‘At the moment you look like you could have anything you want.’

He stopped, right in the middle of the hallway, and turned to face her.

‘Really?’

He didn’t glance around to see if anyone was watching, just put his hand on her elbow and slowly steered her back against the wall. He stepped in, so he could stare down into her face, and his pupils dilated in the dim light as he scrutinised her features one by one.

Mia’s inner voice chanted, Tsk-tsk. Silly girl. That’s what comes of pulling the tiger’s tail.

His voice lowered, and when he spoke it seemed her inner voice was right.

‘I can have anything? What about you, Mia? Can I have you?’

LYREBIRD LAKE MATERNITY

Every day brings a miracle…

It’s time for these midwives to become mothers themselves!

Previously single mum Montana Browne captured our hearts in…THE MIDWIFE’S LITTLE MIRACLE

We caught up with Misty Buchanan in…THE MIDWIFE’S NEW-FOUND FAMILY

Now it’s time to meet Mia! PREGNANT MIDWIFE: FATHER NEEDED

A mother to five sons, Fiona McArthur is an Australian midwife who loves to write. Medical™ Romance gives Fiona the scope to write about all the wonderful aspects of adventure, romance, medicine and midwifery that she feels so passionate about—as well as an excuse to travel! So, now that the boys are older, her husband Ian and youngest son Rory are off with Fiona to meet new people, see new places, and have wonderful adventures. Fiona’s website is at www.fionamcarthur.com

Recent titles by the same author:

THE MIDWIFE’S LITTLE MIRACLE (Lyrebird Lake Maternity)

THE MIDWIFE’S NEW-FOUND FAMILY (Lyrebird Lake Maternity)

THEIR SPECIAL-CARE BABY

THE SURGEON’S SPECIAL GIFT

PREGNANT MIDWIFE: FATHER NEEDED

BY

FIONA McARTHUR

MILLS & BOON®

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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CHAPTER ONE

‘IS THIS the right place, Dad?’

Angus Campbell looked at the son he still couldn’t believe was his and patted Simon’s shoulder awkwardly. ‘Yes, mate.’ How did one learn to be a ‘dad’ in one weekend? Angus pushed the thought away, raised his hand, and knocked on his own father’s door. ‘I just needed a minute to get my head together.’

He was talking to a closed door and the lack of response was unexpected. Angus strode to the window and peered in.

The house was quiet, something he couldn’t remember it ever being. When you were brought up in a country doctor’s residence there was always someone coming or going. At the very least the housekeeper, Louisa, was usually there.

That would be the Louisa his father was going to marry. Another idea he had to get used to.

He turned the handle of the front door and, sure enough, it swung open. They’d never locked the front in his time either.

He looked at Simon and then peered down the central hallway again. ‘Doesn’t look like anyone is home.’

His words fell away as the door to the bathroom opened and out of a cloud of billowing steam, framed by the door, stepped a very pink—and delightfully curved in all the right places—woman. And she was only just wrapped in a leaf-green towel, putting him in mind of a rose on a dew-laden morning.

Angus learned his new son was a gentleman when Simon spun on his heel and faced the other way, unlike his father.

He should really do that too. Instead, Angus met the steady green eyes assessing his arrival and unashamedly enjoyed the spectacular view. ‘Sorry.’

‘So I see.’ Her voice was level and delightfully throaty, and she could have been dressed in a threepiece business suit given her composure. She held his gaze and he lost sight of the rest. ‘Can I help you?’ she finally asked.

Impressed, Angus did avert his eyes for a moment. ‘I’m looking for Ned.’ He looked back. Yep. Dewy rose. ‘Does he still live here?’

‘Ah.’ She nodded as if something had been confirmed. ‘The prodigal son! We heard you were coming. They’ve all left for the hospital to see the new baby. Give me a minute and I’ll be right out.’

She slipped into a room two doors down and shut the door firmly.

Angus blinked and stepped back.

‘She can handle you, Dad. Watch out.’ Angus turned to look at this young man he barely knew, his son, and tilted his head.

