Bound by Their Babies

by Caroline Anderson

  He snatched the shirt out of her nerveless fingers and thrust his arms into the sleeves. ‘You’re a saint! Have I told you how much I love you?’ he asked, hugging her briefly against that broad and very solid chest. He smelt of soap and freshly laundered shirt and raw, animal male, and her heart went into overdrive.

  ‘Don’t mention it. The bill’s in the post,’ she said drily, her pulse slamming in her throat as she pushed him away with a strangled laugh.

  When had she fallen in love with him?

  Because she had, she realised in shock. Hook, line and sinker, and she had no idea what to do about it, so she did the safest thing.

  She turned her back on him and picked up the next shirt before Jake could see what she was sure must be written in her eyes...

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  COFFEE WITH DAISY and the others was friendly, slightly chaotic and full of laughter.

  And, when they realised she and Jake were not only job-sharing but house-sharing, a great deal of thinly veiled curiosity.

  They were in the garden of the lovely clifftop home of Annie Shackleton and her paediatrician husband, Ed and their two sets of twins. Em had met him when Zach was born, and also again in the maternity unit over the neonates, and she could see him instantly in the boys. Kate Ryder was there, too, with her little daughter Isadora. Her husband Sam was an ED consultant, as was Connie Slater’s husband James, and their two were milling about in the throng of little people.

  It was Annie who made the first comment when Emily explained their domestic situation.

  ‘Gosh, that’s brave,’ she said, and Emily shook her head.

  ‘No, not at all,’ she lied. ‘We’ve known each other for so long we’re like brother and sister, and it’s working really well.’

  ‘But don’t you miss having your own home?’

  That was Kate. Emily had met her husband Sam only yesterday in the ED, and she was beginning to realise what a closely knit community she’d joined.

  No secrets there, then. She gave a faint smile.

  ‘Of course I do, but it’s where my husband died, so in some ways it’s nice to be able to leave that behind and move on.’

  Kate coloured slightly. ‘Oh, Emily, I’m so sorry, I had no idea. That was really thoughtless of me.’

  ‘No, it wasn’t. You weren’t to know—and you’re right, Kate, it was tough at first, but I’ve been looking after Matilda for weeks now, so I’ve had time to get used to it, and I’ve let the house now, anyway, so it’s irrelevant.’

  ‘You’re so brave,’ Annie said, coming in again. ‘It must have taken so much courage to do what you’ve done and go into that job share. It’s such a massive long-term commitment.’

  ‘It is, but I was looking for a job share anyway, and sharing the childcare and the job with a very old friend makes it so much easier. At least I know I can trust him absolutely.’

  ‘That makes sense to me,’ Connie said. ‘I married my best friend, who was also my first husband’s best friend, and it was a bit awkward, at first. Neither of us wanted to rock the boat and it took us a while to work it out, but actually it was easier in the end just because we knew each other so well.’

  Which struck a chord with Emily. If only they could get to that point...

  ‘It would probably be easier for you if Jake wasn’t quite so hot, though,’ Kate said, chipping in again with a grin, and Emily hoped her cheeks didn’t burn as much as she felt they had.

  ‘Honestly, he’s just a friend,’ she lied, and she wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince, them or herself, but they were all teasing Kate now about Sam and asking how she’d even noticed another man when she was married to the hospital hottie, and thankfully it drew the attention away from Emily.

  ‘Anybody want more coffee?’ Annie said, getting to her feet and bringing the conversation to a close, and to her relief they moved on to other topics and their attention was diverted away from Emily and Jake and the intricacies of their relationship.

  * * *

  ‘Ready?’

  Emily nodded, buzzing with anticipation. ‘I can’t wait. I’ve wanted to see this for so long.’

  They were dressed in scrubs, gloved and gowned and ready to go, and their patient, Lucy McGovern, was lying on the theatre bed as the anaesthetist checked the epidural, her husband beside her holding her hand.

  ‘OK, we’re good to go,’ the anaesthetist said, and Jake shot Emily a grin and went over to them.

