Look Back at Me (Fleckney Fields Series, Book 1)

Epilogue

One year and a bit later...

Viola lifted her eyes from her book and looked outside. A large lorry parked in front of the cottage, and the driver's door opened. A massive man jumped out of the cabin, and Viola snorted and shook her head. The bloke wasn't even that attractive, but the pregnancy hormones raging in her blood tended to paint all males in the most flattering colours in her libidinous imagination these days.

"Is that the new furniture?" Ulla, Viola's most recently acquired sister-in-law asked, and Viola hummed confirming, still watching the driver.

He'd come up to the back door of the lorry and jerked the handle opening it.

"Should we let Oliver and Rhys know?" Ulla asked, sipping her coffee.

She and Oliver had stopped by in the morning to help with the nursery renovations.

"They know," Viola dismissed, "because–"

"Because the Holyoakes always know everything, right," Ulla said with a laugh. "Are you sure you don't want me to make you a decaf?" she asked Viola with sincere sympathy in the voice. Ulla was Swedish and drank almost as much coffee as Viola used to.

"No, thank you, decaf just makes me sad, reminding me of everything I'm missing in life," Viola proclaimed dramatically and pressed her hand to her forehead.

Ulla gave her a skeptical look, and they both snickered.

"I think the only thing you're missing these days is dancing tango with all those crazy leg lifts, although knowing you, you probably still can, even with all this–" She gestured around Viola's stomach.

"Luggage?" Viola joked. "I don't get much sleep with all of them kicking me from inside, but other than that it's OK."

She was being coy to be honest. It was Rhys' - fortunately equal to hers - drive that was keeping her from sleeping. He seemed to find her much rounder shape quite to his taste. Viola had no complaints, she simply compensated for all these eventful nights with cosy naps and late mornings these days.

Viola saw Oliver and Rhys step outside. They shook the driver's hand - and Viola amended her previous opinion. The man wasn't large or attractive in any way. Viola tilted her head and threw Rhys an appreciative look. His dark jeans sat low on his hips, and she could see the outlines of his strong torso and arms in the soft jumper he wore.

"I bet it's the way you look at him that has gotten you in your current 'predicament'," Ulla said.

Viola threw her a sardonic glance, and Ulla saluted her with her mug.

"It's the hormonal therapy that has gotten me in this particular predicament," Viola said and rubbed her stomach. There was a sharp angle sticking out on one side, and she wondered if it was an elbow or a knee. "Well, it multiplied my problem, so to say," she added with a chuckle. "But yes, it's all because of the hair and the beard."

"Oh yeah, the hair and the beard," Ulla drew out, ogling 'her' Holyoake.

Oliver climbed into the lorry and handed a box to Rhys, who put it on his shoulder and beckoned Oliver with his left hand, probably asking for another one.

"And the shoulders," Ulla said, craning her neck, watching Oliver pass another large box to his cousin.

"And the arms," Viola added - and then jolted and hissed.

"What's wrong?" Ulla asked, rushing to her.

"Nothing at all," Viola said and exhaled through her rounded lips. "They just– get excited if I get excited. The same bloodstream, remember?"