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‘Yes. Will and I are still only friends. But he’s quite keen to be a dad and he knows how I feel, so he wants to help me to have a baby. It’s actually rather convenient.’
‘Right.’ Gina frowned as she digested this. Then she smiled. ‘But friends often fall in love.’
Lucy felt bad, knowing she was about to watch Gina’s happy smile disintegrate.
‘Not this time,’ she said. ‘There’s no chance.’
For a moment, Gina seemed lost for words. She traced the pattern of pink and lavender patchwork squares on the bed quilt. ‘I guess it must be awkward,’ she mused, ‘because you were engaged to Josh.’
Unwilling to dwell on that subject, Lucy tried to steer Gina’s thoughts in a different direction. ‘The thing is, Will’s not a settling down kind of guy. You and I both know that. We’ve always known it.’
Gina pulled a face. ‘Will’s annoying like that, isn’t he? I really love my brother, but I have to admit, he’s always been a bit of an outsider in our family. Middle child syndrome, I guess.’
‘I wouldn’t know. I was an only child.’
‘In our family, it was always about Josh, as the eldest son. He was the heir apparent. And I was the spoiled baby girl. Poor old Will was caught in the middle, neither one thing nor the other.’
Gina lowered her voice importantly. ‘Even though I was the youngest, I could see how it was. Dad spoiled me rotten. Gosh, when I was little, he used to take me out on the tractor every night just to get me to sleep. I’d sit up there with my security blanket and my head in his lap, while he went round and round the paddock.’
‘Lucky you,’ Lucy said.
‘And then Josh was always trailing after Dad like a faithful sheepdog and the old man adored it. They were always together, working with the sheep, tinkering with machinery. They had aspecial bond and I’m sure Will felt left out. I think that’s why he drifted towards books and study, rather than helping out on the farm. And then he started taking off on his own to fossick for rocks.’
‘Which he’s still doing more or less,’ Lucy suggested.
‘I guess.’ Gina let out a loud sigh. ‘It’s not fair on you though.’ She pulled at a loose thread in the quilt. ‘Will might still feel as if he’s living in Josh’s shadow.’
Bright heat flared in Lucy’s face. ‘I hope he doesn’t,’ she said quietly.
‘What is it with my brothers? Why do they both have to mess up your life?’
‘Because I let them?’
Gina’s face softened and she reached out to touch her daughter’s hair as she slept in Lucy’s arms. ‘Well… for what it’s worth, I think this baby idea is fabulous. OK, maybe it’s a tad unconventional, but it’s still fabulous. I do wish you luck.’
‘Thanks.’ Lucy smiled. It was good to know she had someone on her side. ‘You won’t say anything to Will?’
‘Heavens no.’ Gina threw a reassuring arm around Lucy’s shoulders. ‘A little sister’s advice would be the kiss of death, and I really want this to work.’
After the last of the guests had left, Will helped with the dismantling of the trestle tables and the stacking away of the chairs in a storage room below the hayloft. As he worked, his thoughts were focused front, back and centre on Lucy.
It wasn’t possible to think about anything else. His heart had cracked in two today when he saw her weeping beside little Mia.
Mattie had achieved the impossible for Gina and Tom and no doubt that made Lucy’s situation all the more distressing. But what upset Will was the fact that she’d told him last week shewanted to call off their plan, when it was so obvious that she still wanted a baby.
There could only be one reason, of course. She wasn’t happy about having to sleep with him again. He’d created a problem for her.
For possibly the thousandth time Will thought about that night. He’d been a lost man the minute he’d touched Lucy McKenty. That was his problem. One caress of her skin, one brush of his lips against her soft, sweet mouth and he’d forgotten his plan to have simple, “friendly” sex with a focus on procreation. Damn it. He’d been so carried away, he’d practically forgotten his own name.
Problem was, he’d put their long ago kiss out of his mind. He’d gone into this without thinking about how Lucy might taste, or how she’d react. He certainly hadn’t expected such a passionate response from her.
Was that how she’d been with Josh?
Hell.
Will was shocked by the violent force of his feelings when he thought about Josh and Lucy together.
He tried to stop thinking about them, but with the last chair stacked, he strode to the end of the home paddock. He looked out across the valley to where the distant hills were blue smudges on the horizon and he drew a deep breath and caught the sharp tang of eucalyptus and the dusty scent of the earth.
