English Girl in New York Read Online Free PDF

squeezed her eyes shut. ‘I know we’ve just met, Daniel, but I’m sorry. I just can’t help you with this. I can’t do it. Babies—’ she hesitated ‘—they’re just not my thing. I won’t be any help anyway. I don’t know a thing about babies.’
    He stared at her. Hard. ‘You’ve got to be joking, right?’
    Her eyes opened and widened. It was clear she was instantly on the defence. ‘No. Why?’
    He shook his head in disbelief. ‘You turn up at my door with a baby, and now you’re expecting to dump it on me in the middle of a snowstorm.’
    When he said the words out loud they were even worse than the thoughts in his head.
    Her face paled. ‘But I...’
    â€˜I nothing.’ A grin appeared on his face. ‘Suck it up, Carrie.’
    She drew back from him and he could sense her taking some deep breaths. ‘It’s not quite like that.’
    He shook his head. There was no way she was leaving him high and dry. He waved his cast at her. ‘What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to bath a baby with one of these? Sure, I can probably manage to feed a baby and make up some bottles. But be practical, Carrie. I’m hardly the ideal babysitter right now.’ He could see her staring at his pink cast and trying to work things out in her head. ‘Least you can do is give me some help.’
    Her cheeks flushed with colour, as if she’d just realised how mean it looked to walk away.
    She pointed at his cast. ‘How did you end up with that anyway? And what made you pick a pink cast?’
    He snorted. ‘ Pick isn’t the word I would choose. There was an accident earlier today, a tonne of snow fell off a roof and I got trapped underneath it pushing people out of the way.’
    Her eyes widened. ‘On Fourteenth Street? That was you?’
    He sat up a little straighter. ‘How do you know about that?’
    â€˜I was there. I saw it happen.’ She tilted her head to the side and stared at him again. ‘I didn’t realise it was you—I mean, I didn’t know you.’ She reached over and touched his cast. ‘I remember. I remember seeing you hold your wrist at a funny angle. I guess it’s broken, then?’
    He nodded.
    â€˜And the pink?’
    He smiled. ‘It seems that today was the biggest day in the world for fractures at the clinic on Sixteenth Street.’ He waved his wrist. ‘Pink was the only colour they had left.’
    She started to laugh. ‘I can just imagine the look on your face when they told you that.’
    He started to laugh, too. ‘I was less than impressed. The air might have been a little blue.’
    â€˜Not pink?’
    â€˜Definitely not pink.’
    She shook her head. ‘That was really scary. I just remember the noise and the shouts. What about that woman in the red coat and her little boy? And that elderly couple?’
    She really had been there. And she could remember the details. The lady could be a cop. ‘All checked out and okay. One of the businessmen twisted his ankle and the other was being assessed for a head injury. He kept being sick.’
    â€˜Wow. Thank goodness you were there.’
    Her words struck a chord with him. He hadn’t really thought about that. He’d been too angry at breaking his wrist and being out of action for the NYPD. He hadn’t really had time to stop to think about what could have happened to that elderly couple, or the woman and her young son.
    A vision flashed in his eyes. The woman in the red coat cradling her son with one arm as if he was the most precious thing on earth. Then looking at him, with her hand on her heart, and mouthing, Thank you. He hadn’t really had time to talk to her properly, but that one action had been more than enough for him. He didn’t do this job for the thanks.
    The little bundle shifted in his arms and started to whimper again.