  ‘Right, let’s put you all out of your suspense, shall we? Are you both ready for this?’

  ‘Definitely. I can’t wait,’ Lucy said.

  ‘Sure? You can change your mind, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s only when we’re ready to drop the drape—’

  ‘I don’t need a drape,’ she said. ‘I’m a vet, James is a farmer—we’re not squeamish and we both know what’s going to happen. We’re just really excited and can’t wait to meet the baby.’

  ‘OK, well let’s do this, then. Can we have masks, please?’

  Someone put them on, and Jake turned to Emily. ‘Want to start?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. I’ll just watch, if that’s OK with you? Just in case there’s anything different.’

  ‘There’s nothing different, except you need to deliver the head first instead of whatever the presenting part is. Go on, you lead, I’ll talk you through it.’

  She looked at Lucy. ‘Are you OK with that?’

  ‘Of course, if Mr Stratton is?’

  ‘I’m quite happy, and you should be, too. She’s a neater surgeon than I am.’

  Emily wasn’t at all convinced that that was true, but she appreciated the vote of confidence as she swabbed the skin and made her careful incision under the watchful gaze of Lucy’s husband.

  ‘That’s great. OK, now, you need to find the head, which can be a bit tricky. Can you feel it?’

  She worked her hand around the baby’s side, sliding her fingers underneath the head. ‘Got it.’

  ‘OK, now gently coax it round—that’s lovely. Then wriggle it out a bit and keep supporting the head—OK, Lucy, here we go. Can someone prop the bed up, please?’

  ‘Oh, can I touch it?’ Lucy said, lifting her head to get a better view.

  ‘Not just yet,’ Jake told her. ‘Wait till it’s nearly out, so you don’t contaminate the site. It won’t be many seconds.’

  The baby squirmed and wriggled, its little face screwed up as Emily found first one arm and then the other, and it coughed and mewed and then let out a wail.

  ‘Oh, hello, baby,’ Lucy murmured, her voice choked with emotion. Emily could feel the baby’s head in her hands turn towards that familiar voice, tiny arms flailing.

  ‘OK, this is when mum gets to do what comes naturally,’ Jake said, his eyes creasing in a smile. ‘Lucy, can you give a little push, please, to help the baby out? That’s great. Em, lift the baby up towards Lucy—and there we go.’

  ‘Oh—oh, James, look! It’s a boy! Oh, baby, come here—!’

  She reached out her hands and Emily lifted the baby into them and laid him on the bare skin of Lucy’s chest.

  ‘Congratulations,’ she said, her eyes welling a little. ‘He’s beautiful. Oh, Jake, that was amazing!’

  ‘Wasn’t it? I love it. And you see we don’t clamp the cord until it’s finished pulsating—and did you notice the fluid draining from the baby’s mouth as you delivered the head? So we don’t need to whisk the baby away to suction it and get the respiration going, there’s no crying, just a little wail and then look at them. So much better.’

  She turned her head and looked at Lucy, James and the beautifully pink baby, warmly snuggled on her chest under a heated towel and a layer of bubble wrap, and she realised the baby’s eyes were fixed intently on his mother’s face.

  She lost focus then, the moving litt
le tableau blurring, and she sniffed and blinked hard and turned back to Jake.

  ‘So what happens now?’

  ‘Now we carry on. The cord’s stopped pulsating, the midwife’s clamping it, James will probably cut it, and we do exactly what we would normally do, only with a touch of the warm fuzzies,’ he added, his eyes crinkling over his mask.

  She laughed at that, shook her head at him and turned her attention back to finishing the job.

  * * *

  The ‘warm fuzzies’, as he’d put it, stayed with her for the rest of the day, and they talked about it again that evening after the children were in bed.

  They were sitting in the garden on the bench under the climbing rose that cascaded over the fence, and the heady scent was intoxicating in the warmth of the summer’s evening.

