Page 22 of One Night with the Doctor
Ginny looked at her uncertainly. ‘Really?’
Callie nodded knowing that Ginny was going to require extra support and reassurance and that was what she did. She’d do whatever it took to get Ginny through this pregnancy. ‘Really.’
On that promise, Brad took Ginny home which left just her and Sebastian in the car again for the ride back to Jambalyn. Not that she was paying him much heed now as she reflected on that strange moment when the sound of the foetal heartbeat had filled the room and tears had threatened.
What had that been about? Hormones? But her period wasn’t due.
‘So, is he an ex-lover?’
‘Hmm?’ she asked distractedly.
‘Blake. I’m guessing he’s an old flame?’
Callie had no desire to keep up the mystery about her relationship with Blake. It was fine during the ultrasound but seemed churlish to continue the facade.
‘We’re just friends. Old friends. We went to uni together. He married another uni friend of mine. They have three children. I’m their godmother.’
‘Ah.’
It was just one word but it was loaded with relief and something that sounded very much like smugness. Neither of which Callie wanted to explore too deeply especially not when all she could think about suddenly was how many of her friends had chosen her to be godmother to their kids.
It seemed like she was destined to always be the godmother.
Never the mum.
5
The plane hit an air pocket and Callie grabbed convulsively for her armrests as her blood pressure spiked. Unfortunately, Sebastian’s arm lay along their shared one and she felt the delicious rub of masculine hair against the pulse point at her wrist before she snatched it away.
‘Nervous flyer?’
Sebastian’s low murmur at her ear almost caused her to jump again. ‘I prefer to be on the ground,’ she said, her jaw tense, her heart pounding madly. If only she could be sure it was from the turbulence and not the illicit brief contact she’d avoided these past two months.
‘Relax,’ he urged, stretching out his legs. ‘You know more people by far die in car crashes than plane crashes.’
She rolled her head to the side and regarded his profile. He’d shut his eyes and she looked her fill. Strong jaw cleanly shaven, straight nose, fringe flopping across his forehead. Long blond-brown eyelashes casting shadows on a prominent cheekbone. And a mouth that still haunted her dreams.
‘I like my chances of surviving a car accident more than I do should this plane suddenly go hurtling to the ground and smash into a million fiery pieces.’
Sebastian chuckled and opened his eyes, rolling his head towards her at the same time and she averted her gaze. Even after a couple of months the thing between them was still there. Sure, they’d both done a passable job of ignoring it but in unguarded moments she knew it hadn’t gone away. That it was always there, simmering beneath the surface. Just waiting for a moment to erupt. Biding its time.
And she knew he knew it, too.
‘Excuse me, sir, would you like something to drink?’
Callie shifted her attention to the blonde, pixie-faced, well-endowed air hostess batting her eyelashes at Sebastian. He smiled at the very attractive woman offering him a beverage and, if the message in her eyes was correct, a hell of a lot more than that. ‘I’d love a coffee, thank you.’
‘Certainly, sir.’ She poured some percolated coffee into a china cup – no paper cups in business class. ‘Are you going to Melbourne for work or pleasure?’
‘Work, I’m afraid. We’re attending a weekend seminar.’
The air hostess, whose name badge proclaimed her to be Meghan, pouted prettily, not even faltering at Sebastian’s we. ‘Oh, what a shame,’ she murmured, passing him his coffee, her gaze firmly trained on him.
Callie rolled her eyes. ‘I’d like one too, thank you,’ she interrupted, a little more tartly than she’d expected.
‘Certainly, madam.’ Meghan nodded, reluctantly dragging her flirty gaze from Sebastian to grace Callie with a cool, professional one.
Callie shook her head in disgust as Meghan moved on. ‘Does every woman on earth feel the need to flirt with you?’ she grouched.