‘Really? On what knowledge do you base that assumption?’

Simon grinned. ‘On my knowledge of women.’

So that explained it? The kid wasn’t even twenty. ‘How can you have such knowledge of women at your tender age?’

Simon flashed him a cheeky smile and Angus felt that pang again that he’d missed seeing this amazing young being grow up. No doubt he himself would have been a different man if he’d known he’d had a son. Angus felt the anger rise again and he damped it down ruthlessly. It was okay. He knew now.

Simon went on. ‘Because I have four sisters and you’ve been working eighty hours a week all over the world since I was born.’

Angus thought of the extremely desirable women he’d dated for short periods in far-off places over the years and decided his son didn’t need to know his father had more than a little experience himself. ‘So you know about me and not the other way around?’

‘Mum filled me in.’

Angus swallowed the bile in his throat. That would be the woman who had told Angus she’d miscarried this boy-man twenty years ago. The one woman he’d loved and wanted to marry who had married someone else.

His son went on. ‘She said she had to in case something happened to her.’

Angus drew a discreet breath to remove the overtones from his voice. ‘Well, I wish she’d told me about you earlier.’

Grey eyes met grey and he saw a little of his own anger in Simon’s usual good nature. ‘So do I.’

Mia Storm, oblivious to the amusement she’d left in her wake, shut the door firmly and leant against it. Hunk alert.

There was something about that big, craggy man at the door that sucked the breath from her lungs and accelerated her heart rate in a totally unwanted response, but it was okay. She knew it was a hormonal reaction that she could control. Would control! She was coping with pregnancy hormones, wasn’t she?

She’d come to Lyrebird Lake to start anew, build a good life for her unborn child and herself, fresh and immune to the destructive hold men like him seemed to have over her.

Not precisely him, because she didn’t know him from Adam, but there was that look in his eye that said he’d like to take half a dozen steps forward and carry her back into the bathroom and kick the door shut.

Her arms broke out in goose-bumps. Where the heck had that come from? She could feel the heat in her cheeks and she stepped away from the door as if there was a blowtorch on the other side.

He was Ned’s son, for crikey’s sake. A man that had walked out of his father’s country doctor’s residence twenty years ago and not bothered once to see if dear, sweet Ned was still alive, or so her friend, Misty, said.

No doubt after he’d had his way with her in the bathroom he’d be gone from her life just as quickly as the man who’d run from the child growing inside her.

Stop it!

Nobody was having their way with anybody in the bathroom and she needed to take control. She was good at that.

Mia ripped off her towel and pulled on her briefs. Now that she came to think about it there had been two people at the door, but she couldn’t remember anything about the other one except that he’d turned around, as he should, when confronted by a person undressed in their own house.

Not like…Angus. That was his name. She clipped her bra and spun it to the front. The big A, more likely. Mia stepped into her green shorts and yanked her ‘Fight Breast Cancer’ T-shirt over her head and glanced in the mirror.

Her hair bounced red ringlets all over her head like a frenzied mattress and she squeezed and rolled the coils so they flattened onto her head until most were confined by the elastic band in the middle. She hated the unruliness of her hair as the one thing she couldn’t control.

He’d been tall so she pushed her feet into her highheeled sandals and straightened her shirt over her slightly rounded waist. She didn’t look pregnant yet.

Right, then.

She was back. He and Simon had retreated to the veranda and he’d considered going over to the hospital to look for his father because he’d behaved badly in there. He should have backed out of the door and knocked again, but his usual ease with women had been poleaxed by the vision in the hallway.

The vision looked him up and down and he saw that she was actually quite ordinary. Well, ordinary in an extraordinary way. Actually rounded and somehow…lush. Not really ordinary at all.

‘I’m Mia Storm. One of the midwives. I board here. I gather you’re Angus.’

She was a summer storm all right. Still in pink and green, hot as all get out one minute then drenching him with a cold shower of disdain, then blowing information at him like a gust of leaves. She looked like a militant hybrid with a rosebud mouth. She was hot!

