Their Baby Bargain

She was.

Luke stood on the veranda and he watched them come-this tiny family he’d just created. Wendy was still sodden, her skirt and blouse clinging so he could see every gorgeous curve of her body. She was singing a silly little song and she was giggling, hugging a sleepy Grace to her very wet breast, and holding Gabbie’s hand as she came, and Luke felt such a surge of emotion at the sight of them that he almost choked.

What on earth was happening to him? he demanded desperately of himself. He had to get out of here. Get a grip on himself. Now!

Getting out of here was easier than he thought. From the tradesmen’s point of view, it seemed, if the job was for Wendy then anything was possible.

So by mid-afternoon they had the electricity on, a fire was burning brightly in the stove-‘The crows won’t come back once we have it smoking,’ Wendy told a worried Gabbie-and hot water and a phone and a clean bedroom for Wendy were organised as well.

Plus one hire car. Sort of.

‘So there’s nothing stopping you leaving,’ Wendy told Luke, as the glazier departed with the last of his men. ‘The sooner you go the sooner we can make this legal.’ She eyed him doubtfully, sensing the confusion he was feeling. ‘You keeping Grace, I mean.’

‘Yes. I know what you mean.’

‘And if you don’t go now you won’t get to Bay Beach Menswear before closing,’ she told him. She checked him out with doubt. He’d rinsed his clothes but they’d never be respectable again. ‘Just show them the colour of your money as soon as you walk in the door or they might throw you out on the spot.’

‘Do I look that bad?’ He rubbed his unshaven chin, and she smiled, but still with that strange, keep-your- distance look on her face.

‘You look like the local wino,’ she told him frankly. Then she gazed across at his hire car and her keep-your- distance attitude cracked a little as she chuckled. The newly delivered car was a vivid orange sedan-or half of it was vivid orange. The rest had been stripped, treated for rust and then painted with a strange blueish-orange undercoat. There were dents all over it. Bay Beach Motors had been right out of motors and this was the only one available. ‘You match your car beautifully,’ she told him.

‘Gee, thanks.’

‘Off you go,’ she told him, and she gave him a gentle shove toward the door. ‘Your Aston Martin keys and registration papers are in the living room desk, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Then, I know you’ll be back,’ she said serenely. ‘Sooner or later. Have car-will return.’

But, as Luke drove out the gate in his strange and battered jalopy, it wasn’t his car he was figuring how soon he could return to.

In fact, his car was about number four on his list.

What followed was a period of peace for Wendy-but not for long.

‘Tell me all. Tell me right now!’

It was three days later, and Shanni, Wendy’s best friend from years back, had arrived at the farm in a state of near stupefaction. Cute, vivacious, and just returned from her extended honeymoon, Shanni was here to rescue her friend from whatever dire peril she’d put herself into, and it had taken all Wendy’s counselling skills to get her to stay still and be reassured.

‘There’s nothing to tell.’ Wendy smiled her very nicest, placating smile. ‘It’s just a job. You have much more exciting news. Tell me about your honeymoon. Was it good?’

‘The best. But-’

‘How are Nick and Harry?’

‘Great, but-’

‘And your new house? Is it ready for you to move into?’

‘Wendy Maher, stop changing the subject.’ Shanni glowered across the table. ‘I leave the place for two months and what happens? I come home and my best friend is nowhere to be found-she’s resigned no less!-and Erin says she’s taken off with the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen in her life. To live with him, in truth- if I have my facts right, which I can’t believe I have.’ She looked around her, eyes narrowing. ‘Where is he?’

‘I have him hidden under my bed.’ Wendy chuckled. ‘For use after the kids go to sleep.’ Then she relented. ‘No, Shanni, my boss is not here. Luke rang last night. He’s in London seeing Grace’s mother.’

‘In London!’ Shanni fixed her with a don’t-mess-with-me look. ‘Yeah, right. Your boss is in London. And he’s left you here all alone. Wendy, there’s an Aston Martin in the backyard! ’

‘He could hardly leave me on the farm without a car,’ Wendy explained, grinning. ‘It’s my grocery wagon.’

Shanni gaped. ‘A grocery wagon. A brand new Aston Martin sports car? He’s never gone away and left you with it to use for groceries?’

‘Of course,’ she said placidly, still smiling. ‘Don’t all the best nannies do their grocery shopping in brand new Aston Martins?’

There was silence while Shanni took this on board. Slowly her lips compressed, and her eyes turned thoughtful. ‘Nick had a sports car,’ she said finally, having thought things through. ‘Until he met me and Harry.’

‘Well, Luke still owns a sports car.’ Wendy shrugged and rose to make her friend coffee. ‘Don’t make a big deal of it, Shanni. He’s just left it here as collateral.’

Shanni’s intelligent eyes narrowed. ‘Collateral. Collateral for what?’

‘For him, I guess. To ensure he comes back.’

‘You think otherwise he’d do a runner?’

‘I have no idea,’ Wendy told her. ‘I have no idea in the wide world what makes Luke Grey tick.’

But still her friend eyed her thoughtfully. Then she gazed around her. Three days and an army of hired help- courtesy of Luke’s credit card and enthusiastic tradesmen-had worked wonders. The house was starting to look as it once had. It was gracious and welcoming and wonderful.

And the children…

Shanni had been Gabbie’s kindergarten teacher so she was one of the few people in the world Gabbie trusted. The little girl therefore decided this visit wasn’t important enough to interrupt her mud pie making on the veranda. Just through the window, still in sight of her beloved Wendy, Gabbie looked busy, up to her ears in mud, and as content as a little girl could possibly be.

And in the living room through the kitchen door, Grace was snoozing peacefully on a sheepskin rug, a baby at peace with her world.

All was right for these children, Shanni thought, and from where she sat the whole place looked like something out of Home Beautiful-only much, much cosier.

There was so much unexplained. It was all too much for Shanni. ‘Wendy, I’m going to bust if you don’t come clean,’ she declared. She rose, rounded the table, took her friend’s shoulders and spun her around to face her. ‘This place-this set-up-looks like a dream come true. There must be a catch. You tell me what’s going on or I swear, I swear, I’ll bust my stays.’

‘As if you ever wear stays!’

‘I might! We married women spread alarmingly,’ her friend muttered, glowering. And then she let herself get distracted. ‘Especially…especially when they’re pregnant.’

‘Shanni, you’re not pregnant!’

‘Just a little bit.’ Temporarily waylaid, Shanni grinned, her happiness transparent. ‘Plus we’ve got a new kitten called Darryl, and Nick thinks he knows where we can get a goat. So I’ve told you all my news. Everything. Now you tell me all, and I’m not leaving until you do. If you think I’ll leave my best friend in the power of some… some Aston Martin driver…’

‘I’m not in his power.’

‘Convince me.’

‘Of course I will.’