Embarrassment burned her. She wished she could magic herself away from this excruciating moment. “I—he—we—”
“I can see that.”
“I doubt you’ll want me to help Holly now.”
“Hey, you’re not getting out of it that easily. Just hold off teaching her nudes for a while, eh?”
She managed a weak laugh. “Deal.”
Jess pushed Leo in his stroller, bumping her way across the grass to the team tents at Relay For Life. It was seven o’clock and the smell of onions wafted on the early Sunday morning air as people huddled together drinking coffee and scarfing down egg and bacon rolls. It was easy to pick the fresh walkers from those who’d done the nightshift, but despite the difference in the fatigue factor, the esprit de corps was high, with people cheering each lap.
Jess had spent months enthusiastically fundraising for the Anti-Cancer Council. She’d organized a champagne, popcorn and choc-top ice-cream movie night at the local cinema, raffled herself as a cook for a dinner party for twelve and baked and sold more chocolate chip cookies than she ever wanted to see again. On top of all that, she’d also secured $500 of sponsorship money if she completed her laps this weekend. She’d wanted to honor her commitment to her sponsors by walking the night-time hours, just as she and Libby had planned, but when Nick had failed to arrive to collect Leo as arranged before everything had gone to shit, it left her with no time to organize a babysitter. Given Libby’s borderline psychotic behavior when she’d torn the dress from Jess’s shoulders eight days earlier, she wasn’t risking taking Leo to Burrunan just yet.
Faced with deathly silence from both Libby and Nick, Jess had spent Friday through Tuesday on tenterhooks. When Nick’s weekly support payment tumbled into her bank account, she’d relaxed. She was still desperate to talk to him, but for the sake of fruitful discussion, Leo’s wellbeing and all their futures, she was biding her time. Waiting for the dust to settle and giving everyone a chance to find some calm and gain perspective. She included herself in that plan.
Jess was battling some residual anger toward Nick for breaking the news to Libby without involving her in either the decision or the telling. But the fact he’d done it mostly heartened her—she was taking it as a breakthrough. It meant he wanted to be known publicly as Leo’s father. That’s why she needed to talk to Nick and Libby. For Leo’s sake, as well as Lucy’s and Indi’s, they needed to control how and when the information was released into the wider Kurnai Bay community. It was vital they protected the children from the inevitable gossip and the way to do that was presenting a united front—a family committed to one another.
Jess passed a row of portapotties and a plastic door at the end of the row banged open. Penny, the practice nurse at the medical center, stepped out, turned, then stopped abruptly.
“Hi, Penny. You look like you could curl up and nap right now.”
“What are you doing here?”
The growl in the woman’s voice caught Jess by surprise. Then again, Penny had been up all night. “You really must be tired, Pen, if you’re asking me that. I’m here to walk.”
“You missed your time slot so you can’t walk.”
“Nowhere in the rules does it say that.”
“It’s in my rules. I don’t want you to walk.”
A warning knot tied low in Jess’s belly but she reassured herself this was just Penny being her usual pedantic self. She plucked at her team polo shirt. “There’s no I in team, Pen. Besides, would you really be that petty and deny the Anti-Cancer Council $500 just because I’ve tweaked your roster?”
Leo squawked loudly, protesting at being ignored by Penny, but the nurse didn’t bend down and talk to him. Instead she crossed her arms and glared at Jess.
“You’ve always thought the rules don’t apply and that bending them makes you better than everyone else. But you’re wrong. All it does is make you a bitch.”
Jess flinched. “Don’t swear in front of my son.”
Penny spun on the heels of her cross-trainers and stalked away.
Had Libby said something to the practice nurse?
Jess instantly discarded the thought as ridiculous. Since “the big reveal,” as she’d taken to calling it, and Libby’s associated meltdown, Jess had spoken to the practice manager about the payroll as well as to the receptionist. Both had been their usual friendly selves. It reassured her that despite Libby’s unhinged behavior and her subsequent refusal to talk, her friend was sticking to their long-held commitment of holding each other’s secrets safe and protecting those they love. There was no way Libby would ever share the news that Nick was Leo’s father with her practice staff.
Penny was just being a pain. Usually Jess wouldn’t let anyone’s opinion of her change her plans, but she had Leo to consider and she wasn’t convinced Penny wouldn’t have another go at her if she went into the team tent. Did it really matter who she walked with? Wasn’t the important thing the fact she walked and earned the money people had pledged to her in good faith?
Decision made, Jess headed for the school tent. She knew some of the parents through their younger children and their association with the toy library and story time.
“Jess!” Lexie Patric waved. “Look at you, yummy mommy! How do you manage to look so fantastic this early in the morning?”
Jess laughed. “Leo woke me up at five thirty so I’ve had plenty of time.” She didn’t mention how clingy he’d been and how she’d put him in the backpack and hoisted him onto her shoulders just so she could apply her makeup.
“Five thirty’s a sleep in.”
“You live in a crazy world.” Jess liked the Swan Reach woman, but as Lexie ran a dairy farm with her husband, she wasn’t often in town. “I haven’t seen you in ages. How are those cows of yours?”
“Ruling
