Secrets of a Career Girl (14 page)

EPILOGUE

‘I
T
’
S
CALLED
A
spontaneous pregnancy,’ her GP explained as Penny sat there, stunned. ‘Some women do get pregnant naturally after IVF.’

It would seem so.

Penny honestly didn’t know how she felt.

She’d imagined hearing she was pregnant so many times, but now that it was here, she actually didn’t know how to deal with the news.

They had just returned from their honeymoon—Louise had given them the cruise bug and they had sailed around the Mediterranean, getting brown and being spoiled. Penny closed her eyes at the thought of the champagne and the things she had eaten, though now, when she thought about it, she hadn’t really indulged that much.

‘We nearly didn’t go,’ Penny admitted as she chatted to the doctor. She’d thought they’d have to call it off because Mr Dean had told them that they couldn’t both take annual leave at the same time.

‘We’re hardly going to go on separate honeymoons,’ Ethan had said—that was how they had announced their news—and given Ethan didn’t actually have any annual leave and would be taking it unpaid, they could afford a locum to cover him.

‘Be glad that you had your cruise.’ Her GP smiled. ‘Because you won’t be doing that sort of thing for a while.’

And Penny was glad that they had, so glad, because they’d had nearly a year of just them and it had been amazing—dating for all of a week before Penny had put her house on the market and she and the cat had moved in with him, then just getting to know each other and learning how to laugh and to love.

Penny drove home. She was supposed to be getting her hair done as it was her mother’s wedding in a few hours’ time, but instead she’d have to make do with heated rollers.

She just had to see Ethan, had to find out how he would take the news.

‘Your hair’s nice,’ Ethan said when she got back. He was in the bathroom, shaving, the cat sitting by the sink watching him.

‘I didn’t get my hair done.’ Penny had to laugh.

‘Oh,’ Ethan said. ‘Well, it still looks nice. Where did you go?’ He saw her hesitate and he pretty much guessed she’d been to her GP.

Penny had been fantastic and absolutely adored Jasmine’s little baby girl, Amelia, and they’d just found out that Kate was going to try for a fourth. There were so many friends and relations getting pregnant that Ethan was noticing and he was starting to feel little pinpricks of disappointment when Penny’s period rarely came.

And not just for Penny.

He liked the time spent with Justin, and Penny was good with him too. He wanted now what Penny had wanted—a baby—though he couldn’t really tell her that. No doubt soon they’d be off to America to look at little monkeys, but first...

‘You’ll be all right at the wedding?’ He rinsed his face and then turned round. ‘You’re all right with your mum and Bradley?’

‘Apart from his name,’ Penny said. ‘And do they have to be so affectionate in public?’

She was the oddest person he had ever met and he loved her all the more for it. And maybe the timing wasn’t right, maybe he should bring it up after the wedding because he didn’t want to upset her beforehand, but right or wrong he said what was on his mind.

‘If you want to go again...’

‘Go again?’

‘On IVF,’ Ethan said. ‘I’d be fine with that.’

‘You’re sure?’ Penny’s eyes narrowed. ‘That doesn’t sound very enthusiastic.’

‘Okay.’ He tried again. ‘Why don’t
we
go on IVF?’ He thought for a moment. ‘That makes me sound like Gordon.’ And then he was serious. ‘If you want to then so do I.’

‘What do you want, Ethan?’

‘I can’t believe I’m saying this,’ Ethan admitted. ‘But I’d like to try for a baby...’ He rushed into his ‘but if it doesn’t work then I won’t be disappointed’ speech, but she halted him. There was no need for that. She loved it that he wanted this too, that it wasn’t something she was foisting on them too soon.

‘We don’t need to try,’ Penny said. ‘I’ve just come from the doctor’s.’

He was scared to get too excited, just in case it was like last time, only it was nothing like last time.

‘I’m thirteen weeks,’ Penny said, and she watched his reaction as it sank in that while they’d been busy with weddings and football matches and honeymoons and juggling work and falling deeper and deeper in love, she’d been pregnant.

‘Can we tell people?’ Ethan asked.

‘I guess,’ Penny said, because they were out of the first trimester. ‘But not just yet. It’s Mum’s day today.’

And it was just as well she didn’t get her hair done because it would have been messed up anyway as they were soon off to bed to celebrate. Ethan had the good sense to set the alarm just in case they got a bit carried away.

‘Can’t be late for your mum’s wedding,’ he said as a very tanned Penny stripped off.

They were on two sets to one, with Ethan winning, and each game spent an awful lot of time at deuce.

Record times!

‘Hey, I bet when you were fantasising about having your wild fling with me,’ Ethan said as he dropped his towel, ‘you never imagined it ending up like this.’

‘No,’ Penny said, because the best she had been able to imagine then had been a shocked reaction and a baby that wasn’t his.

The truth was so much better.

* * * * *

We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin ebook. Connect with us for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

Subscribe to our newsletter:
Harlequin.com/newsletters

Visit
Harlequin.com

We like you—why not like us on Facebook:
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

Follow us on Twitter:
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

Read our blog for all the latest news on our authors and books:
HarlequinBlog.com

ISBN: 9781460316276

Copyright © 2013 by Carol Marinelli

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

www.Harlequin.com