Their Very Special Marriage by Kate Hardy Page A

there?’
    â€˜Sure.’ Caroline grinned. ‘You big chicken. I know why you’re keeping me well away from your wife, you know. And you’re being very silly.’
    Oliver felt his face grow hot. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
    But whatever Caroline was going to say, she stopped when the door opened and Prunella came in. ‘Dr Bedingfield, the lab’s just phoned through with the results you wanted for Megan Garner.’
    â€˜Thanks, Prunella. I’ll come and get them.’ Oliver smiled at the secretary. ‘See you later, Cally.’
    * * *
    Oliver was playing football with Robin in the back garden when Rachel and her mother got home.
    â€˜Daddy, Daddy! Nanny’s here!’
    Sophie launched herself at him, and he caught her up and swung her round. ‘Hello, Princess Spotty.’
    â€˜I’m not a princess, I’m a mermaid,’ Sophie informed him seriously.
    â€˜Right. Mermaid Spotty, then.’
    â€˜Mermaids don’t have spots.’
    â€˜You do,’ he said, kissing the tip of her nose. ‘Robin, come and give Nanny Ann a big hug hello.’
    Rachel’s mother greeted Robin with a hug and kiss. ‘You’ll be as tall as your mum soon, if you keep growing at this rate!’ she teased. ‘Hello, Oliver.’
    â€˜Lovely to see you, Ann. Thanks for coming down and helping.’
    â€˜My pleasure.’
    He got a hug and a kiss from his mother-in-law, too—so maybe Rachel hadn’t told her mother that things weren’t good between them. That was a relief. Having Ann in the house might reduce the strain between them, then, rather than make things worse. Or maybe Rachel had told her mother, and Ann had pointed out that Oliver wasn’t perfect—he was doing his best but he was only human, and any marriage needed a bit of compromising here and there.
    But the hugs and kisses stopped there. Rachel had already gone to put the kettle on. He sighed inwardly. If she’d just kissed him hello, he’d have felt better about things. Was it so much to ask? ‘I’ll take your things up, Ann.’
    â€˜Am I in my usual room?’ she asked.
    â€˜Yes.’ The spare room. The room that Rachel had spent yesterday evening tidying up—and when he’d asked if he could help, she’d simply snapped that perhaps he could give the children a bath for once. Oliver thought the childrenwere old enough to bath themselves without needing supervision, but had decided not to argue.
    Rachel seemed less touchy over dinner. Ann was the perfect buffer, Oliver thought. He’d always liked Rachel’s mother: Ann was warm and open and had accepted him right from the start. Unlike his own mother’s attitude towards Rachel. Even the children hadn’t completely mended the fences between them.
    He needed to mend a few fences himself. Only he wished that Rachel would meet him halfway instead of expecting him to make all the effort. ‘Rach, I meant to tell you earlier—I had those test results back today. Megan’s immune to chickenpox, so there’s no need to worry. I saw her in the playground this afternoon, and told her the good news.’
    â€˜Thanks.’
    Was it his imagination, or were her eyes warm again? Please, let her be warm again. Please, he prayed.
    To his pleasure, she didn’t turn her back on him in bed that night. She actually cuddled into him. Hallelujah, he thought. Everything’s going to be all right again.
    And then she began stroking his thigh. He froze. They couldn’t make love, not with her mother next door! He placed his hand on her wrist. ‘Rach. We can’t.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Because your mother’s sleeping in the next room,’ he hissed.
    She sighed. ‘Oliver, it’s not as if we’re teenagers, needing to creep around and pretend we’re not doing anything we shouldn’t be doing. We’re married .