Days Like These by Miranda Barnes Page B

children.'
    'Pity,' Jenny said with a sigh. 'All the best men ….'

 
    Chapter Fifteen
     
    Meg settled into life with Baby James very easily. She had plenty to do, and plenty to think about. Somewhere ahead a return to work beckoned, but she was happy to let that come towards her slowly. Jenny kept her in touch with events in town, such as they were, and her frequent visits to Bracken Cottage were very welcome. Not everything she said was, though.
    'Have you heard from Robert?' Jenny asked on one of those occasions.
    'Robert?'
    'That man you work with.'
    'No. Should I have?'
    'Well, he seemed very fond of you.'
    'Jenny! He's a friend, and a colleague. That's all.'
    'Anything you say.'
    Meg didn't know whether to be amused or exasperated.
    'Anyway,' Jenny added, 'what are you planning on doing? Staying here at Great Newton a bit longer? I should, if I were you.'
    'I don't know. I've been here six months already.'
    'So what? It's nice here. And it must help, having ready-made baby sitters.'
    'That's true. But I'm thinking of going back to Gosforth soon. I'll have to start preparing for my return to work.'
    'Do you want me to do anything in the house?'
    'No, it's all right, thanks. Dad's been going down every week, to keep an eye on things. He says the house is fine.'
    'Have you been back yourself?'
    Meg shook her head and then paused uncertainly. 'I'll have to one day, though, I suppose. Or sell it. I'm not sure how easy it will be to move back in there.'
    'Well, there's no hurry. Take your time. The house can wait. So can the job, for that matter. Your maternity leave has a bit to go yet, doesn't it?'
    Meg nodded.
    'Anyway,' Jenny added, with a glance at her watch, 'lovely though it is here, and wonderful as it's been to see you and James again, I must be off. His lordship will be awaiting my return anxiously.'
    'Really?'
    'Oh, yes! Wondering where his next meal is coming from. Mike is not a New Man.'
    *
    After Jenny had left, Meg's thoughts turned to Robert, who would probably meet Jenny's requirements for a New Man but would almost certainly bridle at the label. She wondered if he really was fond of her. It would be nice, she decided with a smile, however unlikely. She would quite like him to be fond of her. In fact, she would like it a lot. He was a lovely man, New or otherwise. If things had been different ….
    But it was no good fantasising about that. They weren't different. Still, even just as a friend, she was certainly very fond of him. She was able to talk to him as she could to no-one else. They seemed to think about things in the same way, and to know what each other was thinking even before they spoke. It was a bit scary, being so comfortable together. Even the good times with Jamie had not really been like that. Not often, anyway.
    Oh, she did miss Robert! And Kirsty and Sean. She missed them all. And it was such a long time since she'd seen them. She hoped they were well, and happy. And she wondered if they missed her just a little bit, as well.
    A cry from James diverted her, and stopped the tears that were threatening to fall. She got up to see to him.
    'But I've got you now, haven't I?' she told him as he gurgled happily away at her. 'And you mean more to me than anything in the whole wide world.'
    Baby James looked as if he understood every word, and as if he believed her implicitly.
    All the same, she thought, once she was back in Gosforth she would contact Robert. She would ring him just to see how they all were.
    *
    She returned to her own house soon afterwards. She had been putting it off but she knew she had to do it sometime. Apart from anything else, she needed to sort out a child minder for James. Maternity leave wasn't going to last forever, unfortunately, and she needed time to find someone reliable to look after James when the day came.
    Jenny soon re-discovered the route to her front door, and they developed a new routine of going to the supermarket together. It made grocery shopping less of a