To Be A Husband

To make matters worse, once they were in Theatre, he took one look at his wife as she lay sleepily on the operating table, and went almost the same colour green as the gown he wore. Wonderful! They were going to have a faller... !

It happened, of course. Quite a lot of men found it difficult to cope with normal childbirth, let alone under these circumstances. But Mr Hunter had seemed such a self-confident individual, she would never have guessed he was squeamish. It showed you never could tell...

‘Talk to your wife,’ Gaye encouraged softly; if he fainted then the Theatre team would just work around him where he fell!

He frowned down at her. ‘My wife? But—’

‘She’s sleepy, but awake,’ Gaye assured him. ‘Talk to her. It will help.’ Both of them, she hoped—Abbie Hunter to remain calm, her husband to stop from collapsing at their feet!

Pleasure lit up the violet-blue eyes of the woman on the operating table as she looked up and saw him, although she frowned slightly. ‘Jonathan...?’

‘Jarrett is on his way, Abbie,’ Jonathan reassured her calmly—despite his chalk-white face!—as he stepped forward to her side. ‘He’ll be with us as soon as he can.’

Well, at least he was doing his bit now, Gaye acknowledged with satisfaction. If they could just stop him from fainting...!

‘Just keep talking to her,’ Gaye continued to encourage. ‘And your son will be with you both very shortly.’ It didn’t surprise her that this couple knew the sex of their child, or indeed that they had already named him; the Hunter family, like most of the couples who chose to give birth here, were rich and affluent, and it was easier, as regards decorating the nursery and choosing clothes, if they knew the sex of their child before it was born.

Mr Gilchrist had begun the operation now, and it was not the time for a tall, dark-haired man to come striding in, unannounced and ungowned, quickly followed by a protesting midwife. What on earth—?

‘Will someone kindly get him out of my Theatre?’ the surgeon snarled impatiently as he continued to concentrate on his patient. ‘Anyone would think this was a damned circus, not an operating Theatre!’ he added disgustedly.

‘I’m not about to go anywhere, James,’ the tall, dark-haired man informed him imperiously. ‘That’s my wife you have there.’ He nodded towards Abbie Hunter. ‘And I intend being with her during the birth of our child.’

His wife? His child...?

Gaye looked from the dark intruder to the man standing at Abbie Hunter’s side, holding her hand; if the newcomer was her husband, then who on earth was he? James Gilchrist was right; this was turning into a circus—and she was in the middle of it!

James Gilchrist straightened, looking frowningly at Abbie Hunter’s husband. ‘I realise who you are, Jarrett,’ he accepted dryly, turning to the man at Abbie’s other side. ‘And whoever you are I suggest you get out and let us get on with the birth of this baby,’ he rasped.

The blond man stepped back, taking off his gown and handing it to the dark-haired man who had now come fully into the room. ‘With pleasure,’ he agreed gratefully. ‘I’ll be waiting outside,’ he told the man called Jarrett—before beating a hasty retreat.

Gaye followed him. Somehow she had made the most terrible gaffe of her career, had taken the wrong man in to see the birth of a baby. But Jonathan Hunter had let her do it! Why on earth hadn’t he told her he wasn’t Abbie’s husband? She was never going to live this down. And as for Mr Gilchrist—!

‘Exactly who are you?’ Gaye demanded once the two of them were back outside in the corridor, her green eyes flashing like twin jewels.

The colour was slowly coming back into the man’s cheeks, the gleam of humour returning into his eyes too. ‘Jonathan Hunter,’ he supplied unhelpfully, head tilting to one side as she still looked up at him questioningly. ‘Uncle, not father, of the baby,’ he explained.

Jarrett Hunter’s brother. Abbie Hunter’s brother-in-law.

Gaye thought back to the dark man who had stridden so assuredly into the operating Theatre demanding to be at his wife’s side, realising now that he had those same unusual golden eyes. But other than that there were no similarities between the two to indicate their relationship, one so tall, dark, and commanding, the other tall and golden-blond, with a lazy ease of charm. Although she had a feeling Jonathan Hunter could be just as arrogant as his brother if the occasion arose...

She looked at him irritatedly. ‘Why on earth didn’t you tell me that in the beginning?’

He raised mocking blond brows. ‘As I recall, you hardly gave me a chance to explain anything!’