He couldn’t think of a thing to say and he had to be saved by a nineteen-year-old Lothario. It was embarrassing. And ridiculously backed up his son’s impression of his father’s lack of experience. If it weren’t so mortifying, it would be amusing.

Simon stepped forward and held out his hand. ‘I’m Simon, the son he didn’t know about, and I’ve dragged him here to see the grandfather I’ve never met. You’ll have to forgive him. He’s still adjusting his horizons.’

Mia looked from Simon to Angus and her face softened. Simon had certainly taken the gust out of her storm and Angus could only watch in admiration. She smiled at both of them, the sun came out, and now he wouldn’t be able to speak for another ten seconds. What the heck had happened to him?

‘Hello, Simon.’ She chuckled delightfully, Angus thought fuzzily, at Simon’s ingenious explanations, and then Simon leant forward and kissed her cheek.

Angus frowned. The little upstart. As if it was the most natural thing in the world. Maybe he really had missed the boat on social behaviour.

‘And does your father have your winning ways?’ She tilted her head at him and somehow Angus knew she’d forgiven his faux pas in the hallway and even might feel sorry for his lack of social graces compared to his son’s.

He cleared his throat. ‘My apologies, Mia. I shouldn’t have opened the door. I thought the house was empty.’

Simon butted in. ‘Apparently Dad hasn’t socialised much in the last twenty years, but he’s really good at disasters.’

Thanks, son. That made him sound so promising. ‘Okay, Simon. Mia doesn’t want to know about me.’ Angus’s eyes were drawn back to hers. ‘You said my father was over at the hospital with the new baby.’ A thought tickled his sense of the ridiculous and he glanced at Simon. ‘Not a new uncle or aunt for Simon perchance?’ Serve him right. Let the upstart work out the odds for that.

This time she smiled for him. And again it was worth waiting for. ‘No. Ned’s a bit past having babies I think. One of the doctors here, Ben—his daughter had a child. Ned’s gone over to pass a silver coin across the baby’s palm.’

It was strange how nostalgic that unexpected reminder of all his father’s superstitions made Angus feel. How had twenty years gone without returning to at least make peace with him?

Angus had been going to, or he’d thought of it, but there’d never seemed to be time between flights and international health disasters to get up this way. He’d been ashamed of his behaviour all those years ago and hadn’t wanted a rushed trip. And after he and Simon’s mother had ‘lost’ the baby it had been too heart-wrenching to come back in the early years.

Later it had always been the too-short breaks between missions he’d blamed. But that stood up poorly now. His father must have aged so much since he’d last seen him. ‘How’s Dad’s health?’

‘Apart from his eyesight and a stiff hip, Ned’s well.’ She looked into his face to gauge his reaction. ‘He’s well enough to marry Louisa and dance at his own wedding.’

‘I’m glad. It seems I’ve been fortunate that it’s not too late to catch up.’

She looked him up and down like a schoolmarm and he felt the dusting of disapproval for his negligence. ‘Very fortunate.’ Then she glanced into the house. ‘Do you want to come in and wait here, or do you want to look for him over at the hospital?’

Angus needed to get over his response to this woman before he met his father and opened up a whole new bag of angst.

He didn’t do sentiment, hadn’t for years, but right at this minute he felt emotionally laden and he needed to shake the excess from his mind first.

This morning’s first meeting with Simon, finding his son looked like a younger version of himself with better people skills and the realisation of all he’d missed out on. With its accompanying well of bitterness at Simon’s mother’s betrayal, which he’d had to hide from her son, and now he’d been knocked for six by the rose.

Angus lifted his kit. ‘We’ll put our gear inside. Then I think I’ll go for a walk.’

‘I’ll stay here and look around,’ Simon said, and grinned at Mia.

No doubt flirting, Angus thought. ‘As long as you’re not too shy,’ he murmured dryly to himself, as he followed his son and Mia into the house.

The room she showed Simon was positioned two doors along the central hallway from Angus’s. Mia was in the middle—so next door to him. He liked that and his belly kicked as if to let him in on the reason. Okay. So maybe he did know why.

He glanced up at the high ceiling in the central hallway and memories rushed in.

