First Comes Baby.... Michelle Douglas

have you been jaunting around this time?’

      He turned so his body was angled towards her, effectively excluding the older couple. ‘On safari in Africa.’

      ‘Lions and elephants?’

      ‘More than you could count.’

      ‘Elsie and I are getting married.’

      Meg sprayed the space between her and Ben with coffee. Ben returned the favour. Elsie promptly rose and took their mugs from them as they coughed and coughed. Her father handed them paper napkins. It was the most animated she’d ever seen them. But then they sat side-by-side on the sofa again, as stiff and formal as before.

      Meg’s coughing eased. She knew she should excuse herself for such disgusting manners, but she didn’t. For once she asked what was uppermost in her mind. ‘Are you serious?’

      Her father remained wooden. ‘Yes.’

      That was it. A single yes. No explanation. No declaration of love. Nothing.

      She glanced at Ben. He was staring at them as if he’d never seen them before. He was staring at them with a kind of fascinated horror, as if they were a car wreck he couldn’t drag his gaze from.

      She inched forward on her seat, doing all she could to catch first her father’s and then Elsie’s eyes. ‘I don’t mean to be impertinent, but…why?’

      ‘That is impertinent.’ Her father’s chin lifted. ‘And none of your business.’

      ‘If it’s not my business then I don’t know who else’s it is,’ she shot back, surprising herself. Normally she was the keeper of the peace, the smoother-over of awkward moments, doing all she could to make things easy for this pair who, it suddenly occurred to her, had never exactly made things easy for either her or Ben.

      ‘I told you they wouldn’t approve!’ Elsie said.

      ‘Oh, it’s not that I don’t approve,’ Meg managed.

      ‘I don’t,’ Ben growled.

      She stared at him. ‘Yeah, but you don’t approve of marriage on principle.’ She rolled her eyes. Did he seriously think he wanted to be a father?

      Think about that later.

      She turned back to the older couple. ‘The thing is, I didn’t even know you were dating. Why the secrecy? And…and… I mean…’

      Her father glanced at Elsie and then at Meg. ‘What?’ he rapped out.

      ‘Do you love each other?’

      Elsie glanced away. Her father’s mouth opened and closed but no sound came out.

      ‘I mean, surely that’s the only good reason to marry, isn’t it?’

      Nobody said anything. Her lips twisted. Have a banana, Meg. Was she the only person in this room who believed in love—good, old-fashioned, rumpy-pumpy love?

      ‘Elsie and I have decided that we’ll rub along quite nicely together.’

      She started to roll her eyes at her father’s pomposity, but then he did something extraordinary—he reached out and clasped Elsie’s hand. Elsie held his hand on her lap and it didn’t look odd or alien or wrong.

      Meg stared at those linked hands and had to fight down a sudden lump in her throat. ‘In that case, congratulations.’ She rose and kissed them both on the cheek.

      Ben didn’t join her.

      She took her seat and sent him an uneasy glance. ‘Ben?’

      He shrugged. ‘It’s no business of mine.’ He lolled in his chair with almost deliberate insolence. ‘They’re old enough to know what they want.’

      ‘Precisely,’ her father snapped.

      She rubbed her forehead. No amount of smoothing would ease this awkward moment. She decided to move the moment forward instead. ‘So, where will you live?’

      ‘We’ll live in my apartment at Nelson Bay.’

      She turned to Elsie. ‘What will you do with your house?’

      Before he’d retired Meg’s father had been a property developer. He still had a lot of contacts in the industry. Maybe they’d sell it. Maybe she’d end up with cheerful neighbours who’d wave whenever they saw her and have young children who’d develop lifelong friendships with her child.

      ‘I’m going to give it to Ben.’

      Ben shot upright to tower over all of them. ‘I don’t want it!’

      Her father rose. ‘That’s an ungracious way to respond to such a generous gift.’

      Ben glared at his grandmother. ‘Is he railroading you into this?’

      ‘Most certainly not!’ She stood too. ‘Meg’s right. She’s seen what you haven’t—or what you can’t. Not that I can blame you for that. But…but Laurie and I love each other. I understand how hard you might find that to believe after the way the two of us have been over the years, but I spent a lot of time with him when he was recuperating.’ She shot Meg an almost apologetic glance that made Meg fidget. ‘When you were at work, that is. We talked a lot. And we’re hoping it’s not too late for all of us to become a family,’ she finished falteringly, her cheeks pink with self-consciousness.

      It was one of the longest speeches Meg had ever heard her utter, but one glance at Ben and she winced.

      ‘A family?’ he bellowed.

      ‘Sit!’ Meg hollered.

      Everyone sat, and then stared at her in varying degrees of astonishment. She marvelled at her own daring, and decided to bluff it out. ‘Have you set a date for the wedding?’

      Elsie darted a glance at Meg’s father. ‘We thought the thirtieth of next month.’

      Next month? The end of March?

      That was only six weeks away!

      ‘We’ll be married by a celebrant at the registry office. We’d like you both to be there.’ Her father didn’t look at her as he spoke.

      ‘Of course.’ Though heaven only knew how she’d get Ben there. He avoided weddings like the plague—as if he thought they might somehow be catching.

      ‘And where have you settled on for your honeymoon?’

      ‘I…’ He frowned. ‘We’re too old for a honeymoon.’

      She caught his eye. ‘Dad, do you love Elsie?’

      He swallowed and nodded. She’d never seen him look more vulnerable in his life.

      She blinked and swallowed. ‘Then you’re not too old for a honeymoon.’ She hauled in a breath. ‘And, like Elsie, are you hoping to rebuild family ties?’

      ‘I sincerely hope so, Megan. I mean, you have a baby on the way now.’

      Correction—she’d never seen him look more vulnerable until now. He was proffering the olive branch she’d been praying for ever since she was eight years old, and she found all she wanted to do was run from the room. A great ball of hardness lodged in her stomach. Her father was willing to change for a grandchild, but not for her.

      ‘Meg.’

      She understood the implicit warning Ben sent her. He didn’t want her hurt or disappointed. Again. She understood then that the chasm between them all might be too wide ever to be breached.

      She folded her arms, her brain whirling. Very slowly, out of the mists of confusion and befuddlement—and resentment—a plan started to form. She glanced at the happy couple. A plan perfect in its simplicity. She glanced at Ben. A plan devious in design. A family, huh? They’d see about that. All of them. Laurie and Elsie, and Ben too.

      She