The Marry-Me Wish Read Free Page A

there?’ The delight in the male voice changed to concern as Mac entered the kitchen. ‘Oh, no,…what’s happened? Are you all right, Annie?’
    â€˜Yes, I’m fine,’ Anne said, and burst into tears again.
    Mac was by her side in an instant, his face stricken. She could feel his concern wrap around her like a blanket. It was partly the close bond they’d made in the last year but she could feel another part. Professional concern. As a paramedic, like Julia, he was assessing her physical condition. Looking for reasons for this highly unusual breakdown.
    â€˜It’s hormones, that’s all,’ she sobbed. ‘Take no notice of me.’
    The box of tissues materialised beside her on the table and, as she reached for a fresh handful, Anne could see Mac looking at his wife with a question in his eyes.
    â€˜David turned up at the hospital today,’ Julia told him. ‘He saw Anne but she didn’t get a chance to tell him why she’s pregnant.’
    â€˜Ohhh…’ Mac dragged out another chair and sat down right beside Anne. He squeezed her arm. ‘And you think he thinks you’ve gone from breaking up with him to start a family with some other bloke.’
    If Mac could see it so clearly it was a no-brainer, wasn’t it? She should have told him. Why had she been so stupid? Because she’d been stamping so hard on any of those fantasies where he turned up in her life again and said he couldn’t live without her? She had been trying to be realistic. Trying not to expect to ever seehim again. Getting on with her life. Giving the only other people in the world she loved this much of a gift.
    â€˜Well, that’s easily fixed.’ Mac sounded satisfied. ‘You just need to talk to him. And if that’s too hard, I could talk to him. Bloke to bloke, you know.’
    Anne shook her head. ‘It won’t help. He’ll think if I could get pregnant for you guys I should have done it for him. That’s why I never told him in the first place. He wasn’t meant to know anything about this.’
    A silence fell over the small group.
    â€˜You know…’ Julia sounded tentative. ‘There could be another way around this.’ She had been staring into the depths of her mug but now she looked up at Anne. ‘I could give you what you’ve given me and Mac. A…chance at a family.’
    Both Mac and Anne were staring at her. Anne felt a fond smile tug at her lips. They were so different. She was tall and dark and Julia was like a little imp with spiky blonde hair. And thanks to the unusual circumstances of their childhoods, not to mention the trauma of going through the hysterectomy Julia had had to have when she had only been in her early twenties, they were far closer than most sisters ever got to be. She loved Julia with all her heart but that familiar, determined light glowing in her eyes right now would have to be dampened.
    â€˜I don’t think so, hon,’ she said gently.
    â€˜I’m going to be at home with the twins.’ Julia was undeterred by the soft warning in Anne’s tone. ‘I’m happy to be giving up work to be a full-time mum. Couldn’t be happier. I’ll be at home for years and years and what could be better than having cousins around for our two?’
    â€˜A kind of blended family…’ Mac was absorbing her idea. ‘You know, it might work. Jules is an aunty so it wouldn’t be like having nannies that didn’t love your kids as much as you do. She’s going to be the best mum in the world, I can guarantee that.’
    Mac was smiling. Anne could see the way his gaze was drawn irresistibly to Julia’s. The way it held.
    She knew that look. That kind of bond you could only get with the love of your life.
    The kind of bond she and David had had. Way back. Before there had been any question of just how disparate they saw their future paths in