He glanced into Simon’s room, the one with the French doors that led out to the wide verandas. You could slip in unnoticed when needed, as he recalled nostalgically.

He remembered at least eight bedrooms at this end and the four larger rooms at his father’s end where his old room was and the day clinics were held.

There’d always been other staff staying here then as well, so this end had been technically out of bounds to him as a child.

He’d stolen kisses in one of these empty rooms with Simon’s mother twenty years ago. His father had been right to say that a kiss led to a lot more. He glanced at the boy beside him and thought again of all he’d missed.

‘Did you want to see your room?’ Mia spoke from his shoulder and he snapped back to the present day.

‘Thank you, yes.’

He left Simon and followed her. Actually, he spent the two seconds observing the way her little backside wriggled delightfully, and his body just came along for the ride. Good grief. He was having an adolescent crisis. No doubt because of the memories that were crowding in from the time years ago when he’d been a raging mass of testosterone. He had to snap out of it.

Suddenly he realised the back of her lovely neck was pinker than it had been and a slow smile tugged at his lips. So she’d noticed him too. She was really going to be cross with him now.

‘This is it.’ She stopped, but didn’t turn around, and again his mouth twitched. He had an idea she didn’t want him to see her blush and he was determined he would.

‘Thanks, Mia.’ He didn’t move to open the door and though she turned back she averted her face as she looked at a point over his left shoulder. Her cheeks were delightfully dusted with pink.

He waited, but she didn’t say anything so he let her off the hook. ‘I’ll put the bags in and have a wander, then.’

‘You do that,’ she said to the wall behind him.

CHAPTER TWO

WHEN she heard the front door close Mia’s shoulders slumped and she fanned her face. Whew.

Unable to stop herself she slipped into one of the empty front rooms to watch his progress through the front curtains.

Angus crossed the lawn towards the road like a man on a mission, tall and aloof with his dark hair cut in a severe military style, a man not used to being close to others. Yet she had the feeling he was able to appreciate the differences in Simon from himself, and might even be proud of his son’s social ease.

As Angus turned to walk along the lake shore Ned limped out of the hospital across the road and Mia leant on the windowsill and watched—she couldn’t not watch—though she didn’t know why she held her breath.

Angus hesitated, then turned toward the older man, and when they were face to face Ned stepped forward and reached up to put his arms around his much taller son.

Angus’s hands were slower to rise, but just as fierce when they got there. He bent and hugged his father in return and almost lifted him off the ground.

Mia felt the tears prickle her eyes and she blinked them away. This was ridiculous. Neither man was anything to her. She’d only known Ned since she’d moved here after Misty’s wedding three weeks ago, and he was a sweetie, but she’d met Angus barely ten minutes ago. It was a family reunion. There was nothing to cry about.

She turned to go back down the hallway and Simon stood in his own doorway and watched her.

‘What?’

Simon held up both palms in surrender then lifted one hand and physically wiped the smile from his face. ‘Nothing. Nothing.’ But she could see the twinkle in the eyes he’d inherited from his father and she shook her head. The teenage girls in Lyrebird Lake had better watch out for this one or there would be broken hearts everywhere.

‘Go to your room.’ Mia pretended to shoo him, and he laughed.

‘Yes, Mum.’

Well, at least they had that pecking order sorted, she thought with a rueful smile. She doubted it would be so easy to deal with Angus.

Thank goodness she needed to get ready for work.

All was quiet at the Lyrebird Lake Birth Centre, a small midwifery-run wing of the tiny hospital that had grown to catch around two hundred babies a year.

‘So Ned’s son arrived.’ Mia hadn’t meant to blurt it out. She should have at least waited until Misty had finished handover report for the evening shift.

Misty Buchanan, Mia’s friend from her training days in Sydney and one of the three full-time midwives at the unit, looked up and raised her brows. ‘What’s he like? I can’t help feeling sorry for Ned. He’s been that nervous, waiting for him to arrive.’

