The Midwife's Special Delivery

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘Why don’t you go and wait in the lounge room? We’ll let ourselves out.’

  Ally did as she was told, walking on legs that felt like jelly through to the lounge and waiting as Rory helped the vet out to his Jeep. She managed a wan smile when he came back in.

  ‘OK?’ Rory asked, blowing out a long breath, his hands two fists by his sides, and Ally was touched to see how much this had affected him, too.

  ‘Better than I thought I’d be.’

  His pager went off in his pocket and Ally stood quietly as he picked up the phone and checked his message.

  ‘I’d better get back,’ he said, not worrying her with whatever the hospital wanted, knowing she didn’t need it now. ‘Are you sure you’ll be all right?’

  ‘I’ll be fine.’ Ally nodded. ‘Thank you for coming home—that was nice of you.’

  ‘No problem.’ He stood across the room and for the first time Ally sensed his awkwardness. His voice was slightly wooden when he spoke. ‘Do you want me to take her basket and bowl and things?’

  ‘I’ll do that,’ Ally answered, her voice equally false.

  ‘I’d better go, then.’

  ‘Sure.’

  He turned to leave, but midway changed his mind and crossed the room to where she stood. As he held out his arms she leaned into him. She didn’t have to be brave and sensible for that precious moment as he held her shaky, pyjama-clad body. It felt so nice being in his arms, resting in his strong embrace. Closing her eyes, she inhaled his scent, allowed him to comfort her for just a little while, wishing that she could stay there for ever, lean on Rory and let him in close.

  ‘I’ve got to go.’ His voice was thick with emotion, his arms contradicting his words because still he was holding her, making no move to let her go. His mouth rested on the top of her head and he spoke into her hair. The comforting embrace wasn’t quite so comforting now, a tiny shift moving it to pleasantly disturbing, his grip tighter as he held her, his hand moving slowly down her hair. It was almost indefinable what was taking place, but it was palpable, the friendship she had insisted on evaporating as he held her for the first time in three long years. Time melted away and Ally was back where she had once thought she would always be, and it would have been the easiest thing to lift her head. Ally knew that if she did so he’d be waiting for her, that his lips would find hers, and she wanted so badly to comfort herself with his kiss, wanted so badly to take this moment and stretch it further, but in a moment of clarity she knew it would be foolish, knew she’d be letting emotion get the better of her. In a regretful jolt of self-preservation she wriggled out of his embrace, forced a small smile and looked into his eyes, trying to pretend that nothing had just happened.

  ‘See you, Rory.’ She sounded as if she had a cold, her voice thick from a night spent crying. ‘Thanks again for being here.’

  ‘I’ll see you tonight,’ Rory said, clearing his throat. He was also back in housemate mode, playing the game too, his voice normal now, going through the motions and heading out of the door.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘HI, ALLY.’ Hearing the door slam. Ally took a deep breath as Rory made his way down the hall and managed a smile as he walked into the lounge room with a delicious-smelling take-away in a brown paper bag. ‘I didn’t think that you’d feel much like cooking…’ His voice sort of faded out as he noticed that Ally wasn’t alone, and nodded a greeting to the two women sitting like bookends either side of Ally on the sofa. ‘Oh, hi. Sorry, I didn’t realise that you had company. Becky, isn’t it?’ He smiled at Ally’s friend, blonde and bronzed from a fortnight in the Queensland sun and a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of highlights at the hairdresser’s.

  ‘Hi, Rory.’ Becky grinned. ‘Long time no see!’

  ‘Yeah, it’s been way too long…’ His eyes creased in concentration as he tried to place the other face. ‘You’re not Donna, are you?’

  ‘I certainly am!’

  ‘My goodness!’ Rory smiled in amazement. ‘Look at you—or should I say look at what’s left of you. You’ve lost so much weight!’

  ‘Thirty kilos,’ Donna said proudly, then rolled her eyes. ‘It was sheer bloody hell.’

  ‘Well, you look fantastic. It’s good to see you both.’ He looked at Ally and she squirmed under his scrutiny—suddenly acutely aware of her unbrushed hair and swollen red face and horribly embarrassed to still be dressed in her pyjamas. But between Sheba being put down and frantic phone calls to her two best friends, it hadn’t even entered her head to shower and get dressed.

  ‘How are you bearing up?’

  ‘I’m good. We’re just about to watch a DVD.’ Ally answered, watching as his gaze moved to the two bottles of wine opened on the coffee-table. ‘That wasn’t all me!’

