A Natural Father by Sarah Mayberry Page A

until we’d renovated the practice to create an extra office.”

    Again the tightness in her belly.

    “Lucy probably only needs the money for a year or two,” she said. “As soon as she’s paid us back, we’ll renovate and start trying.”

    “Rosie. Be serious. It will take longer than two years for Lucy to pay out a loan. She’ll be working part-time, she’ll have expenses for the baby. It could take her years to get on top of things. We’ve dealt with enough bankruptcies to know that most small businesses don’t survive the first few years.”

    “Lucy is not going to go bankrupt!”

    “I didn’t say she was. But she’s also not going to suddenly become Martha Stewart, either.”

    He watched her, waiting for her to acknowledge that he was speaking the truth.

    Finally she nodded. “Okay. You’re right. It probably won’t be two years.”

    He returned to the dining table and sat. His meal was only half-eaten, but he pushed it away.

    “So we need to make a decision. Do we invest in our dream or your sister’s?” he asked quietly.

    She sat, too. Suddenly she felt very heavy.

    “We could remortgage,” she suggested.

    “We’re already leveraged because of buying the office. And once you have a baby and we put a partner on, our income will be reduced. That was the whole point of socking away extra money to pay for the renovations rather than taking on more debt. You know I would have been happy if we were pregnant years ago. But I know financial security is important to you, so we did things your way. Now you’re telling me you want to put things off again while we lend our renovation fund to your sister?”

    Rosie picked up her fork and pushed it into the pile of cold peas on her plate.

    “Do we put off having a family or not, Rosie?” he asked.

    She raised her gaze to him. She knew exactly how much he wanted children. It was one of the first things they’d discussed when they got together all those years ago. He wanted at least three children, wanted to build a family that would make up for the lack in his own shitty childhood. Even though the thought had scared her even back then, she’d invested in his dream, built castles in the air with him. And for the past eight years she’d been burying her head in the sand, pretending this day would never come.

    “I shouldn’t have offered the money to Lucy,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

    Andrew waited patiently for her to answer properly.

    “We’re not putting off starting a family,” she confirmed. “I’ll tell Lucy that we can’t lend her the money after all.”

    Andrew’s shoulders relaxed. She saw for the first time that there was a sheen of tears in his eyes. This meant so much to him.

    “I’ll come with you. We’ll explain together,” he said.

    Rosie shook her head.

    “No. It was my mistake. I’ll do it.”

    She stood. She hated to think of how disappointed Lucy would be. Her sister had been so excited this afternoon.

    If only she hadn’t acted so impetuously. If only she’d stopped to think, waited to talk to Andrew tonight. But she hadn’t, and now she had to go break her sister’s heart to avoid breaking her husband’s. And then, somehow, she had to overcome this terror that struck her every time she thought about becoming a mother.

    LUCY DRAGGED HERSELF to the market the next morning. Never had she wanted to stay in bed so badly, not even the morning after Marcus left.
    She felt defeated, and it scared her that she couldn’t see a way out. She had no choice but to keep on working for as long as she could and hope that her cousin was prepared to drive for her at minimum wage and that she had a problem-free pregnancy before giving birth to the world’s most perfect baby.
    She didn’t blame her sister for reneging on the loan. Rosie’s offer had been generous and impulsive, and Lucy totally understood why she and Andrew had decided they had to retract it once cooler heads had prevailed.

    She