Midwives On-Call. Alison Roberts

go back to the life we led … I’m over nightclubs, Oliver. I’m over living just for me.’

       ‘Isn’t there an us in there?’

       ‘I thought there was, but I thought we wanted a family. I hadn’t realised it came with conditions.’

       ‘Em, I can’t.’

       ‘So you’re leaving?’

       ‘You’re not giving me any choice.’

       ‘I guess I’m not. I’m sorry, Oliver.’

      Five years …

      Okay, their marriage was long over but somehow she still seemed … partly his responsibility. And the cost of this repair would make her insurance company’s eyes water.

      It behoved him …

      ‘Just to see,’ he told himself. He’d thought he’d drop in to visit Adrianna when he’d come to Melbourne anyway, to see how she was.

      And talk to Adrianna about Em?

      Yeah, but he was over it. He’d had a couple of relationships in the last five years, even if they had been fleeting. He’d moved on.

      ‘So let’s be practical,’ he told himself, and hit his phone and organised a tow truck, and a hire car, and half an hour later he was on the freeway, heading to the suburb where his ex-mother-in-law lived. With his wife and her two children, and her new life without him.

      ‘You hit who?’

      ‘Oliver.’ Em was feeding Toby, which was a messy joy. Toby was two years old and loved his dinner. Adrianna had made his favourite animal noodles in a tomato sauce. Toby was torn between inspecting every animal on his spoon and hoovering in the next three spoonfuls as if there was no tomorrow.

      Adrianna was sitting by the big old fire stove, cuddling Gretta. The little girl’s breathing was very laboured.

      Soon …

      No. It hurt like hot knives to have to think about it. Much better to concentrate on distractions, and Oliver was surely a distraction.

      ‘He’s working at the Victoria?’

      ‘Yep. Starting today.’

      ‘Oh, Em … Can you stay there?’

      ‘I can’t walk away. We need the money. Besides, it’s the best midwifery job in Melbourne. I love working with Isla and her team.’

      ‘So tell him to leave. You were there first.’

      ‘I don’t think you can tell a man like Oliver Evans to leave. Besides, the hospital needs him. I read his CV on the internet during lunch break. His credentials are even more awesome than when I knew him. He’s operating on Ruby’s baby and there’s no one better to do it.’

      And that had Adrianna distracted. ‘How is Ruby?’

      Em wasn’t supposed to bring work home. She wasn’t supposed to talk about patients outside work, but Adrianna spent her days minding the kids so Em could work. Adrianna had to feel like she was a part of it, and in a way she was. If it wasn’t for her mum, she’d never be able to do this.

      This. Chaos. Animal noodles. Mess on the kitchen floor. Fuzzy, a dopey half-poodle, half something no one could guess at, was currently lurking under Toby’s highchair on the off-chance the odd giraffe or elephant would drop from on high.

      ‘Hey, it’s all done.’ There was a triumphant bang from the laundry and Mike appeared in the doorway, waving his spanner. ‘That’s that mother fixed. I’d defy any drop to leak anywhere now. Anything else I can do for you ladies?’

      ‘Oh, Mike, that’s fabulous. But I wish you’d let us pay—’

      ‘You’ve got free plumbing for life,’ Mike said fiercely. Mike was their big, burly, almost scary-looking next-door neighbour. His ginger hair was cropped to almost nothing. He wore his jeans a bit too low, he routinely ripped the sleeves out of his T-shirts because sleeves annoyed him, and in his spare time he built his body. If you met Mike on a dark night you might turn the other way. Fast.

      Em had met Mike on a dark night. He’d crashed into their kitchen, banging the back door so hard it had broken.

      ‘Em, the wife … My Katy … The baby … There’s blood, oh, my God, there’s blood … You’re a midwife. Please …’

      Katy had had a fast, fierce delivery of their third child, and she’d haemorrhaged. Mike had got home to find her in the laundry, her baby safely delivered, but she’d been bleeding out.

      She’d stopped breathing twice before the ambulance had arrived. Em had got her back.

      Mike and Katy were now the parents of three boys who promised to grow up looking just like their dad, and Mike was Em’s slave for ever. He’d taken Em and her household under his wing, and a powerful wing it was. There were usually motorbikes parked outside Mike and Katy’s place—multiple bikes—but no matter what the pressure of his family, his job or his biker mates, Mike dropped in every night—just to check.

      Now, as Toby finished the last mouthful of his noodles, Mike hefted him out of his highchair and whirled him round and hugged him in a manner that made Em worry the noodles might come back up again. But Toby crowed in glee.

      ‘Can I take him next door for a few minutes?’ he asked. ‘We’ve got a new swing, a double-seater. My boys’ll be outside and Henry and Tobes’ll look a treat on it. Give you a bit of peace with Gretta, like.’

      He glanced at Gretta but he didn’t say any more. What was happening was obvious. Gretta was more and more dependent on oxygen, but more and more it wasn’t enough.

      If Mike took Toby, Em could sit by the fire and cuddle Gretta while Adrianna put her feet up and watched the telly. Toby was already lighting up with excitement.

      ‘That’d be great, Mike, thank you,’ Em told him. ‘I’ll pop over and pick him up in an hour.’

      ‘Bring Gretta with you,’ Mike said. ‘Give her a go on the swing. If she’s up for it.’

      But she wasn’t up for it. They all knew it, and that knowledge hung over the house, a shadow edging closer.

      Today Oliver’s presence had pushed that shadow back a little, made Em’s thoughts fly sideways, but, Oliver or not, the shadows were there to stay.

       CHAPTER FOUR

      THE LAST TIME Oliver had visited his ex-mother-in-law, her house had looked immaculate. Adrianna was devoted to her garden. At this time of year her roses had always looked glorious, her herbaceous borders had been clipped to perfect symmetry and her lawns had always been lush and green, courtesy of the tanks she’d installed specifically so she could be proud of her garden the year round.

      Not now.

      The grass on the lawn was a bit long and there were bare patches, spots where things had been left for a while. Where once an elegant table setting had stood under the shade of a Manchurian pear, there was now a sandpit and a paddling pool.

      A beach ball lay on the front path. He had to push it aside to reach the front door.

      It took him less than a minute to reach the door but by the time he had, the last conversation he’d had with Em had played itself out more than a dozen times in his head.

       ‘Em, I can’t adopt. I’m sorry, but I can’t guarantee I can love kids who aren’t my own.’

      ‘They would be your own,’ she’d said. She’d been emotional, distraught, but underneath she’d been sure. ‘I want kids, Oliver.