Mia avoided her eyes. ‘I saw them hug outside the hospital so I think all’s fine.’ Actually, she’d sniffed at the window because a man she didn’t know had hugged another she barely knew. What on earth had got into her? ‘He’s brought his own son, so Ned’s a grandfather. The boy looks about nineteen.’ Mia couldn’t help smiling at the thought of Simon. ‘He’s a card.’

Misty smiled. ‘And what’s Angus like? Is he short and round like his dad?’

Mia remembered Angus’s height and shoulder width and that moment she’d first seen him so large in the hallway. Not to mention the strong jaw that seemed to tug at smiling but didn’t quite make it. ‘Nothing like Ned.’

Misty tilted her head. ‘Really? Like what, then?’

‘Just a man.’ Mia tried, but she’d said it far too nonchalantly to fool Misty.

‘Mia?’

Misty tapped her pen and Mia shook her head. ‘I am not going there.’ She’d waited a lifetime to find the right man to trust her heart to, and look where that had got her.

‘Well, I admit you’ve been burnt the one time you did.’ Misty paused and glanced around to check no one was listening before she lowered her voice even further. ‘But what’s he like?’

Mia knew she was trapped. ‘What do you want me to say, Misty? That he’s tall and dark and handsome and when he looks at me I want to put my head down, hug myself and blush?’

Misty did a double-take and Mia felt like grabbing the words from the air and putting them back in her mouth. What was wrong with her?

Thank goodness she’d run off at the mouth like that with someone she could trust. Misty, and Montana, who had been the first to come to work at Lyrebird Lake, had been her friends for years and they understood each other.

They understood that Mia was still bruised from the last tall, dark and handsome man that had stirred her, promised her the world for life, and then brushed her and her pregnancy off like dust on his sleeve.

‘I’ll look forward to meeting him, then,’ Misty said, and glanced down at the notes in her hand.

Mia felt the next glance, but she didn’t meet it and her friend did what she’d hoped she would do.

‘The ward’s very quiet. Josephine Perry is coming in at three to talk to you about arranging private relaxation lessons and maybe a home birth. She’d better hurry because they’ve only a few weeks to go. Josephine and Paul are friends of Andy’s. You’ve met them, the flying people from the aero club.’

Mia remembered them. A great couple. ‘Yep. It’s their first baby. They were at the antenatal class last week.’

‘Otherwise Tammy and my step-grandchild…’ Misty grinned at the thought ‘…are coming home with me when I leave and the ward will be empty. Staff in Emergency will be glad to see you because the morning girls have left them with a full house.’

‘No problem. I’ll go over there as soon as I clean up here.’

‘Ben’s picking us up.’ Misty’s voice warmed again when she said her new husband’s name and Mia wondered how things would be for them, sharing early married life with Ben’s teenage daughter, Tammy, and her new baby.

‘Tammy’s still managing well?’ At ten years younger than herself, Mia had marvelled at the natural way Tammy had embraced motherhood and she hoped she’d be able to cope as well when her own child arrived.

‘She’s wonderful. Jack’s taken to feeding like a baby a month old, not just a day. We’ll prepare her meals and help out for the next few weeks when she comes home, though.’

‘Do you get sick of cooking now that you’ve left the residence for your own home?’

Misty smiled. ‘Ben might when our baby comes. He cooks a lot now, though. That man is amazing. It’s lovely to have our own house. Bliss! The rest of the furniture arrived yesterday. Tammy and Jack have a separate flat underneath. It’s gorgeous, and she’s really excited to have their own space.’

Mia couldn’t help a tiny probe. ‘As long as you and Ben have your own space.’

Misty smiled at some secret thought and Mia hated herself when she felt a stab of jealousy over her friend’s happiness. ‘We have our own space.’

Mia looked down at her now ringless hand. That should have been her. To catch babies at work, have babies at home, and find that man who would make her glow like Misty glowed now.

She’d been rudely awakened to the fact that the fiancé she’d left behind at Westside had been no great loss. It had all been such a fabulous whirlwind when they’d met. The knight to storm her chastity, romantic declarations and gifts from Mark, but then within a few months she’d been the cook, cleaner, laundress and all-round organiser for a man who just wanted a mother while he played at medical research.

