But she would have to tell Ryan. She was barely halfway through the job swap, and there was no way she could keep her pregnancy a secret. She’d be showing by the time the swap came to an end. It would be obvious to everyone.
How was he going to react to the news? He was a good man, a man with integrity, so she knew his first instinct would be to support her. But he’d said he didn’t want children. So would he walk away from her and be a father in name only, or would he give them a chance? Would he give himself a chance to be part of a family, something he hadn’t had for thirty years?
Numbly, she went downstairs. Truffle pushed her nose into Georgie’s hand, as if to comfort her.
‘He’s not going to be happy about this,’ Georgie said softly. ‘Not happy at all.’
Truffle moved closer.
‘How am I going to tell him?’
Truffle gave a soft wuff, which made Georgie smile but also made her sad. Because there wasn’t an answer. She didn’t have a clue how to tell him.
She thought about it as she made chicken and apple stew for dinner.
She thought about it a bit more as she baked some brownies, on the grounds that the scent of vanilla and chocolate helped to relax her.
But she still hadn’t come up with an answer by the time Ryan walked in.
‘Hi.’ Georgie took a deep breath. ‘I made stew.’
‘Thanks, but I’m not hungry.’
Meaning he’d had a rough day? Well, she was about to make it even rougher. ‘I think you should eat.’
He frowned. ‘Why?’
‘Because we need to talk.’
He looked at her. ‘You’re moving out?’
Very probably, after what she was going to tell him. She said nothing, but heated the stew through on the hob and put some rice in the microwave.
Ryan didn’t make it easy for her, either. He ate in complete silence. Well, he ate half of it, probably because he didn’t want to be rude, she thought.
He pushed his plate away. ‘So what did you want to talk about?’
‘There isn’t a nice way to say this,’ she said, ‘so I’ll tell you straight. But, first, I want you to know that I don’t expect anything from you.’
He frowned. ‘You’re not making much sense.’
Tell him.
‘The night of the ceilidh.’ She swallowed hard. ‘There were consequences.’
She watched the colour drain from his face as he absorbed her news. ‘But we used a condom.’
‘You’re a medic. You know as well as I do that the only absolutely certain method of contraception is abstinence. Yes, the chances making a baby when you use a condom are tiny, but they exist. And we made a baby.’
Ryan stared at Georgie, utterly shocked.
Had she just said...?
‘We made a baby?’ he echoed, knowing he sounded utterly stupid, but he couldn’t get his head around this. The words felt like some kind of white noise in his head, making no sense.
She inclined her head.
Pregnant. With his baby.
‘When did you find out?’
‘Today. After my shift. I’ve had a couple of hours to think about it. And to talk to Truffle.’
‘She’s a good listener.’
‘She’s not so great on the advice, though. Her answer to everything is “woof”.’
Ryan knew that Georgie was trying to lighten the mood, but he could see the tears glimmering in her eyes. One slid over the edge of her lashes and trickled down her cheek. Before she could scrub it away, he reached out and wiped it away gently with the pad of his thumb.
‘Say something,’ she said.
He didn’t know what to say. Her news had fried his brain. ‘What do you want to do?’ he asked.
‘I didn’t try to trap you into getting me pregnant—’ she began.
‘They were my condoms and it was my responsibility,’ he cut in, ‘so of course you didn’t get pregnant on purpose. If anything, it was my fault.’
She shook her head. ‘It takes two to make a baby.’
He was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he asked anyway. Just to be clear. ‘Do you want to keep it?’
She nodded. ‘As I said, I don’t expect anything from you. I know my parents will be supportive, my brother will be supportive and my niece will love the idea of having a cousin.’
Her parents. Her brother. Her niece. He worked it out. ‘So you’re going back to London and having the baby there?’
‘That,’ she said, ‘depends on you.’
‘How?’
‘What do you want?’
‘I...’ All the way along, he’d told her that he didn’t want children. He’d been starting to think that maybe he’d been wrong, particularly when he’d seen her with little Mollie and thought about what Georgie had told him about the way he treated Truffle. And now she’d just told him she was expecting his child.
He was going to be a dad.
There was a tight ball in his chest. ‘You know my marriage broke up because I didn’t want children and Zoe did.’
She was silent, as if working out what his words meant for her. ‘Supposing Zoe had fallen pregnant accidentally—what would you have done?’ she asked. ‘Would you have insisted that she have a termination? Or would you have walked out on her?’
What kind of man did she think he was? ‘No, of course not. I would’ve stood by her.’ He looked at her. ‘So there’s your answer. I’ll stand by you. I’ll support the child—and you—financially.’
‘What about emotionally?’
And that was the rub. ‘I don’t do emotions.’ Well, he did; but he didn’t know how to do them the way other people wanted them.
‘Oh, but you do,’ she said. ‘When Truffle went missing, you were devastated. You love that dog.’
‘We’re not discussing Truffle.’
‘Yes, we are. I’ve said before, you love that dog as if she were a child.’
He’d come to realise that, thanks to her. ‘All right,’ he conceded. ‘I love my dog.’
‘And she loves you,’ she continued, utterly remorseless. ‘Look at her now—she can see you’re worried
