Their Baby Bargain

joy.

The child was met with joy in return. Gabbie was lifted, whirled around, and then carried back to the veranda- where Shanni drooped herself into a deckchair, sighed with relief and surveyed Luke with satisfaction.

‘Hi. I’m Shanni Daniels, local kindergarten teacher and friend of Wendy,’ she said placidly. She put a hand down to fend off Bruce’s soggy welcome. ‘Down, dog. Great puppy, Gabbie, but I’ve already had a bath today.’ She grinned at Luke. ‘And I’m assuming you’re Luke?’

Her smile was infectious. He smiled back. ‘I’m Luke.’

‘Great. Wonderful. Just don’t ask me to get up and shake hands and you’ll have a friend for life.’ She groaned theatrically. ‘Wow, this chair is good. Early pregnancy isn’t all it’s cut out to be. Don’t even think about offering me refreshments. Unless…’ Her eyes widened in hope. ‘Unless you have dill pickles on hand?’

Luke grinned down at her, and joined her in the neighbouring chair, as Gabbie and Bruce whooped off cubby- wards. ‘Sorry, ma’am,’ he told her, not without sympathy. ‘Wendy’s in town as we speak, doing the grocery shopping, but I can’t remember that we put dill pickles on the list.’

‘Then, you mustn’t be pregnant. Very wise. Oh, to be a man.’ She patted her still very flat stomach in contentment, giving the lie to her complaints, and then she directed her full attention on Luke. What she saw seemed to satisfy her. ‘Nice,’ she said.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Oh…nothing,’ she said airily. ‘Actually, I sort of knew Wendy was grocery shopping. I saw her in the supermarket car park and had a quick word with her. She wasn’t driving the Aston Martin, I see.’

‘We’ve bought her a wagon. She likes it better,’ Luke said shortly. His smile died. ‘So you knew Wendy was in town, then.’

‘But yet I came on out.’ Shanni’s smile widened and glinted with mischief. ‘I wanted to check you out while she wasn’t here,’ she confessed. ‘You see, Wendy wasn’t too keen on me visiting you.’

He blinked at that. What was Wendy playing at? Being the protective employee? ‘That was good of Wendy,’ he said cautiously. ‘But I don’t mind visitors.’

She chuckled. ‘No, it wasn’t good of Wendy at all. If I thought it was because she was protecting your privacy, or that she wanted to keep you all to herself, then I might have obliged and stayed away. But it was because she doesn’t want me to put in my oar.’

‘And do you put in your oar?’ He was fascinated.

‘All the time,’ she confessed. ‘I’m a McDonald-or I was until I met my Nick-and the McDonald girls are famous for oar-putting-in. Now, about Wendy…’

‘What about Wendy?’

She looked at him closely. ‘Why exactly are you staying here? Wendy said you never intended to.’

‘That was before…before…’

‘Before you fell in love with her?’

Luke’s eyes flew wide. This was some conversation. What a question! His face shuttered down in distaste, but Shanni held up her hands in entreaty.

‘No, don’t look like that and don’t tell me to butt out,’ she begged. ‘I’m no good at butting out, and I’m so fond of Wendy. It’s just… As I said, I met her in town and she told me you were still here and she wished you weren’t- and she said you’d never intended to stay and she’s so uncomfortable with your decision.’

Her keen eyes probed Luke’s, asking question after question, voiced and unvoiced. ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’ she said, and the smile was back in her voice. ‘You’re in love with her?’

How was he to answer a question like that? Luke sat back in his chair and stared at this amazing friend of Wendy’s. Shanni stared right back, determination meeting determination. And suddenly there was nothing else to say.

‘Yes,’ he said simply, and he knew it then for the absolute truth. ‘Of course I’m in love with her.’

‘Yes!’ She beamed, as if she’d expected no less. ‘Of course you are.’ She beamed some more. ‘Wendy’s wonderful. I can’t understand why the whole world’s not in love with her, but it’s taken until now-until someone like you-to expose her. Well, well. How very satisfactory.’

‘If you can tell me how it’s satisfactory when she won’t let me near-’

He got no further. ‘You know she’s been married?’ Shanni demanded, pressing right on to what was important. She was ignoring the anger on his face. This was a totally inappropriate conversation between strangers but she seemed totally unaware of boundaries.

He might as well reply. She was going to press on regardless.

‘I know that.’ It was all Luke could do not to grind his teeth at the thought of her previous marriage. ‘To Adam? I gather he was perfection plus.’

‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Shanni said cautiously.

‘But-’

‘But what?’ Shanni’s brow was wrinkling as if she was deciding what to say next.

‘It’s his perfection that’s the problem.’ Luke shook his head in despair. ‘She says she’s a one-man woman. Married for life. I don’t stand a chance against that.’

Shanni considered this seriously. ‘You don’t help by being rich and handsome,’ she said, thinking it through.

He blinked again. ‘Pardon?’

‘If Wendy could feel sorry for you, it might help.’

That was a bit much. ‘Oh, great,’ he said bitterly. ‘That’s very helpful. You’d like me to lose my fortune, get a limp or a scar or something, maybe forget a bit of personal hygiene! I’m not aiming for lame-duck sympathy here.’

It was enough. She chuckled, put her hands behind her head and surveyed him with care. ‘Well, no. Maybe not. But has she told you about Adam?’

‘Only that he was perfect.’

‘She can’t have told you that, because he wasn’t,’ she told him honestly. ‘Adam was rich and carefree and thoughtless. He and Wendy had only been married for six months when he tried to overtake a truck in blinding rain. There was an oncoming vehicle, but he thought his gorgeous fast car had enough power to get past. He was wrong. He killed himself, he killed a baby in the oncoming car and he put Wendy in hospital for six long months.’

There was nothing to smile about there. Luke stared at Shanni in horrified disbelief. Shanni looked calmly back at him, watching his reaction. What she saw seemed to satisfy her, because she gave a brisk nod and rose.

‘There. I knew she hadn’t told you everything. She doesn’t speak of it. The town knows that her husband died and she was badly hurt in the car crash, but they don’t know Adam was responsible for the little one’s death. She only told me once, and that was in a really bleak moment. It’s a nightmare she can’t shake off-that she feels somehow responsible herself. Because she didn’t stop him.’

‘Why are you telling me?’

‘Because it’s important,’ she told him. ‘And because I know my friend so well, I can tell that you’re important. Or you have the capacity to be important to her. You see, Wendy’s now suddenly different. There’s something about you that’s changed her. She’s…I don’t know…lit up somehow. But I know darn well she’ll never let you close if she thinks you’re like Adam.’

‘I’m not.’

‘No.’

There was just enough doubt in her voice to make his temper rise. He stood up as well and met her gaze head on, his eyes steely and cold. ‘Hell, if you think that… If she thinks that…’

‘If she thinks that then it’s up to you to change her mind.’

‘No.’ He closed his eyes, and when he opened them his face was bleak. ‘I can’t convince her of something as basic as that. She has to know herself. It’s true, I’ve fallen heavily for Wendy. She’s…she’s different. But I’m not going to be able to talk her into trusting me. She has to feel it. Like I feel it for her…’

Shanni looked at him for a long, long moment, and then she sighed. ‘You’re right of course,’ she said sadly. ‘You can’t talk or manipulate someone into trusting you. You just sort of have to do it. Like me and my Nick. But still…’ she brightened ‘…it won’t hurt that you know now what you’re up against.’

‘I guess.’