Colour suffused her cheeks as she remembered the way she had reacted on hearing his name; as he claimed, she hadn’t really given him a chance to explain his relationship to Abbie Hunter. Part of the reason for that, she knew, but would never admit to anyone but herself, was the fact that she had felt the pull of his magnetic attraction from the first. And she had been angry with herself, and him, before he’d even opened his mouth! Her behaviour towards him had been all the sharper because of that.

‘If it makes you feel any better,’ Jonathan Hunter continued, ‘if Jarrett hadn’t arrived when he did, he would have expected me to be in there with Abbie.’ He nodded in the direction of the operating Theatre they had just left. ‘He and Abbie have only been married a couple of years, and this is their first child together. It’s unfortunate it happened a little earlier than expected, otherwise I can assure you you would have had no trouble whatsoever contacting Jarrett—because he would already have been at Abbie’s side! He only went off to his meeting this morning because Abbie insisted she was fine. But I can also assure you, if he hadn’t got here, and I had merely sat outside while Abbie gave birth, Jarrett would have made mincemeat of me!’ He grimaced with feeling.

Although he didn’t look too bothered at the prospect... Gaye had a feeling very little ruffled his smooth charm. Except...

‘Even if it meant you ended up being carried from the operating Theatre unconscious?’ she derided.

He grimaced again. ‘That wasn’t kind, Nurse Royal,’ he chided softly.

He hadn’t needed to look at her name-tag this time, had obviously remembered her name. Which, for some reason, irritated Gaye too. She was going to have some explaining to do once the Hunter baby was born and Mr Gilchrist had a free moment!

‘But true,’ she said pointedly.

‘It was that obvious?’ he muttered self-derisively.

‘Let’s put it this way,’ she teased. ‘I don’t think green is your colour!’

‘But I bet it’s yours!’ he returned, easily meeting and holding her gaze, open admiration in those golden depths as they looked directly into her eyes.

He was flirting with her again! Okay, so she might now know that he wasn’t married to Abbie Hunter, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t married to someone else. In fact, the chances were that he definitely was attached: his age, his good looks, that charm... He might even have children too. Although, from his behaviour earlier, he definitely hadn’t been present at their births!

‘I’ll show you to the waiting room,’ she told him briskly. ‘As soon as there is any news, I’m sure your brother will—’

‘Uncle Jonathan!’ a child’s voice called out delightedly. Gaye turned just in time to see an adorable bundle launching herself into Jonathan Hunter’s arms. Following close behind her was another tall, good-looking man, with unruly dark hair and devilish golden-coloured eyes.

One more Hunter! This time Gaye was sure of exactly who he was, because where Jarrett and Jonathan, apart from those eyes, managed to look nothing alike, this third man somehow seemed to look like both his brothers.

He also had Jonathan Hunter’s way of running an assessing eye over a woman—and the mischievous smile he sent in Gaye’s direction, before turning his attention back to his brother and the little girl, told her he had liked what he saw!

‘She refused to stay at home,’ he explained apologetically to his brother. ‘And when Charlie makes up her mind—’

‘She can be as doggedly determined as her mother,’ Jonathan accepted affectionately. ‘And we’re all like butter in her hands!’

‘Has Mummy had the baby yet?’ the little girl asked excitedly—although Gaye hadn’t needed to hear her call Abbie Hunter ‘Mummy’ to know that this was the other woman’s daughter from her first marriage; Charlie had the same beauty as her mother—the long dark hair, and the same violet-blue eyes. It was easy to see how this little girl could wind the Hunter men around her little finger; she was adorable!

‘Not yet, poppet,’ Jonathan answered reassuringly. ‘But this nice nurse tells me it won’t be long now.’

Charlie looked up at Gaye shyly, a dimple appearing in her cheeks as she smiled. ‘Is Mummy having the baby now?’

Gaye could feel herself melting as she looked at this beautiful child. ‘She certainly is,’ she told her warmly. ‘Do you want a brother or sister?’

‘Daddy says he wants a little girl who looks just like me,’ Charlie told her seriously. ‘But I want a brother.’

‘Another male for her to charm!’ Jonathan groaned, shaking his head.

‘Uncle Jonathan says he’s going to marry me when I grow up,’ Charlie confided guilelessly to Gaye. ‘But Daddy says he’s too old for me.’

‘Far too old,’ the newly arrived Hunter agreed mischievously. ‘I’m much more your age.’

Charlie shook her head. ‘Daddy says you’re too old for me too, Uncle Jordan,’ she told him regretfully.

Jonathan. Jarrett. And Jordan. Gaye’s head was spinning with the three Hunter men. And not just with their names. What a formidable trio they were!