‘Married.’ The word took her breath away.
‘If you want to be,’ he said. ‘I want to marry you more than anything else in the world-but it’s your call.’
‘But… why?’
‘Because I love you,’ he said simply, and he did set her down then, moving so they were waist deep in water and he could take her hands and gaze down at her in the moonlight. ‘Pippa, this morning… If I’d lost you, I couldn’t bear it. I won’t ever ask you to risk your life again.’
‘Of course you will,’ she retorted, diverted. ‘We both will. It’s what we do. We rescue people.’
‘How about ourselves?’
‘You mean…’ She tried to think it through. She was feeling so happy she felt like she was floating, but she needed to make her fuzzy mind focus. ‘You rescue me and I rescue you right back?’
‘That’s the plan,’ he said, softly and surely in the moonlight. That’s the dream. ‘For as long as we both shall live.’
‘That sounds extraordinary,’ she whispered.
‘Is that a yes?’
She made herself pause. She made herself consider.
Once upon a time she’d agreed to marry Roger. That had taken her years to decide and she’d still made a mistake.
But Riley…
She looked up into his lovely anxious face and all the answers, all the years to come were written in his gaze.
He loved her. From this day forth…
Her Riley.
But… er…
A thought had occurred. Something important.
‘You’re a grandpa,’ she said, suddenly astringent. ‘If you’re a grandfather and I marry you… I will not be Granny.’
‘I’ve thought about that, too,’ he said, sounding suddenly smug. ‘Just now. When you called me Papa.’
‘You have?’
‘I’ll be Poppa,’ he said. ‘I like it. I know I’m young but the word has a certain cachet. And you’re Pippa. Poppa and Pippa. A matching pair. How about that for a plan?’
‘Oh, Riley.’
‘Is that a yes?’
‘I believe it is,’ she said.
‘I believe I love you-Pippa,’ he said.
‘And I love you-Poppa,’ she murmured, and he laughed and hugged her hard-and then she wasn’t able to say anything at all for a very long time.
And almost twelve months to the day, to Pippa and to Riley, one baby. Any minute now…
On the veranda of the house overlooking Whale Cove Pippa crouched on a settee and moaned. A lot.
She had the right.
Jason and Adam were in the back yard, firing up the barbecue. Organising fish. Since saving Mickey there always seemed to be fish arriving at this house. The fishing community was big and the locals remembered. ‘
But Riley wasn’t noticing fish now.
Lucy and Amy were taking turns to coach.
Jancey was in the background. A woman had to have a professional there.
Pippa’s fingers were clinging so hard to Riley’s that he might end up scarred.
But Riley wasn’t noticing his fingers either.
‘It’s coming,’ Amy said. Six months into nursing training, she was already an expert. ‘Pippa, you’re nearly there.’
‘We can see the head,’ Lucy breathed. ‘Hold her up, Dad, so she can see for herself. Pippa, one more push.’
‘You can do it,’ Jancey said.
Riley remembered the quote. He almost grinned. Jancey and Amy and Lucy-and at the centre his own wonderful Pippa. How had he ever thought…?
But then…
‘Push,’ Jancey ordered. ‘Biggest one yet. Keep going. Again. Go, girl. You rock. Lucy, Amy, hold Pippa so Riley can catch his baby.’
He couldn’t sit around thinking all day. He had work to do.
He had to disengage those fingers.
‘Push,’ he told his beloved. He kissed her hard and fast and then he put her into the care of Lucy and Amy. Her family. His family.
And he moved to where he needed to be.
The head… It was certainly coming. ‘Push.’
‘Don’t tell me what to do,’ Pippa yelled. ‘I’m pushing.’
‘Push harder.’
‘I’m… Oooooohhhhhh.’
And there she was, sliding into the outside world. Caught by her father. Held like she was the most precious creature in the world.
His daughter.
‘What…? What…?’ Amy and Lucy were supporting Pippa so she could to see her baby. Jancey stood back with a smile wide enough to split her face. With this family, what need for a midwife?
‘We have a daughter,’ Pippa murmured, awed. ‘Oh, Riley.’
‘I have a sister,’ Lucy sniffed, jubilant. ‘Oh, wait, that means William has an aunt. Our family’s getting bigger and bigger.’
‘As it should,’ Riley managed, so choked he could scarcely speak. ‘It’s perfect. She’s perfect.’
And he moved, carrying his brand-new daughter so that he could kiss his wife. His Pippa. His love.
And as Pippa cradled her newborn, as he gathered her into his arms, as he held her close, and as they felt this new little life between them, he accepted what he knew for sure.
‘We have the perfect family.’
‘It might get bigger,’ Pippa whispered, dazed.
He kissed her again and he smiled and looked up at the people around them.
‘A bigger family sounds great to me,’ he told her. ‘Just as long as you stay at its heart. My Pippa. My love. My wife.’
Marion Lennox
MARION LENNOX is a country girl, born on an Australian dairy farm. She moved on-mostly because the cows just weren’t interested in her stories! Married to a ‘very special doctor’, Marion writes Medical™ Romances, as well as Mills & Boon® Romances. (She used a different name for each category for a while-if you’re looking for her past Mills & Boon Romances, search for author Trisha David as well.) She’s now had 75 romance novels accepted for publication.
In her non-writing life Marion cares for kids, cats, dogs, chooks and goldfish. She travels, she fights her rampant garden (she’s losing) and her house dust (she’s lost). Having spun in circles for the first part of her life, she’s now stepped back from her ‘other’ career, which was teaching statistics at her local university. Finally she’s