  ‘I can’t believe I’ve finally seen a skin-to-skin section. Thank you so much for letting me lead,’ she told him for the hundredth time, and he just laughed and hugged her.

  ‘My pleasure. Anything that helps you do your half of the job in the same way as I would makes me happy.’

  ‘What, because you don’t trust me if I don’t do it the same way?’ she said, giving him a stern look, and he laughed again.

  ‘Of course I trust you, but at the moment we’ve got patients coming through who I’ve been caring for all along the line, and we need to make sure that their expectations are met. That’s why liaising every day is so important. So what’s on the agenda for you tomorrow? Anything you’re worried about?’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t think there’s anything that we haven’t discussed, but tomorrow evening we need to sit down and work out what we want to say to the solicitor on Friday afternoon. I’ve asked the nursery if they can have them until six, and they’ve agreed, so we just need to sort ourselves out. How are you getting away early?’

  ‘Nick’s covering me till six and then he’ll hand over to my registrar. He’s on till midnight and then I’m on call for the weekend. Right, I can’t sit here all night, I’ve got stuff to do.’

  ‘Anything I can help with?’ she offered as they went back inside, but he shook his head.

  ‘No, you’re fine. Don’t wait up for me, you’ve got a busy day tomorrow. I’ll see you in the morning.’

  ‘OK. Sleep well.’ She put her arms round him and hugged him, and he hugged her back, holding her silently for a long and speaking moment, then he let her go and stepped back out of reach.

  ‘Sleep well, my love,’ he murmured, his lips brushing hers, and then he went into his study and closed the door with a quiet but definite click.

  * * *

  The next two days flew by, and before they knew it they were sitting in front of the solicitor explaining their situation.

  Only maybe not clearly enough, because after they’d finished talking, he frowned and said, ‘You know, a great deal of this would be taken care of if you were married instead of just cohabiting. Marriage provides a lot of legal protection and makes the issues of paternal responsibility and inheritance a lot more straightforward.’

  They stared at him in stunned silence for a second, then they spoke simultaneously.

  ‘We’re not—’

  They stopped and looked at each other, and Jake shook his head and turned back to the solicitor.

  ‘We’re not cohabiting. We’re house-sharing, job-sharing, childcare-sharing. We’re just friends. Marriage isn’t on the agenda in any way, we just want to secure the children’s futures.’

  The solicitor looked confused. ‘Ah. Sorry, I must have misunderstood. In that case, l think I’ll have to do a little research and see what I can come up with to give the children the best protection, because these are very unusual circumstances and I haven’t come across them before. You also need to consider your wills, if you haven’t done anything about them since you had the children.’

  ‘Um—I haven’t changed mine since my husband died and I had the baby, so it’s now all totally irrelevant,’ Emily said, her mind still stalled on the word ‘marriage’.

  ‘Mine, too,’ Jake added. ‘There’ve been a lot of changes for all of us, and we’re only just settling into this but we thought some advice would be a good idea. It seems it’s not before time.’

  ‘No, indeed,’ the solicitor agreed. ‘Look, leave it with me for now, I’ll see what I can find out and I’ll get back to you, but it’s a pity that marriage isn’t an option.’

  ‘It’s not,’ Jake said firmly, and got to his feet. ‘Thank you for your help. We’ll wait to hear from you.’

  They walked out of the building and headed back towards his car in silence, but that didn’t mean her thoughts weren’t tumbling, and she would have given the world to know what was going on inside Jake’s head.

  * * *

  Marriage?

  To Emily?

  His heart was pounding, his emotions so tangled he didn’t know what to think, but there was no way Emily would agree to marry him. She’d only lost Pete eighteen months ago, for heaven’s sake! No way was she ready for another relationship—and neither was he. Not after the fiasco with Jo.

  No. It was a crazy, ridiculous idea, and he needed to put it out of his head. Right now.

  No matter how tempting it sounded...

  * * *

  He didn’t mention it again, apart from a fleeting, ‘Well, that was awkward,’ as they got into the car.

