Page 82 of Where the Wattles Bloom

Twenty

Lachlan ushered Rowena out of the hospital ten minutes later, still buzzing from the experience. A baby girl. They were going to have a daughter. It should have terrified him—what the hell did he know about little girls?—and he had no doubt it probably would when he came down from his high, but right now, nothing could kill this buzz.

Even Rowena was floating and, given how pessimistic she’d been for so long, it only jacked up his buzz further. There was still a long row to hoe between them. Futures to be decided, issues to be sorted. But today was not that day.

Today was a day of celebration.

‘Fancy a perfect cannoli to go with our perfect baby?’

She laughed, her green eyes sparkling like sunshine on peridots. ‘You read my mind.’

Lachlan’s breath hitched at her unfettered happiness. He hadn’t seen her this relaxed since The Stockman, and it stirred up all the heat and attraction from that night. As well as the feelings he’d been tamping down while trying to be the person she’d needed him to be these past weeks.

But he didn’t let it go to his head. He knew that sparkle wouldn’t last. Rowena had already told him she was going to be on high alert right to the end, so he knew this was just a temporary ray of sunshine.

He’d take it, though. Today he would definitely take it.

‘I know what you’re thinking now, too.’

She shot him a coy kind of smile as she leaned in a little, almost conspiratorially. ‘Oh, you do, huh?’

Lachlan’s breath hitched again. Maybe he was rusty but … was she flirting with him? It was bizarre to think they’d done the wild thing but never actually flirted.

Or at least, she hadn’t, anyway.

‘You’re thinking … you want two.’

Rowena burst out laughing this time. ‘Would that be terribly greedy of me?’

Seeing her eating again had been such a relief, Lachlan would get her a goddamn baker’s dozen if that’s what she wanted. ‘Well, you are eating for two.’

She smiled as she looped her arm through his and Lachlan’s pulse skipped a beat. ‘Lead the way.’

‘Walk or drive?’

‘Walk.’

*

They hadn’t gone a hundred metres when they were stopped by Doug Thompson, who’d just exited his police car in the hospital car park. ‘I hear congratulations are in order?’ he said, offering his hand.

Lachlan grinned and shook it. ‘Thanks, mate.’

It wasn’t the first time he’d been congratulated in town—word had been getting around, and it made sense that the local cop would know—but it was the first time he’d been congratulated since seeing the evidence of his baby, so now it felt real.

He hadn’t been able to talk to Rowena about it, or lie beside her at night pressing his ear to her belly, or see the changes in her body, like a lot of baby daddies did. He knew Rowena was pregnant—he’d seen the test, he’d seen her throw up and practically sleepwalk through the last few months—but he’d felt so … removed from it all.

Seeing his daughter on the screen, seeing her tiny fingers and toes, hearing her heartbeat and doing it with Rowena, had put him right there in the middle of it all.

‘You know what you’re having yet?’

He nodded, slinging an arm around Rowena’s shoulders without thinking twice, drawing her into his side. He wasn’t sure if Rowena wanted to share any of the details but he was bursting to tell somebody. ‘A girl.’

‘Oh, that’s great, man.’ Thommo’s enthusiasm was infectious. ‘Being a girl dad is the best.’

A girl dad. That packed a punch straight to his chest. He glanced at Rowena. ‘I’m going to be a girl dad.’

She nodded, her smile a little wobbly. ‘You’ll be the best girl dad.’