A Mother for His Baby. Leah Martyn

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘I FORGOT to ask.’ Jo stopped abruptly and caught Fliss’s arm. ‘Who’s the best man?’

      ‘Brady McNeal. Friend of the groom. He’s a doctor.’

      ‘At least half the wedding guests are,’ Jo said with pithy humour. ‘Is he local?’

      ‘McNeal? Don’t think so. Someone said he’s just arrived back from overseas. If you’d been at Sophie’s hen party you’d have heard all about him.’

      ‘Well, if I hadn’t been on holidays I would have been there.’

      ‘Our little gang of three is breaking up, isn’t it?’ Fliss sounded a note of regret. ‘Seems only last week when we graduated. And now Soph and Ben are relocating to Sydney, you’re stuck in your rural practice at Mt Pryde and I’m the only one left here.’

      ‘Hey, you, don’t get maudlin.’ Jo gave Fliss’s shoulder a little squeeze. ‘We’ll have to organise a regular get-together or something.’

      Fliss’s face lit up. ‘We could do that, couldn’t we? Either in Sydney or here in Brisbane.’

      ‘Or you could both come to me.’

      Fliss rolled her eyes.

      ‘For heaven’s sake!’ Jo remonstrated laughingly. ‘Mt Pryde is barely a two-hour drive from the city’.

      ‘Honey, two minutes from the city and I get withdrawal symptoms. The sticks aren’t for me. But I know you love it there,’ Fliss placated her friend quickly. ‘I just don’t know what on earth you find to do. And how could you possibly meet any men!’

      Jo shook her head, giving the silk wrap over her bare shoulders a little straightening twitch. They’d been down this road a dozen times. Fliss loved the buzz of working in a state-of-the-art city clinic where they specialised in sports medicine, while she herself relished the grass-roots nature of medicine in a country practice where everyone knew the doctors and the doctors knew one another’s patients almost as well as their own families.

      ‘Oh, look!’ Fliss gave a muted squeal. ‘Here’s the bride now. Oh, bless…Doesn’t she look gorgeous?’

      ‘Yes.’ Jo’s reply was soft but heartfelt as she watched Sophie, on the arm of her father, moving slowly towards them along the paved walkway for her wedding to her soul-mate, Ben Landers.

      Would she ever be so lucky? Jo wondered. At thirty-two she’d had several relationships but they hadn’t lasted and she certainly hadn’t met a man she’d wanted to spend the rest of her life with, laugh with, have babies with. But Sophie and Ben had it all.

      ‘Let’s get a bit closer.’ Fliss hooked her arm through Jo’s and manoeuvred them to within smiling distance of the groom and his best man, who were standing with the marriage celebrant against the backdrop of rainforest in the Brisbane botanic gardens.

      Seeing them, Ben grinned and mock-swiped his brow in a thank heavens she’s here kind of gesture.

      ‘As if,’ Fliss mouthed, and made a small face back at the bridegroom.

      Jo caught none of the interplay between the two. Her eyes were riveted on the best man. Brady McNeal was all male. Impressive height with broad shoulders delineated by the superbly cut charcoal suit. And not bad-looking either.

      There was a moment when he turned his dark head towards Jo and smiled. A smile that was wry, slightly lopsided, and was gone in a blink.

      The fact that it sent slivers of warmth to every corner of her body was immaterial. Jo dipped her head, convinced her cheeks were on fire and thanking heaven no one had noticed. Instead, all eyes were on the bride as she took her place beside her groom and slipped her hand into his.

      * * *

      ‘Wasn’t it a lovely ceremony?’ Fliss sighed. ‘I think I’d like something just like that.’

      ‘Someone