  ‘We’ll have to see what he comes up with,’ she said, and got a monosyllabic response for her pains, so she gave up.

  He was clearly not even going to consider it, and she couldn’t believe she was, either. She’d just come out of the fog of emotions that had surrounded her for most of her marriage to Pete, and the last thing she needed was to do anything hasty.

  Not that twenty years of friendship could be described as ‘hasty’ under any circumstances, but they had that, a solid, long-lasting friendship that had sustained both of them through some incredibly difficult times. There was no way she was going to do anything to compromise that. Far too much was riding on it, and it would be foolish—so foolish—to jeopardise it.

  But there had been that kiss, and it wasn’t an isolated incident. Was it such a crazy idea? She didn’t know, but the idea wouldn’t leave her alone.

  * * *

  Jake was on call from midnight, and his registrar rang at eleven-thirty as he was dozing on the sofa.

  ‘I’ve just admitted someone who needs urgent surgery, but it’s not going to be quick. Are you in a position to come and take over now?’

  ‘Sure. I’m on my way,’ he said, stifling a sigh. He went up and tapped on Emily’s door and opened it a crack, and the landing light slanted across the room and fell on the photo of Pete. He shifted his eyes to Emily, who’d propped herself up on one elbow giving him a perfect view of her cleavage.

  Dammit, her room was a minefield. He hauled his eyes up to her face.

  ‘I’ve got to go. Don’t expect me back soon,’ he murmured.

  ‘OK. See you later,’ she whispered back, and Pete’s eyes challenged him across the room, as if he could read Jake’s mind.

  He shut the door, ran downstairs and let himself out. Hopefully it would be a nice, busy weekend and he wouldn’t have time to dwell on what was never, ever going to happen.

  * * *

  Be careful what you wish for.

  He heard the landing floor creak and his bedroom door open.

  ‘Can I come in?’

  ‘Yeah, sure.’ He propped himself up and scrubbed the sleep from his eyes, and she came and perched on the edge of the bed. ‘What’s up?’ he asked.

  ‘Nothing, but you’ve been so busy all weekend we haven’t had time to catch up, so I don’t know what’s happened and what’s going on in the wards. Do you need to fill me in before I leave? Anyone I should be worried about?’

 
He shook his head to clear it as much as anything. Was it really Monday already? ‘No, not really, I don’t think. A couple of gynae emergencies, they’re on the ward and one of them might need discharging but review them and call me. Otherwise all obstetrics and they’re done and dusted.’

  He yawned hugely and she tutted. ‘What time did you get in?’

  ‘Oh, I have no idea. Three something? What time is it now?’

  ‘Six-thirty. I’ve fed Zach and he’s gone down again, no sound from Tilly. You might even get a lie-in.’

  He gave a hollow laugh and fell back against the pillows.

  ‘In my dreams.’ He yawned again, and felt the mattress shift as she stood up.

  ‘Hope you get a lie-in. I’ll see you later.’

  He felt the air shift, then the brush of her lips against his cheek.

  ‘You need a shave,’ she murmured, a thread of laughter in her voice.

  He opened his eyes and stared up into hers, and they looked soft and luminous, her smile tender. It would have been so easy to reach for her, to pull her down into his arms and kiss her—

  ‘Call me if you need me’ he said, his voice suddenly gruff. ‘I’ve got my phone on me.’

  ‘OK.’

  The door closed and he rolled to his side, hoping for a few more minutes’ sleep, but there was a faint scent lingering in the air, delicate and tantalising, and although he slept again, he woke from a dream that was confused, explicit and definitely X-rated.

  He rolled out of bed, headed for the shower and turned the thermostat firmly to cold.

  * * *

  Poor Jake.

  He’d been on the go all weekend, and he must be exhausted. She felt guilty for waking him, but she just hoped the children slept in long enough to give him a few more minutes.

  At least it didn’t sound as if there was anything too critical for her to know about, and she was glad she’d left early. It gave her time to study the notes, talk to the night staff and do the ward rounds before the daytime routine started.