next hour they swam and slid down slides and splashed each other in the wave machine. Robina couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. It was the first time since she had lost the baby that she hadn’t felt an overwhelming sense of loss and sadness. It was almost as if they had put the last few terrible months behind them and were the family they had been in those early, blissful weeks following their marriage. Seeing Niall laugh, Robina realised that it had been a long time, far too long, since she had seen him so relaxed and carefree. Why hadn’t they tried to do something like this before? How could they both have been so stubborn? Even if their marriage was dead, was there a chance that they could be friends at least?
Ice-skating turned out to be just as embarrassing as Robina had expected. She just couldn’t get the hang of gliding forward on her skates; instead she pushed herself around like a baby giraffe finding its legs for the first time, while holding onto the side. Niall and Ella, on the other hand, soon had the hang of it, and while not contestants for the next celebrity ice-skating TV programme, were making valiant attempts at getting around the rink.
Eventually they skated up to her.
‘If we hold your hand, can you let go of the side?’ Ella asked.
Robina could see that Niall was having difficulty controlling his amusement.
‘I don’t think so, darling.’ Robina said. ‘I will definitely fall on my bottom if I do.’
‘No, you won’t. Not if we hold onto you.’
Reluctantly Robina gave in and with Niall holding one hand and Ella on the other they skated off, with Robina doing her best not to wobble. Soon they had completed a circuit, but just when she thought she might be getting the hang of it, she tripped, pulling Niall and Ella down in an untidy heap beside her.
Robina hoped that with her woolly hat pulled low on her ears, no one would recognise her. The last thing she wanted was to spoil the day, or to have pictures in the press of her collapsed on the ice. Somehow she doubted her viewers would be impressed to see the normally cool and collected Dr Robina Zondi making an enormous idiot of herself.
Still grinning, Niall got to his feet and helped Robina to stand. But as he pulled her up, she lost her footing again and