  ‘I don’t care if it was,’ Rory said. ‘I was just thinking I could murder one.’

  ‘Here,’ Donna offered, pouring him a very generous glass and shooting Ally a frantic look. ‘What food did you bring? It smells wonderful.’

  ‘Just noodles,’ Rory answered, ‘But there should be enough for four of us.’ He held up the take-away. ‘Or I could always go and pick up some more.’

  ‘Sounds lovely…’ Donna winced as Ally kicked her on the ankle.

  ‘Oh, sorry, Rory.’Ally delivered the apologetic shrug she’d been rehearsing for the last half-hour or so. ‘I didn’t realise you’d be bringing back food. We’ve already eaten.’

  ‘No problem,’ Rory said. ‘I’ll go and get changed and then I’ll have this in the kitchen and leave you to your film.’ He raised an eyebrow as he picked up the DVD cover. ‘That’s not going to cheer you up, you know—you always bawl your eyes out at this one.’

  ‘I don’t want to be cheered up,’ Ally said. ‘You’re welcome to watch it with us.’

  ‘We can paint your toenails for you,’ Donna offered, holding up her makeup bag. With a smile Rory shook his head just as Ally had known he would. Rory would never invade what was clearly a girls’ night in.

  ‘No, thanks, ladies, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll bring in some tissues for you all later!’

  ‘There’s none left.’ Ally held up the loo roll she was holding and forced a smile as Rory closed the door behind him.

  ‘That was so mean,’ Donna wailed, once the door was safely shut and the volume on the television was turned up loud.

  ‘It was what we planned,’ Becky snapped, ‘until you nearly went and blew it. The reason we’re here is so that Ally can avoid being with him, and one sniff of noodles and you’re asking him to join us!’

  ‘It wasn’t the noodles,’ Donna said huffily. ‘I’d forgotten how lovely he was, and it just seems so unfair to leave him sitting alone in the kitchen…’

  Ally listened to her two friends bickering, but her mind was on Rory, wondering if she had been a bit callous. After all he’d been so kind to her today. But that was the nature of sharing a house, Ally reminded herself. You made yourself scarce when your housemate had friends over, and she was allowed to have friends over, for goodness’ sake. Surely he didn’t think she’d spent the last three years sitting with Sheba and pining for him each night!

  Almost as soon as Rory had left after Sheba had died, Ally had been trying to get hold of Donna and Becky, praying that she’d got their flight times right and that they’d be home soon. She’d begged them to come over as soon as they picked up the phone—a jumbled, frantic call, where she’d somehow told them about Sheba and Rory coming back, and that he’d given her a cuddle in the hall and that what had started as cuddle had suddenly changed even though nothing had happened. And, as friends so easily did, they had zipped over in record time and planted themselves on her sofa. Reinforcements had arrived just when needed, and together they’d planned Ally’s defence if Rory decided to attack!

  ‘Anyway,’ Donna said, ‘why would it be so terrible if you two did get it together?’

  ‘Do you remember the state she was in last time?’ Becky answered for Ally.

  �
��I wasn’t that bad,’ Ally bristled, but Becky gave her a wide-eyed look that said she clearly thought otherwise.

  ‘I was more upset at how he’d used me than the fact he’d gone to the States!’

  She looked to Donna for support but Donna’s expression was equally disbelieving. ‘Maybe he’s changed,’ she suggested hopefully. ‘After all, you said that he hasn’t been out with anyone since he’s been back.’

  ‘It’s only Wednesday,’ Becky pointed out with a dry smile. ‘Look, if he has changed and if he really does like Ally, then a couple of weeks aren’t going to make a difference, are they?’ Ally shook her head glumly. ‘So all you have to do is avoid being alone with him for a couple of weeks.’

  ‘We live together,’ Ally pointed out.

  ‘Well, stop cuddling up to him in the lounge like you did this morning,’ Becky said, a touch too harshly. ‘All you have to do is avoid physical contact—if you don’t touch him, you can’t sleep with him! It’s like being an alcoholic—if you don’t have one drink, you can’t have ten.’

  ‘So I’m addicted to Rory Donovan, am I?’ Ally muttered. ‘Hell, Becky, it’s not as if we walk around the place holding hands. I don’t think there actually is any physical contact—well, apart from this afternoon.’

  ‘Just think about it,’ Becky insisted. ‘If you’re in the lounge, make sure you sit on one of the chairs, he’s hardly able to perch on one of the edges—that type of thing. It’ll work, you’ll see!’

