she’d had some backache since Matt had ferried her to the cottage in the SUV, this was something else.
‘What’s wrong?’
Matt was immediately aware of her discomfort. His eyes had darkened in alarm, and she was desperate to reassure him.
This was definitely not the time to give him a master class in Braxton Hicks.
‘It was nothing,’ she denied, arching her back a little to relieve the constriction. ‘I’m always having little aches and pains. It’s just that you’re not usually around when they occur.’
‘I’d like to be,’ muttered Matt, his voice raw with emotion. ‘I know you might not agree, but I wish you’d stay here until the baby is born.’
‘I’d like that—’ Joanna was beginning, when another pain attacked her abdomen. She struggled to breathe the way she’d been told, and then whispered faintly, ‘I think that might be sooner than we think.’
Matt didn’t hesitate. Opening the bedroom door, he yelled for Rowena to fetch Mrs Rodrigues from her room, and then pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket. ‘I hope to hell Jacob isn’t taking the evening off. If he is, I’ll fly the bloody helicopter myself.’
‘I don’t think we have time to summon the helicopter,’ declared Elsa Rodrigues, coming into the room before he could make the call. ‘I have a feeling this baby is likely to arrive within the next couple of hours. If you have no objections, Matt, I think we should make preparations for the birth right here.’
Matt looked down at Joanna. ‘Jo,’ he said thickly, feeling guilty. ‘I never meant for this to happen.’
‘Nor me,’ murmured Joanna faintly, and then broke off when another spasm gripped her. She looked up at him through tear-filled eyes. ‘But stay with me, Matt? Please. Stay with me and hold my hand?’
MATT WAS SITTING on the veranda when Dr Rodrigues came to find him. He’d been trying to doze, but the events of the past ten hours had left him too full of adrenalin to rest. Now, sunlight was sparkling on the leaves of the palm trees and gilding the edge of the water with a pale translucent light.
‘Joanna is awake,’ the doctor said softly. His wife had sent for him as soon as she was confident that the baby’s head had been engaged. Then with more assurance, he added, ‘Your mother is with her.’
‘My mother!’
Matt groaned, getting to his feet at once. What the hell was Adrienne doing there? He guessed she would be the last person Joanna wanted to see. His ex-wife had been exhausted when he’d left her four hours ago, and Matt had been grateful that Elsa had taken the baby away so that Joanna could sleep.
For his part, Matt was still digesting the news that he was a father. The baby’s birth had happened so quickly. He’d always thought that first babies could take days and not hours to arrive, but he’d been wrong.
Joanna had been lucky. Her labour had been fairly arduous without any pain relief, but when they’d both gazed in wonder at the tiny baby boy who had come so precipitately into the world, everything else was forgotten.
Despite weighing more than eight pounds, he’d seemed so absurdly fragile. And for a few minutes, sitting beside Joanna on the bed, Matt had felt they were a real family at last.
Then Elsa had insisted on ushering him out of the room to allow Joanna to rest. He’d promised to return as soon as she was awake, but now it seemed his mother had beaten him to it. He couldn’t help the suspicion that her visit was not a friendly one.
Walking across the marble-tiled foyer, Matt was shocked to hear raised voices coming from the bedroom where Joanna was resting. The loudest was his mother’s, if he didn’t miss his guess. Joanna’s contribution much less aggressive. What the hell was going on?
Reaching the door, Matt was about to burst into the room, when he was halted by Adrienne’s next words.
‘It’s not your call,’ Adrienne was saying angrily. ‘Nothing you do is going to change Matt’s mind.’
Joanna’s response was spoken in a much quieter tone. ‘I just think this is Matt’s and my decision, not yours.’
‘We’ll see about that—’ Adrienne was beginning threateningly, but Matt had heard enough.
Thrusting open the door, he halted on the threshold, the scene that met his eyes filling him with a mixture of pleasure and dread. There was no sign of Elsa, but she had evidently brought the baby because Joanna was holding him close to her chest. Adrienne, meanwhile, was leaning over her, as if she was about to snatch the baby out of her arms.
‘In God’s name, what’s going on here?’ Matt demanded, glaring at his mother. The atmosphere in the room was decidedly hostile and he couldn’t understand why. ‘Don’t you think Joanna’s had enough to cope with in the last twelve hours without you causing a scene?’
Adrienne immediately stepped back from the bed. With a forced smile, she said, ‘Oh, Matt, I didn’t see you there.’ She paused to lick her lips. ‘And you couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t want to cause a scene.’ She gave the girl a tight-lipped glance. ‘Joanna simply won’t listen to reason.’
Joanna said nothing. She knew better than to try and argue with Matt’s mother in this mood. Instead, she looked down at her baby son and wondered why she’d ever thought that Adrienne had come here to heal their differences.
Matt turned to Joanna, and when she still didn’t try to defend herself, he looked again at his mother. ‘I don’t know what this is all about,’ he said, ‘but now is not the time to be upsetting anyone.’
‘I didn’t come here to upset her,’ retorted Adrienne, taking a step away from the bed. ‘But if you do intend to play some part in your son’s life, Matt, you have to make a stand.’
Matt scowled. ‘And this affects you how, exactly?’
‘Well, I am the child’s grandmother,’ declared his mother shortly. ‘If you allow Joanna to take your son back to England, you may never see him again.’
Matt sucked in a frustrated breath. ‘The child’s less than five hours old, Ma. We’ve got plenty of time to think about his future.’
Adrienne’s lips tightened. ‘Now you’re being ridiculously naïve, Matt. I’m not suggesting you ask for custody of the infant straight away. All I’m saying is—’
‘Dammit, you were casting doubts on the child’s parentage a couple days ago,’ Matt reminded her harshly. ‘I suggest you go back to Dad, Mother. I’ll let you know what’s happening when Joanna and I have had time to talk.’
Joanna sighed, shifting the baby to a more comfortable position. Although she’d had a short nap, she was still absurdly tired. And weepy, too. Hearing Matt and his mother talk about her son as if she weren’t even present made her feel invisible.
But one thing was certain: No one was going to take him away from her.
‘Anyway, we’ll talk later,’ Matt was saying now, and Joanna saw the way Adrienne cast an angry look in her direction.
Does she think I might tell Matt about her affair with my father? Joanna wondered incredulously. Just because Oliver was aware of her affair, didn’t mean he’d told her.
Joanna almost felt sorry for her. For all her bluster, Adrienne was as vulnerable as anybody else. But she seemed determined that Matt should have custody of the baby, and Joanna knew the Novaks had the money to employ lawyers to override any argument she might make.
Now Adrienne headed with evident reluctance for the door. ‘You’ll let me know what you decide, won’t you, darling?’