Alice sensed dangerous territory. “Don’t you want to get home to the girls?”
“Don’t you want to tell me?”
Alice thought about the recent 1:00 a.m. FaceTime session and pressed her thighs together against the delicious tingle. “There’s not much to say.”
Libby peered at her. “I think there is. You’ve just gone bright red!”
“No, I haven’t.” Except heat was rolling through Alice like molten lava, vanquishing her chill and ratcheting up her temperature. She dropped the blanket before she broke out in a sweat.
“Yes, you have! I can’t believe you still blush like you did at sixteen when you were crushing on Tyler Hawkins.” Libby’s eyes lit up. “Did you see Tim last night?”
Alice knew the path the conversation would take if she told Libby the truth: that she and Tim were yet to meet in real life. Her twin would be outraged on her behalf but not understand that Tim made Alice laugh in ways Lawrence never had. How he gave a buzz to each day, which was something that had been missing from her life for a long time. Alice wasn’t prepared to pressure Tim to commit to a date and risk losing all of that. It took her less than three seconds to decide to share a version of the truth.
“Tim knew I was upset about Nick—”
“He drove over?” Libby’s voice filled with delight and she gently punched Alice on the arm. “Judging by that blush, he made you feel a lot better.”
“Oh, yeah. He did that.” At least on that front, she didn’t have to lie.
Libby arrived home just before 7:00 to find Leo and the girls up, dressed and eating cereal in front of breakfast television. It wasn’t a familiar scenario, because the girls were usually still in bed at this hour and they were never allowed to watch cartoons on a weekday morning, let alone picnic on the floor rug. They gave her a distracted hug and a kiss—very different from the teary girls they’d been on the phone the night before. Cartoons were obviously the panacea for all ills.
The surreal feeling continued when Jess greeted her in the kitchen with her curls blow dried into submission, a full face of perfectly applied makeup and wearing one of Libby’s dresses, which fitted her perfectly.
“Wow! Look at you.”
“It’s the perfect interview dress. I thought I should look the part.”
Libby loved how they still raided each other’s closets. “I’m just envious that you look better in it than I do.”
Jess snorted. “Hardly.”
Libby recognized the glint in Jess’s eyes—the one she got whenever she bought something new and shiny. A glint that had been largely absent this year as she adapted to a tighter budget. “Keep it as a thank you for last night.”
“Lib, you don’t have to thank me for that. Hell, what are best friends for if not to step in and hold the fort when your husband scares you to death by landing in the hospital?” Jess hugged her. “I’m just glad he’s not about to have a heart attack or a stroke.”
“Me too.” Although a tiny part of her regretted that the cause of his chest pain wasn’t an obvious physical condition. If it had been, the treatment would be straightforward instead of an unsettling question mark.
“Nick said you didn’t phone him yesterday.”
Jess frowned. “I called as soon as I got off the phone from you but his number was busy so I texted him. He phoned me back and said he’d be home for dinner. That’s why I freaked out when he didn’t arrive.”
“I wish I knew what was going on with him.” She pulled her attention back to Jess. “I can’t believe I forgot about your job interview in Bairnsdale.”
“Given the fright you got last night, you’re lucky you can remember your name.” Jess flipped a poached egg out of a saucepan and plonked it on buttered toast. “I cooked you your fave breakfast. You look like you need it.”
Tears prickled Libby’s eyes. “You’re amazing. Please move in and wave your organizational wand here every morning. Do you have time for a coffee before you go?”
“Sorry. Gotta love you and leave you. The interview’s early. Perhaps I could meet you for coffee at that new café in Bairnsdale and fill you in on how it went? What time are you picking up Nick?”
“Between 11:00 and 12:00.”
“Oh!” Disappointment darkened her eyes. “That’s not going to work. I’ll already be back in the bay by then. I can’t imagine Nick will want visitors tonight.”
“Thanks for understanding and don’t worry, we’ll find a time to talk. Besides, with your smarts and in that dress, there’s no way they won’t hire you.” Libby kissed her goodbye.
“Let’s hope they share your confidence.” Jess walked over to Leo and while he was distracted by the cartoons, she dropped a kiss on his head before slipping out the side door.
A few minutes later, just as Libby swallowed the last bite of her egg and toast, the cartoon finished. Leo wailed at his loss of enjoyment and then for his mother when he realized she was gone.
“Come on, you lot, let’s go and give the hens their breakfast.”
Libby turned off the television and swung Leo into her arms. The ache that had throbbed its pain through her whenever she’d held him as a baby had changed over time but it had never completely faded. As happy as Libby was for Jess, the hurt could still sneak in now and then that Leo was a little boy only a few months younger than Dom would have been if he’d lived. She fought the twinge of regret by thinking of holding another baby soon—hopefully a boy.
Her breath caught. What if she wasn’t pregnant?
What if she was pregnant and Nick didn’t want another child?
Both scenarios threatened to eviscerate her.
After a hasty case conference allocating the more urgent cases to Ramesh and Penny, Libby wrote a dozen prescriptions, checked pathology reports, and made yet another patient list for Penny to