  ‘Thanks for the advice,’Ally muttered, but she’d lost her audience now. Becky and Donna had turned their attention to the film, and even though it was as sad as she remembered, even though it had been an emotionally draining day, for some reason Ally couldn’t even squeeze out a tear. She just stared dry-eyed at the screen and peeled off pieces of loo paper as her two friends sobbed beside her. She even managed a tiny eye roll as Rory waved the tearful pair off from the kitchen when the film was over and they said goodnight.

  ‘Did you enjoy the movie?’ Rory asked. He was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt now, eating cereal straight out of the box and reading the newspaper—nothing like the suited sophisticated guy who had appeared at the door a couple of hours before, but twice as gorgeous somehow. ‘Well, as much as one can enjoy that type of thing!’

  ‘I had a nice evening.’ Ally gave a tired smile and, mindful of her friends’ advice, smothered a fake yawn. ‘But I’m tired now. I think I might go to bed.’

  ‘I just ran you a bath.’ Rory grinned at her rather startled expression. ‘I thought you could use it to relax. Isn’t that what you’re always telling your mums to be—that a nice deep bath helps you to unwind?’

  ‘I guess.’ Ally blinked—

  ‘And I figured it might be time to get out of those pyjamas.’

  ‘I was intending to have a shower,’ Ally said, padding along the hallway to the bathroom, forgetting to even say thank you because this wasn’t what she’d intended at all. Peeling off her pyjamas, Ally sank into the deep warm bath—he’d even added a squirt of shampoo to give her bubbles. But far from relaxing her, Ally felt more tense than she had all evening! A quick goodnight was what she’d been planning, followed by a long shower in her en suite and no reason to see Rory at all. But this way she’d have to go back through the kitchen. A wave of horror washed over her as she realised she hadn’t bought a change of clothes, that she’d have to wander through the house wrapped in a towel.

  As if he’d even notice, Ally consoled herself. Becky had no idea what she was talking about. Anyway, if she stayed in long enough, surely he’d go to bed. But an hour later, shrivelled like a prune and freezing in the tepid water, Ally had to admit defeat. Wrapping a massive towel around her shivering body, she tentatively made her way through the kitchen where Rory was still sitting immersed in the newspaper. She walked in a wide circle around the kitchen table as if he had leprosy, and almost jumped out of her skin when he spoke to her.

  ‘Better?’ Rory looked up from the newspaper and, pulling the towel tighter around her, Ally gave a nod. ‘Do you want a warm drink?’ He pulled out the chair next to him and he might just as well have pulled out a knife as Ally jumped backwards, clutching the towel around her body. ‘Hey! Relax, Ally, you’re really tense!’

  ‘I’m fine, Rory. I’m not an invalid—I don’t need you to baby me.’

  ‘I know.’ He gave her a worried smile. ‘I just wanted to make sure you were OK. Well, if you don’t want a drink or a chat, then I guess I’ll head off to bed. ’Night, then.’

  ‘’Night, Rory,’Ally said. ‘Thanks for everything today.’

  ‘No problem.’

  Needlessly she stood back as he passed, kept her brittle smile in place as he headed down the hall towards his room. Proud of herself, Ally let out the breath she’d inadvertently been holding and went to go to bed herself.

  ‘’Night, Sheba.’ She said it without thinking and turned to where Sheba’s basket should have been. Seeing the empty space, missing the sound of Sheba’s tail thumping against the wicker, every last piece of bravado crumpled. She broke into noisy sobs and Rory did a prompt about-turn, his face resigned as he found her in hysterics in the kitchen. Becky would have gone mad if she’d seen her, wrapped only in a towel in the kitchen, sobbing into his T-shirt as Rory moved her away from the offending empty space where Sheba had slept.

  ‘Maybe a bottle of wine and a tragic movie wasn’t the best idea,’ he said, gently teasing her as he frogmarched her down the hall to her bedroom.

  ‘I only had two glasses,’Ally gulped, sitting lamely on the edge of the bed as Rory pulled out one of her oversize T-shirts and turned his back as Ally obediently put it on.

  ‘Bed,’ Rory said, pulling back the duvet and ordering her inside. Ally attempted elegant as she climbed into bed, but it was hard, wearing a T-shirt with no knickers and a six-foot-seven mountain of testosterone watching your every move. Pulling the duvet up to her neck, Ally couldn’t even bring herself to look at him as Rory attempted a gentle scold. ‘You’ve done enough crying for today, and you’re on an early shift tomorrow, so you’re not to lie there crying all night. I want you to close your eyes and go to sleep.’

