What man wouldn’t?
Chapter Eight
I’M IN love, I’m in love, I’m in love.
Hayley bounced into the antenatal clinic and Maggie looked up from the desk and raised her eyebrows.
‘How much?’
‘Sorry?’
‘How much have you won? I’m assuming from the look on your face you’ve won the lottery.’ Maggie studied her face and started to laugh. ‘Only in this case I suspect the jackpot is a six-foot-two, super-sexy obstetrician called Patrick. Am I right?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ But it was impossible to keep her happiness inside her and Hayley virtually danced round the desk to give Maggie a hug. ‘Oh, Maggie, I’ve never felt like this in my life before. I want to smile and smile. And I…actually I can’t put it into words.’
Maggie laughed and hugged her back. ‘That’s probably a good thing because clinic is about to start.’
‘That’s why I’m here. The labour ward is really quiet and Jenny said you needed some help down here.’ Hayley pulled away from her and realised that her hair hadn’t survived the hug. With a grin, she pulled the clasp from her hair, scooped it up and fastened it in her usual haphazard fashion. ‘I’ll be your wing man. Have I wished you Happy New Year yet? Happy New Year! Where do you want me to start?’
Maggie picked up a set of notes from the pile. ‘You can see Olivia. It should be routine but you know the drill anyway. Any problems, yell. Patrick’s registrar is doing the clinic because the boss is in some meeting or other. But I expect you know that.’
‘Actually, I do, because this morning he was wearing one of his gorgeous suits.’ Remembering how good he’d looked as he’d left the house, Hayley smiled dreamily and then pulled herself together. ‘Sorry. Where is Olivia?’
‘Room 3. Good luck.’ Maggie gave a wry smile. ‘Olivia talks almost as much as you do.’
After five minutes with the young woman, Hayley was forced to agree.
Olivia had regaled her with everything from her disastrous Christmas to the agonies of morning sickness.
‘Honestly, you have no idea.’ The woman rolled her eyes. ‘I didn’t know I’d feel this bad. Other women seem to sail through pregnancy, but I feel as though I’ve picked up some vile bug that doesn’t want to shift.’
‘It’s like that sometimes,’ Hayley murmured sympathetically, checking the height of Olivia’s uterus and recording it in the notes. She kept thinking about her evening with Patrick. The way he’d looked at her across the table. ‘Hopefully it will pass soon and you’ll start to feel better.’
‘I hope so. I think maybe it’s my punishment for all the drinks I had before I knew I was pregnant. This whole thing has come as a shock,’ Olivia confessed. ‘I’m embarrassed to admit this—I mean, how stupid can a girl be?—but I didn’t even suspect I could be pregnant. It’s not as if we were trying or anything. And I’m not the sort that marks my period on a calendar every month, you know? I’m just not obsessed with that sort of thing.’
‘I’m the same,’ Hayley said absently, recording the bloodpressure reading and comparing it with the time before, her head somewhere else entirely.
He’d said she was special.
‘It just sort of hit me one night. I thought to myself, My period is late. And then I worked out when my last one was and I thought, Oh…’ The girl used a word that made Hayley start.
‘I can imagine it must have been a bit of a shock.’
‘You have no idea.’ Olivia rolled her eyes heavenwards. ‘I keep telling Mick—he’s my boyfriend—well, at least I noticed I was pregnant before I actually delivered. You do hear of women who actually deliver the baby before they find out. I wasn’t quite as clueless as that.’
‘It isn’t always straightforward,’ Hayley said tactfully. ‘Some women do still have a light period for the first few months and that can delay them realising that they’re pregnant.’
‘Oh, that didn’t happen to me.’ Olivia slipped her feet back into her shoes and stood up. ‘I had no period at all, but I was basically just too busy to notice. If you’re not expecting to be pregnant, you’re not looking, are you? I bet you’re not like that. You midwives must be really up on stuff like that. I bet no midwife has ever had an unplanned baby. I bet you tick off that date in your calendar every month, just to be sure.’
‘I don’t go that far.’ Hayley laughed. ‘But I always know when—’ When she was due. And…
Oh, God, she’d missed a period.
The realisation hit her along with a wave of almost crippling nausea and panic.
She’d missed a period. She’d missed a period.
‘What’s the matter?’ Olivia stared at her in alarm. ‘Is something wrong? You said everything seemed fine. Are you worried about the baby’s growth?’