Kirsty Moseley - Reasons Not To Fall In Love

“Rex, you’re a star! Dessert is on me next time you come to the café, OK?” I grinned happily as the lady slid my ticket across to me. “Thanks again. See you next week!” I called over my shoulder as I sprinted for my platform.

The train ride was long, but luckily I had found a magazine on one of the empty seats so I kept myself amused by perusing that. To keep myself busy I made a call to Finn, double-checking that he’d picked up Theo and that he’d feed and bathe him before bed. He agreed to leave London the following morning early, so would be at my mum’s house a little after ten in the morning. That would give Theo a fair few hours with his grandmother.

When the train finally rolled to a stop, I couldn’t keep the ecstatic grin off my face. It felt nice to be going home. Bath was where I grew up as a kid. We all moved away when I was in my early teens, but in the last few years my sister and mother had moved back to be closer to other family members. I’d elected to stay in London with Finn. As I stepped out of the train and onto the platform with my overnight bag on my back, I wasn’t expecting to see my mother standing there with a huge grin on her face. My heart leapt into my throat as my eyes prickled with happy tears. It had been way too long since I’d seen that smile.

A squeal escaped my lips as I ran the five steps to her, engulfing her in a hug that was sure to have crushed her ribs against her lungs, but she hugged me back with the same intensity. The smell of her hair wafted up my nostrils, and the feeling of being a child again washed over me making my stomach clench as a contented sigh left my lips.

“Oh, Mum, it’s been way too long,” I croaked as the emotion bubbled over. I spoke to her often, of course, but it wasn’t the same.

“It certainly has. I’ve missed you.” She pulled back, smiling over at me as she stroked my hair down for me, her eyes soft and caring. “Come on, let’s get to the hospital. Visiting started ten minutes ago,” she suggested, looping her arm through mine and tugging me towards the car park out front.

“I’ve missed ten minutes of baby hugging time?” I gasped, faking outrage. She chuckled and started gushing then about baby Evie and how beautiful she was. In fact, she didn’t stop gushing for the whole car ride.

When we arrived at the hospital and Mum led us up to the maternity ward where Skye was, the haughty-looking nurse stepped in front of us and shook her head. “Sorry, but it’s limited to three visitors at a time. One of you will have to wait outside and then you’ll have to swap in after,” she stated firmly.

I frowned. I remembered visiting hours rules when I was in hospital having Theo, but I’d had a lovely midwife, and she’d allowed us to break the rules providing we were quiet. It looked like Skye’s ward had different staff to the one I gave birth in. Mum groaned and nodded, waving towards the door. “You go in, you haven’t seen her yet. Tell whoever it is in there that I’m waiting and we’ll all take turns, swapping in every ten minutes or something,” she suggested, giving me a little encouraging push towards the door.

I wasn’t going to argue with that, I could barely wait another second without seeing my sister and niece. As I stepped through the door of the room, I looked around hesitantly. The room had six beds in, all occupied by the look of it. On first glance I couldn’t see Skye or her husband Brandon, so I walked in, peeking around the curtains, hoping for the right one, muttering an apology to each new mother as they looked up to see who I was. When I got to the last curtain, my heart started to pound in my chest. The sound of my sister’s tinkling laugh caught my attention. As I stepped around the corner, she looked up and a huge smile crept onto her lips.

“Bronny!” she cried happily.

I didn’t even realise I’d been holding my breath as I’d stealthily intruded on everyone else’s intimate moments, but seeing my sister for the first time in three months, and knowing that my big sister now had the one thing she always dreamt of, made the air rush out of my lungs.

Somehow, my legs carried me across the room to the side of her bed and I engulfed her in a hug. I was so happy for her that I didn’t even feel the need to scold her for calling me Bronny even though she knew I hated it. I was so pleased for her that it was a little overwhelming. “Congratulations,” I whispered, kissing the side of her head as my eyes filled with tears.

“Thank you!” she chirped. She looked so thrilled to be a mum that it was practically bursting from every pore. “Want to hold her?”

I nodded, pulling back and wiping my tears away quickly. “Heck yeah I do! Where is she?” I turned and came face to face with my brother-in-law, Brandon. “Hey, Daddy!” I greeted, pulling him into a hug too, patting his back proudly.

“Hey, Auntie,” he replied.

I giggled excitedly and pulled back, immediately seeing the little clear plastic cot that was on the other side of Skye’s bed. I’d walked straight past it without even noticing. As I stepped to the side of her cot, I could practically feel the ‘broody’ building inside me. The little bundle in there made my eyes widen as I chewed on my lip and looked over the edge of the cot. Evie was beautiful, stunning even, and love built in my chest so much that I thought I would burst with it. I will definitely be a kick-arse auntie , I vowed.

The tears were full-on flowing down my face now as I looked down at the perfect little bundle. She was sleeping peacefully and still had the slight discolouration to her face where she’d been inside the womb for so long. Slipping my hands under her body, I picked her up, carefully cradling her in my arms. She didn’t even stir. Through the material of her baby grow, I could feel her tiny heart thrumming against my hand. I was lost in the beauty of a new-born baby. She was so precious that it made me want to cry, and she was so lucky too because she was going to grow up with amazing parents.

I felt the goofy happy smile stretch across my face as I stared at her. “Hi, beautiful,” I greeted.

“Hi yourself.” It was a male voice, and it came from behind me. I frowned, looking over my shoulder to see a man with dark blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He was breathtakingly handsome. His jaw was lined with short stubble, his hair was longer than I would normally like for a guy and curled slightly at the nape of his neck where it needed a trim and tidy-up, but strangely, it suited him like that. He wore a dark grey suit that fitted him perfectly, showing off his strong shoulders and small waist. He’d paired it with a white shirt underneath and a red tie, which hung loosely around his neck. As his chocolate coloured eyes met mine, a smile twitched at the corners of his full lips.

A lump formed in my throat for some reason, but I didn’t know why.

Skye cleared her throat dramatically. “Er, Harrison, don’t even think about hitting on my little sister,” she warned. “Besides, she’s married,” she added rather smugly.

I blinked a couple of times, trying to come back to reality because looking at him made me feel a little weird inside. Harrison. I’d heard of this guy. He was the one who was in business with Brandon. The two of them had both been made redundant from their advertising jobs last year and had decided to go into business together instead of looking for another job. Skye and Brandon had become extremely good friends with this guy over the last year, so I’d heard. I’d never personally met him, but now that I knew who he was, I knew to stay away. Harrison Baxter was a ladies’ man and fancied himself as Bath’s answer to James Bond, apparently.

One of the gorgeous stranger’s eyebrows rose. “Married, really? Damn, all of the hot ones are always taken or gay. Why is that, do you think?” he mused, cocking his head to the side playfully.