  ‘I’ll try,’ Ally said, dutifully closing her eyes and biting hard on her bottom lip as Rory flicked off the light. She wished he’d just go, but somehow she also wanted him to stay. Maybe he read her mind because, instead of leaving her, she felt the indentation of the bed as he sat down on the edge. Her hand curled into a tight, unyielding ball as he wrapped his much larger one around hers, massaging her fingers slowly until finally she relaxed a bit. Her fingers uncurled and laced into his and she let him comfort her. But only as a friend would, Ally assured herself, trying to pretend that it was Donna or even Becky helping her through this horrible first night without Sheba.

  ‘I’ll let you sleep.’ As Ally pulled her hand away, she felt the mattress lift as Rory stood, missing the quiet warmth of him before he’d even left the room.

  ‘Don’t go.’ The words were out before she had time to mentally process them, a completely instinctive reflex action, and she shuddered at her own boldness, questioned the wisdom of asking him to stay even as he sat down again on the bed beside her.

  ‘Do you want me to lie with you?’ Rory offered. ‘Just on top of the bed?’

  It was the sort of thing that Becky or Donna would have done, given that Sheba had just died, but Ally couldn’t fool herself that it was Becky or Donna sitting on the bed next to her and she certainly couldn’t if he lay down beside her.

  ‘No.’ She shook her head on the pillow, silent tears squeezing out of her closed eyes and rolling into her hair as she fought with a hundred and one conflicting emotions.

  ‘I can’t just sit here,’ Rory said ages later, when it was clear that she wasn’t going to sleep. ‘I’ve got to be up early tomorrow, Ally. I can either go to bed or lie down here—it’s up to you.’

  ‘If you lie down,’ Ally sniffed, ‘then we’ll end up sleeping toge
ther and you’ll walk out in the morning.’

  She could feel him smiling in the darkness at her honesty, and felt his hand squeeze tighter around hers as he struggled to respond to her very direct logic.

  ‘We’ll sleep together,’ Rory said in his deep low voice, ‘but not in that way, and the only place I’m going in the morning is work.’

  And that sounded enough of a guarantee, sounded pretty safe, and she wriggled over an inch as he lay down on the bed beside her, lifted her head a touch as he slipped a strong arm underneath her and pulled her closer towards him.

  ‘You’ve had a rotten day,’ Rory murmured into the darkness, ‘but it’s over now. Try thinking of something nice.’

  Which wasn’t hard! Lying beside him, feeling the steady sound of his breathing, Ally felt for the first time in ages that she was where she belonged. She could feel the dusting sensation of the little hairs on his arm against her neck, the heavy masculine scent of him, and it was easy, way too easy to curl into him, to rest her head on his chest and feel the slow beat of his heart. Her arm moved across his flat stomach, the darkness making her bold. The sensual shift that had taken place earlier in the living room had never really gone away, but it was creeping back into her awareness. She knew he felt it, too, could hear the slight quickening of his breath, the tension flooding the very body Ally was relaxing into.

  ‘Maybe I should go and let you rest.’ His words were austere and formal, his hand wrapped around her wrist and firmly moved it away from where it rested. Ally resisted his movement, tensed in his arms as he gently tried to move her away.

  ‘Ally, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. I don’t think I can just lie here…’

  ‘Then don’t,’ Ally said, but there was a provocative undertone to her voice that made it clear that she wasn’t asking him to leave, but asking him to stay, and as she lay there beside him she felt the tension of denial seeping out of him. He accepted her touch more naturally now as she eased her body back into his. The hand that had lain rigid beside her was stroking her hair now. They were just lying in each other’s arms and enjoying the peace of being together, of acknowledging the attraction Ally had been furiously denying. His caress was gentle but intimate, and maybe it was the most stupid decision of her life, maybe she’d live to regret it, but if the last few days had taught Ally one thing, it had shown her that it was impossible for her to just be friends with Rory, impossible to just have a little piece of him instead of all. And if they couldn’t work it out as lovers, they couldn’t work it out as friends either. Ally knew that living in the same house, working alongside him each day and holding her feelings deep inside had turned out to be an impossible task—and if losing all of him was the price she’d have to pay somewhere down the line for her honesty, if laying herself open to possible hurt was the risk, then Ally was prepared to accept it. But Rory needed to be sure. Propping himself up on his elbow and staring down at her, tracing her cheekbones with his finger, staring into her eyes with the intimate gaze of a lover, he said, ‘Ally, I don’t want you to regret anything tomorrow…’