She’d thought she was in love, he’d looked the part and even said the right words in the beginning, but now she just felt stupid for seeing something that hadn’t been there.

The first inkling had come when she’d caught a virus that had left her weak and unable to care for herself, let alone do all the things she’d grown used to doing for Mark.

He’d been horrified that she’d hoped he’d help her. Then to find out she was pregnant when her contraception had failed and Mark’s absolute horror and total denial that he would ever want a family or responsibilities. Something he’d neglected to mention when he’d asked her to marry him.

Then his other girlfriend had showed up. Another research scientist and as glamorous as Mark.

Mia wasn’t sure who she felt more sorry for. Herself for love and illusions wasted or the poor woman who was engaged to him now.

She and her baby would be fine. She would build a wonderful life for both of them and Lyrebird Lake would help them.

‘You okay?’

Mia refocussed on her friend. ‘Sorry.’ She dredged up a smile for Misty. ‘I’m so glad you and Montana insisted I move up here. I’ve missed you guys.’

‘We’re glad you’re here too. Apart from the fact that we desperately need midwives as our clientele grows. Come and say hello to my stepdaughter. Tammy’s almost packed.’

Half an hour later Mia watched the new family drive away and she turned back to tidy up before Josephine arrived. After that she’d lock up. A couple of hours in a busy emergency ward would be just the thing to stomp on the self-pitying thoughts she couldn’t shake off.

Her thoughts drifted over to Ned and Angus and she wondered how things were going over at the house. It was surprising how much she would have liked to be a fly on the wall over there.

‘We missed you last night.’ Angus was already in the kitchen the next morning when Mia opened the door, and he looked very large and very much at home.

She guessed technically he was home! From something Simon had said she had the feeling that his father hadn’t had much of a home life since he’d left.

Angus stood up and waited for her to be seated and she frowned. She’d thought chivalry had gone out with the ark. It’d certainly had for Mark.

‘Good morning, Angus. Don’t wait for me. Please sit down.’ She poured herself a tiny coffee from a shiny chrome percolator she’d never seen before, which was plugged beside the stove. A taste wouldn’t hurt, she thought, adding plenty of milk for good measure.

‘I’ll wait,’ he said, and she frowned at him.

The strong smell of rich coffee beans made her draw a deep, indulgent sigh and when she opened her eyes Angus was watching her. She sat quickly.

‘Smells good?’

‘My only weakness,’ she said firmly and ignored the tremble in her knees. Then she had a thought. ‘Coffee and chocolate. I have two.’

‘Chocolate?’

‘Mmm.’ She wanted to talk about him. ‘So what are your plans now you’ve been reunited with Ned and found a son?’

He put his cup down and sat back in the chair. The silence lengthened and he didn’t smile, but somehow she knew he was amused. ‘So you just want to go straight for the information, do you? No fooling around?’ Angus said.

Their eyes met and she could feel those flickering darts of heat in her stomach that she hadn’t realised could be ignited by just a glance. She shouldn’t even be talking to this guy. He was far too dangerous to her peace of mind.

She feigned an uninterested shrug and pulled the toast he’d indicated towards her. ‘If you don’t want to tell me then don’t.’ It was so frustrating that she couldn’t read his thoughts, but she didn’t have any idea what was going on in his mind.

‘Prickly little thing, aren’t you?’ was all he said.

So he wasn’t going to answer. It was disappointing, but she’d live.

Then he went on as if musing. ‘Should I tell you something and you can decide whether you think it’s a good choice on my part?’

She frowned. ‘I was just making polite conversation.’ Well, she wasn’t really, because she wanted to know, but blow him. He could keep his plans secret for all she cared.

‘Ah. Polite.’ The inflection rose as if he didn’t believe a word of it.

She glared at him again. The guy was infuriating. Then she noticed the tiny quirk at the edge of those sinfully seductive lips of his and realised.

And he confirmed it. ‘So I should stop teasing you?’

