Newborn Baby For Christmas. Fiona Lowe
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This couldn’t be Georgie.
Apart from her voice nothing about her was remotely familiar, and he barely recognised her. Gone was her short-cropped hair, and in its place a long, glossy, caramel-brown ponytail swept across her shoulders in a caress of curls. Her face, which had always seemed slightly too long for her, was now round and full. In fact all of her was round and full. A white sundress fell from decorative shoulder straps, flowing across voluptuous breasts before cascading over a high and round belly and swirling against the enticing tilt of her hips, a curvaceous behind and firm thighs. She seemed taller, more sure of herself, and a secret smile played about her lips as if she knew things that others could never understand.
A thundering wave of pure sexual energy rode off her, spinning him into its orbit and rolling him inside its core. His groin tightened as a wondrous hot bolt of anticipation and excitement pounded through him. A second later his brain caught up with his body, its reaction horrified and stunned.
This is Georgie. Georgie. We’re platonic. We made that decision years ago.
‘You—’ His voice cracked over the husky word and he cleared his throat. ‘You look good.’
Dear Reader
Christmas in Australia is a few days after the summer equinox, and it’s the start of a traditional two-week holiday. Families flock to the coast to camp, rent holiday houses, or to be spoiled in boutique hotels, and the ‘No Vacancy’ signs glow red until well into January. In my state of Victoria, the Bellarine Peninsula, with its fabulous wineries, gourmet cafés and restaurants and quiet bayside beaches, is a popular destination—as is the nearby Surf Coast on the Great Ocean Road. With its rugged coastline and the Otway rainforest behind it, it’s the perfect combination of forest and beach. If you want to holiday at either of these places you have to book a year in advance, as many families have been camping down there for sixty years or more.
It’s family time. It’s fun traditions—like decorating the tree, the annual beach cricket match, playing charades and board games, reading and teaching kids how to surf. Some people get really enthusiastic, and entire families enter the many ‘open water’ swims and beach runs, but no matter their energy levels everyone uses the time to kick back from routine and to recharge the batteries for another year ahead.
Despite being opposites, Hamish and Georgie have been best friends since university. They’ve been there for each other through good times and bad, so when Georgie asks Hamish one of the biggest favours a friend can ever ask he reluctantly agrees. He has one caveat: his family can never know.
Both Georgie and Hamish have totally different plans for Christmas, but the universe has a different idea again. Hamish finds himself living his worst nightmare. He’s in the heart of his extended family at Christmas, and Georgie and their secret are there too.
I hope you enjoy spending Christmas at Weeroona with the Pettigrew family. For pictures of the beautiful Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast head to my website at www.fionalowe.com. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.
Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with reading.
Fiona x
About the Author
Always an avid reader, FIONA LOWE decided to combine her love of romance with her interest in all things medical, so writing Medical Romance™ was an obvious choice! She lives in a seaside town in southern Australia, where she juggles writing, reading, working and raising two gorgeous sons with the support of her own real-life hero!
Recent books by the same author:
LETTING GO WITH DR RODRIGUEZ
SYDNEY HARBOUR HOSPITAL: TOM’S REDEMPTION* CAREER GIRL IN THE COUNTRY SINGLE DAD’S TRIPLE TROUBLE THE MOST MAGICAL GIFT OF ALL HER BROODING ITALIAN SURGEON MIRACLE: TWIN BABIES *Sydney Harbour Hospital
These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk
Newborn Baby For Christmas
Fiona Lowe
For Joanne, with special thanks for all your help regarding the practical and legal issues surrounding AI.
CHAPTER ONE
Nine years ago
‘LONDON via Africa?’
Dr Georgina Lambert high-fived her best mate, Hamish, and stomped on the eddies of disappointment that threatened to churn her stomach. ‘That’s awesome news.’
They’d just finished a fabulous hour of surfing and she quickly unwrapped the bulging white paper parcel of fish and chips that sat between them on a beach towel. Better to do that than think about the fact Hamish would soon be leaving Australia. Leaving her.
Breathing in the addictive aroma of salt and fat to block out her sadness, she said, ‘I guess this means we’re all grown up now.’
Hamish grinned as he brushed his wet, sun-and-salt-bleached curls out of his twinkling cornflower-blue eyes. ‘Grown up? Never.’
And that was Hamish to a T. He was the Pied Piper of fun and good times and generous in his inclusion of all. From the moment she’d met him when he’d dragged her out of her college study at university and had taken her to his then girlfriend’s party, he’d been telling her she needed to ‘take chances and live a little.’ Numerous girlfriends, a hundred parties later, along with a tough and gruelling study load, they were best friends.
They had the sort of friendship that grew from sharing life-altering experiences. Both of them understood the fine line between life and death that most people outside medicine had no clue about.
They knew they could talk to each other about things that would instantly kill a conversation at a cocktail party, and yet they understood that sometimes silence and just being there was all that was required. They made each other laugh and there’d been the odd time when they’d even cried together.
Over the years they’d leaned on each other at different times and Georgina couldn’t imagine her life without him.
Returning his smile with an affectionate shake of her head, she said, ‘Come to think of it, growing up would be your worst nightmare, wouldn’t it?’
He laughed. ‘Absolutely. Fortunately, big brothers Ben and Caleb are doing all the responsible stuff, and that has to be enough for the Pettigrew parents.’
She raised a brow because despite his party-boy ways, Hamish was a talented and reliable doctor. ‘Not to mention six years of medical school, three years of internship and now a job in A and E at St Thomas’s, London.’
He popped the ring pull on his can of drink. ‘It’s given me some parent cred for sure, and thankfully Ben’s impending fatherhood has distracted them beautifully from the “when are you going to settle down?” question.’
Seagulls squawked around them, ever hopeful of getting some of the fish that nestled next to crisp and golden chips. She tore off a strip of white paper, wrapping it around the steaming-hot battered fish.
‘I didn’t know you were going to be an uncle.’ Deep down inside her the hope that one day she’d be a mother flared, as it always did at the mention of a baby. ‘London means you’ll miss the birth of your first nephew or niece.’
‘It’s no biggie. Caleb will take his uncle duties seriously enough for both of us.’ He shrugged. ‘I’ll post the kid a Paddington Bear from London.’
And