Hollywood Hills Collection. Lynne Marshall

buried her face in Cleo’s black fur. ‘And I don’t think it would be very fair on the baby.’ She looked into loving black eyes. ‘Shall we find out?’

      Poor Cleo had been listening to her rabbit on about it for days now and it didn’t seem very fair that she died not knowing for sure.

      And so she peed on the stick and came out a few moments later.

      ‘I am,’ she said to Cleo, and she accepted her lick and gave Cleo a kiss as the news sank in.

      She was pregnant by a man who had hauled on his boots at the first sniff of commitment.

      A man she was seriously head over heels about.

      But more than that.

      She was pregnant.

      But more than that...

      Freya wanted to be.

      * * *

      Zack knew that James had an evening theatre list and he actually drove past Freya’s and wondered if he should go up.

      It was odd, but when James had said that Cleo was vicious, Zack had wanted to laugh. That morning, back in her bed, he’d thought Cleo had been warning him to be nice to her mistress. Instead, it had just been a demented dog.

      It was her demented dog, though, who had been with her through all the hard times. He saw Freya come down the stairs, carrying Cleo and chatting to her as she did her business and then back up the stairs they went.

      And a little while later he saw a couple come down carrying a bundle in a blanket and he knew it was the vet and assistant and that Cleo had just been euthanised.

      Zack, who never got close to anyone, was tearing up over a dog, or was it over Freya and how devastated she must feel right now?

      This would not end up in bed, Zack told himself as he got out of the car. He was knocking on a door as a friend.

      Or maybe it would end in bed, he amended, but only if she so chose.

      Yet the woman who answered it didn’t just surprise him—Freya shocked him.

      ‘Yes?’

      She was pale and rather angry looking but what floored Zack was that she was absolutely dry-eyed.

      ‘I heard that your dog wasn’t well...’

      ‘And?’

      ‘Freya?’

      ‘What do you want, Zack?’ Freya asked. ‘Do you think sex is going to help?’ She looked at him. ‘You do, don’t you?’

      ‘I get what works for me might not for you. I’m just checking if you’re okay.’

      ‘Well, as you can see, I am.’

      She slammed the door on him.

      Screw you, Freya thought.

      Oh, she wanted him but, more than that, she wanted Cleo tonight.

      Her phone buzzed and it was a text from Mila.

      James told me about Cleo.

      Then it buzzed again and it was James.

      Do you want me to stop by?

      No, thanks, I’m fine.

      How many ways could she say it?

      Red came and drank all her beer and he cried and then he did all the stuff with the bowls and leads and things for her.

      And finally a teary Red headed off and it left Freya alone in her apartment minus Cleo, and that had never happened before.

      She’d done everything right by her, Freya told herself. Cleo had had the best possible last day.

      There was only one thing about this day Freya regretted.

      That Zack wasn’t there.

      Not for the sex, or the possible progression of them, and not because she had found out she was pregnant...

      It would have helped to have him here tonight.

      Just that.

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      IT WAS THE oddest week.

      No Cleo to chat to.

      All her routines felt shot and she didn’t know how to tell Zack the news.

      Beth had returned from her honeymoon and they had a girls’ night in to go through the photos and videos.

      The tamest girls’ night in—they were all pregnant now, not that Freya let on.

      She was detoxing too, she told them!

      ‘The photos are amazing,’ Beth said. ‘Except these ones.’

      There was Zack striding down the stairs and people turning and frowning in annoyance as he messed up the shot.

      And Freya found herself laughing quietly and said that she wanted a copy.

      ‘I can have the crowd edited out,’ Beth offered.

      The crowd being her friends!

      ‘No, no,’ Freya said. ‘I like it.’

      So much so that when they were all talking husbands she snapped a photo of it onto her phone.

      After that it was a weekend for thinking. Freya knew that she had to tell Zack and she went by his office on the Monday morning but got cold feet.

      ‘What I can do for you, Freya?’ Zack said.

      There were so many possible answers to that question that they even shared a smile, and Freya made up something about the Canadian hockey player. It served its purpose and diverted them back to work, and Zack got cross but it was clear the lust remained.

      Freya was now swiping oolong tea every time she went past one of the waiting rooms just to keep hydrated as she was throwing up so often.

      ‘How are you?’ James stopped by her office.

      Lately he seemed to be doing that a lot.

      ‘I’m fine.’

      ‘That doesn’t mean anything with you,’ James said, and finally he told her what was on his mind. ‘You’ve lost weight.’

      ‘James...’ Freya took a breath. ‘Every time I drop a couple of pounds it doesn’t have to mean that I’m back to sticking my fingers down my throat.’

      ‘I didn’t say that. I asked if you were okay.’

      ‘Well, I am.’

      ‘Good.’

      ‘And while we’re discussing the great white elephant of my eating disorder,’ Freya said, ‘I’m going to start taking clients. I’m having some cards made up. If you want me to see them elsewhere...’

      ‘Are you sure you’re not taking on too much?’

      ‘Do I ever ask you that?’

      ‘Actually, yes,’ James said. ‘I’ve got to go. I’ve got interviews but I’ll let the others know that you’re taking on clients and if they have anyone who might benefit from a referral.’ He gave a roll of his eyes. ‘That’s half my patient list, actually. I don’t think you’ll ever need to advertise.’ He turned at the sound of Zack’s footsteps coming down the corridor. ‘I’m just about to start interviewing for your replacement.’

      ‘Not now,’ Zack clipped. ‘I’ve got a patient to see.’

      He was dreading it.

      It was the last-chance saloon for this little mite and his parents knew it.

      All night he had been up late, speaking with colleagues,