She relaxed as he dragged a smile out of her. ‘You had me going. I’m not used to subtlety. My fiancé has none.’ She didn’t know why she did it, maybe some dormant protective instinct, but she put the present tense in there as a safeguard from the feelings this man stirred in her.

‘You’re engaged?’

She didn’t meet his eyes. ‘To a doctor in Sydney.’

Angus looked interested. ‘So when are you getting married?’

That’s what came of telling lies. ‘We’re having a break.’ Then she looked at him and added, ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ Well, that was the truth.

‘Fine. Neither do I.’ He did that almost-smile thing with his lips and she held her breath in case he actually did give her a full-blown grin, but it didn’t happen. The guy would be an awesome poker player.

She took a sip of the glorious coffee and closed her eyes. ‘Did you make this?’ Good coffee was the only thing she missed about Sydney. Even a taste was heaven.

‘Yep. My specialty.’ He paused. ‘So what are you doing today?’ he asked just as she took another sip, and her glottis closed too late as coffee slipped into her windpipe and suddenly she had to cough and splutter inelegantly as she wheezed to get her breath.

Almost immediately Angus was behind her chair and with both his hands he straightened her shoulders and then tapped her once between the shoulder blades. Not in that thumping, cure-worse-than-thedisease way men usually had, but one firm tap with the flat of his hand that cleared her airway instantly.

She whistled in the next breath and her sight cleared as she wiped her eyes. ‘Thank you.’

He sat down. ‘My pleasure. Next time I’ll wait until after you sip before I start a conversation.’

She pushed the coffee away. She was embarrassed enough. ‘I’ve had enough.’

He nodded. ‘Then it’s safe to ask again? If you have any plans for today?’

Mia didn’t know where to look so she settled for a glance at the coffee pot and back. ‘I’m on call from three this afternoon and doing the night shift if I’m needed in Maternity.’

‘Then you could come for an early lunch?’

That’s what she’d thought he was getting to. Whoa, there, boy. Didn’t I just say I was unavailable?

Almost as if he heard her thoughts he went on. ‘I should explain. You being engaged actually helps as I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.’

Wrong impression? Didn’t want her to get her hopes up, perhaps? What a poser. The man had tickets on himself.

‘I’m taking my father and his future wife out for lunch today and I think Louisa would be more comfortable if there was another woman there instead of just three men.’

For the first time he looked anxious. ‘I really do want this to go smoothly and I think you would be able to help that.’

Maybe not a poser? She’d have to stop jumping to conclusions about people, but Mark had left her wary. Now she understood and she wasn’t disappointed that he hadn’t actually wanted to ask her out. At all. Honest. ‘Steer the conversation when it falters, you mean?’

He nodded. ‘Something like that.’

She thought of his son. ‘I don’t think you’d have to worry with Simon at the table.’ Their eyes met in acknowledgement of the truth of that and Mia smiled.

Angus said, ‘My son is adept at conversation. I grant you that. Must be his mother’s side.’ A shadow passed across his face at the mention of Simon’s mother and Mia couldn’t help but wonder what the story was there. No way was she asking.

The less he thought about that the better, Angus admonished himself silently, and looked up at the curly-headed nymph across the table. Unfortunately it felt like he could sit and look at her all day. She made him feel alive—not something he’d dwelt on for a long time—and she made him smile inside. Years since he’d done that.

‘Nevertheless, you will come?’ He didn’t know why it was so important to have Mia with them, especially now he knew she was engaged, though what sort of ‘engagement’ had a break? The marriage didn’t sound too imminent. But he did want her with them today. He barely knew her, but he had this crazy idea in his brain that he wouldn’t mess up with his father and Louisa if Mia was there.

He could run hospitals, organise airlifts and troubleshoot the health of disaster-affected cities, but last night, even with Simon there yabbering away like a rabbit, he’d had trouble talking to the man who had banished him twenty years ago. And his father had been just as bad.

He watched her sniff the cup and it was funny just how much he enjoyed her obvious appreciation. Maybe he could bribe her with more coffee.

