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She unlocked the door and found herself enveloped in a tight hug. Despite herself, Lucy’s body relaxed into his. “It’ll be great,” he whispered into her hair. “We’re in this together and we’ll make sure this baby is so loved.”

Before she could formulate a response, Dylan gently broke away from her. “I’ll see you soon,” he said. With a final glance down at her stomach, he turned and left.

Suddenly aware of the freezing air filling her coffee shop, Lucy quickly closed the door.

Feeling more discombobulated than ever by Dylan’s completely unexpected behaviour, she returned to something she was sure of: baking, and made a quick batch of gluten-free flapjacks, allowing her mind to empty as much as possible as she focused on mixing the ingredients.

By the time she’d finished, it was time to make dinner. Her stomach had settled a little once she’d finished handling cake batter, but she wasn’t hungry. Usually she’d either not eat or pick at something, but as she contemplated these two options, the thought immediately popped into her head that the baby needed nourishment. She was over two months pregnant, and had actually lost weight. She couldn’t manage to eat a full roast dinner, but she could do better than a few crackers.

Her phone dinged with a message from Carrie: I’m guessing you told Dylan. He said he was going to check on you and didn’t come back. Michael just got a message saying he had to head home.

She messaged back immediately: Yeah, I told him. He was obviously shocked. We’ll talk about things more once we’ve both had a chance to process this.

Her friend sent a hug emoji back, making Lucy smile.

She went up to her flat, feeling guilty about how she’d been eating for the last couple of months. She’d been so stressed and nauseous, she’d struggled to eat anything, but if she’d realised she’d been pregnant, she’d have tried harder. It was such a shame it was a Sunday and all the shops closed early or she would have gone to the supermarket and picked herself something up. As it was, she cooked some pasta and mixed in some pesto. She added some salad leaves on the side, as they seemed the least offensive vegetable she could think of. She ate in front of the television to take her mind off the food and valiantly managed over half the bowl she’d made herself. It only took her an entire episode of Bridgerton.

Chapter 6

Lucy was exhausted by the time she closed up the coffee shop the following day. Her other part-timer, Jo, had been fantastic, getting some baking done and handling as much of the food as possible while Lucy took orders, made coffees and cleared tables.

Lucy considered telling Jo about her pregnancy during a quiet period, but it didn’t seem quite real yet and she didn’t feel like talking about it until she had her head around it more. She tried to push all thoughts of pregnancy out of her mind, but it wasn’t easy with her nausea rising up and down like a boat on a rocky sea. It seemed to have gone into overdrive and she found her hand subconsciously resting on her stomach as if protecting the little life she now knew was growing in there.

Jo left at 3 p.m., and Lucy managed the last hour by herself and then turned the radio up to keep herself as energised as possible while she cleaned up and got the coffee shop as ready as she could for the next day. It was getting harder and harder to crawl out of bed with the dark, cold mornings combined with pregnancy exhaustion. By the time she’d done a full day in the coffee shop, she felt like she could barely continue to put one foot in front of the other. At least she knew what was wrong with her now.

It was almost five when she was done. The doctor’s surgery would still be open and, as bizarre as it was for her to be contemplating motherhood, she shouldn’t put off making an appointment so she could check that everything was OK. She was only on hold for a couple of minutes before a receptionist answered. She transferred her to the midwife team who were lovely and arranged for her to have something called a ‘booking-in appointment’ on Wednesday.

She went upstairs to her flat and changed so she could head off to the supermarket. It was only a ten-minute walk to the town’s Co-op supermarket, but she was so tired and planned on doing a bigger shop and finally stocking up on some healthy food for her and the baby, so she decided to take her car.

Of course, as good as her intentions were, once she got inside the store she found herself grabbing easy food: fruit, salad leaves, crackers, bread, ginger biscuits, and a pile of ready meals from the frozen section when she couldn’t face the idea of planning and cooking proper dinners.

She was grateful to get out of the supermarket and know she’d be home soon.

“Are you quite all right, Lucy?” she heard a voice say.

She turned to see Mary on her way into the shop.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” she said. How rude would it be if she continued on to her car? No, Mary was lovely and Lucy enjoyed spending time with her.

She stopped. She was going to have to tell people sooner or later and, for some reason, she felt the urge to get it off her chest now. “I’m pregnant,” she said, with an awkward little shrug.

“I could have told you that weeks ago, dear,” said Mary, her face breaking into a smile. “Congratulations.”

“If you knew, then why didn’t you tell me!” Lucy cried, indignantly. “I only found out yesterday!”

“You needed to work it out for yourself,” Mary replied with a little laugh. “Don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone.”

“I’m guessing you also know who the father is then?”

“Dylan, I imagine,” said Mary, simply.

“Did Carrie tell you?” Lucy spluttered, surprised at her best friend. Why else would Mary leap to that conclusion?

“No, but it was obvious you two would bump uglies at some point, and the universe has a way of making things happen as they’re supposed to.”

“Mary! Bump uglies?”

Mary giggled. “I’ve been dying to use that one.”