The Fiancé He Can't Forget by Caroline Anderson

there.
    As if he understood, Ben took her hands in his and held them firmly. ‘We’ll look after you. I’ll get your old notes sent, and we’ll make sure you’re OK. We’ll watch you like a hawk.’
    â€˜I was in Harrogate,’ she said, her voice clogged with tears. ‘With Matt—planning the wedding…’
    He nodded. ‘I know. Don’t worry, Amy. We’ll take care of you—but there’s one condition.’
    â€˜I can’t tell him yet!’
    â€˜It’s not that, it’s about you. You stay next door, so we can look after you properly and be there for you, or I will tell him. That’s the deal,’ he said flatly, and she looked into his eyes—Matt’s eyes—and gave in. There was no arguing with the Walker men when they had that look in their eyes. And anyway, the last thing she wanted was to be alone in this, whatever she might have said.
    â€˜OK,’ she agreed shakily. ‘And I will tell him, but in my own way, in my own time. He’ll smother me, and I can’t cope with it yet. I just need to get through the next few weeks.’
    Just until the baby was viable.
    She couldn’t say the words, but they understood, and Ben hugged her briefly and pulled her to her feet.
    â€˜I’ll let you tell him. And I’ll look after you. We’ll look after you. It’ll be OK.’
    She smiled at him, feeling some of the terror dissipating in the friendly face of their support. She wasn’t alone. And Ben and Daisy wouldn’t desert her. So maybe she could do this, after all…
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    â€˜So how are things?’
    â€˜Oh, you know how it is,’ Ben said. ‘How about you?’
    Matt frowned. His brother sounded evasive. Odd, in only a handful of words over the telephone, but there was something there, something guarded. Something he wasn’t telling him.
    â€˜Ditto. How’s Daisy?’
    â€˜Better. Growing,’ he said. ‘She’s finally stopped being sick and she’s looking well. We did her twenty-week scan and everything’s fine.’
    â€˜And Amy?’ he asked carefully, and there was a pause.
    â€˜Amy’s fine,’ Ben replied, and he definitely sounded guarded now. So it wasn’t that Ben was walking round him on eggshells because of Daisy being pregnant. It was Amy who was the problem.
    â€˜She—uh—she didn’t want to see me again,’ he admitted softly.
    Matt heard Ben let out a soft sigh. ‘Yeah. Well, she doesn’t seem to have changed her mind. I’m sorry.’
    Well, that was him told. He swallowed hard, staring sightlessly out of his sitting room window at the bleak winter garden of his small mews cottage. It had taken a bit of winding himself up to ask after her, and he wished he hadn’t bothered.
    Hell, he should just forget about her and move on, as she’d said, but…
    â€˜Look af—’ His voice cracked a little, and he cleared his throat. ‘Look after her for me.’
    â€˜We are. She’s moved in next door, actually, into Daisy’s house. Her boiler broke and it seemed to make sense.’
    He had the totally irrational urge to jump in the car and come up and visit them. She’d be next door, just through the wall, and if he listened he’d hear her moving around—
    Idiot. ‘Give her my love,’ he said gruffly. ‘And Daisy and Florence. I’ll try and see you sometime in the next couple of weeks. What are you doing over Christmas?’
    â€˜I don’t know. I had thought we might go to Yorkshire, but I’m working. What about you?’
    â€˜I’m working Christmas Day and Boxing Day,’ he said, and had a sudden longing for his mother’s homecooking and his father’s quiet, sage advice. But in the absence of that… ‘Look, I’ve got to go, but I might try and get up between Christmas and New Year. Maybe on the