‘I’ll come if you think it will help,’ she said when she put the cup down. ‘Where were you planning on taking them?’

He’d sorted that one. ‘I thought the white guesthouse on the lake. They have lunches on the veranda.’

She nodded and he guessed that was approval. ‘We could walk there.’

He watched her consider that. Her thoughts flicked across her face like a digital photo frame, one after the other. How could anyone be that transparent? It was strangely endearing in a way. Then she said, ‘Nice. I’ll be there. What time do you want me to be ready?’

It was that easy. She’d be there. It had been Simon’s suggestion and his know-it-all son had been right again. She had said yes.

He would have asked her even if Simon hadn’t suggested it. He was pretty sure. ‘Twelve. I’ll book for twelve-fifteen.’

‘No problem. I’ve a breathing and relaxation class this morning for a client, but will be home by eleven. I’ll see you then.’

‘Thank you, Mia. I appreciate this.’

She was wearing a little green sundress and when she shrugged those beautiful shoulders of hers his fingers spread on his lap as he imagined the feel of her. He’d bet her skin would be like silk. He needed to get a grip—but not on her.

Lucky his face wasn’t readable like hers.

‘No problem,’ she said. ‘You’re offering free lunch at a place I’ve wanted to go to and with people I like. No hardship.’

Four hours later the restaurant owner settled them on the shady veranda and they could look through the overhanging branches to the lake.

Louisa had given Mia a squeeze on the arm as they’d sat down and in return she sent Louisa a reassuring nod because even if Angus didn’t smile much she had an idea he was a fair and reasonable man.

Mia would make sure there was nothing for the older lady to be nervous of, though, to give Angus his due, he’d invited her for just that reason.

Ned seemed overly hearty too and Mia began to understand that Angus wasn’t the only one who felt some strain with the family party.

Simon looked as relaxed as a tomcat in the sun and proceeded to nod at all the pretty girls at the other tables.

Mia couldn’t help smiling at him. Then she looked up she saw that Angus was watching her and her smile faded.

No wonder it felt more like a wake than a party, with Mr Dour over there. He could make a little more effort.

‘So, five days to the wedding?’ Mia said brightly into the silence, and half of the table jumped at the sound of her voice.

Angus’s half didn’t. He just stared thoughtfully at Mia.

Ned dived in. ‘I keep telling Louisa to let the caterers do the work. We’re having the reception outside in a marquee, no connection to the house or the kitchen, and I can’t have my bride exhausted for her wedding.’

Louisa looked fondly across at her fiancé. ‘Well you had to catch wedding fever from Misty and Ben and want it all done in a month. Not that I mind.’ Louisa reached across and squeezed Ned’s hand.

Mia blurted out the question as it rose. ‘So had you thought about staying till Saturday, then, Angus?’ She hoped no one thought she had any interest in the answer, but it was too late to call it back once it was out.

There was silence at the table and Angus narrowed his eyes at Mia and then turned to his father.

‘I hadn’t intended to.’

Simon leant forward as if to say something and Angus raised his finger and silenced him without looking in his direction. Interesting dynamics with so short an acquaintance, Mia thought, but Angus did look used to command. Simon sat back in his seat.

Angus went on. ‘I’ve a meeting in Brisbane on Thursday, but could fly back that night and stay the extra two days, I guess. If Louisa and you would like us to, of course.’ He looked at Louisa for the first time and his face softened. ‘If you’ll have us.’

Angus glanced at his son, who nodded before returning his attention to his father’s fiancée. Mia thought for a moment he would smile, but he didn’t.

‘Of course.’ Louisa smiled for everyone and she seemed to relax a little. ‘We’d love you to stay. I’m so pleased you can manage it.’

‘That’s settled, then,’ Mia said as another silence settled over the table. Mentally she groaned as nobody picked up the conversational ball. This was hard work. Didn’t these people know how to have a good time? She looked at Simon and mischief lurked in his eyes. Salvation.

‘Tell us a joke, Simon,’ Mia said, and sat back to listen.

Simon couldn’t wait. ‘Once there was…’ And the lunch improved marginally from then on.

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