The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump by Kandy Shepherd

at the time.’
    ‘Try telling him that. He’d call it pride. I’d call it pig-headed stubbornness. The only thing that brought me and my father together was horses. We both loved them. I was on my first horse before I was two years old. The day our horses had to go was pretty well the end of any real communication between me and my father.’
    There was real sympathy in his green eyes. ‘You didn’t have to shoot—?’
    ‘We were lucky. A wonderful horse rescue charity took them to a different part of the state that wasn’t suffering as much. The loss hit my father really hard.’
    ‘And you too?’
    She bowed her head. ‘Yes.’
    Jake was quiet for a long moment before he spoke again. ‘You don’t have to talk about this any more if you don’t want to. I didn’t realise how painful it would be for you.’
    ‘S’okay,’ she said. ‘I might as well gallop to the finish.’ She picked up her fork, put it down again, twisted a paper serviette between her fingers. ‘Country girl wins scholarship to university in Sydney to study business degree. Leaves home, abandoning mother to her menfolk and a miserable marriage. No one happy about it but country girl...’ Her voice trailed away.
    Jake got up from the table and came to her side. He leaned down from behind her and wrapped big, strong muscular arms around her. ‘Country girl makes good in the big city. That’s a happy ending to the story.’
    ‘I guess it is,’ she said, leaning back against him, enjoying his strength and warmth, appreciating the way he was comforting her. ‘My life now is just the way I want it.’
    Except she couldn’t have a baby. Underpinning it all was the one area of her life she’d been unable to control, where the body she kept so healthy and strong had let her down so badly.
    She twisted around to look up at him. ‘And Day One of my vacation is going perfectly.’
    ‘So how about Days Two, Three and Four?’ he said. ‘If you were by yourself at your resort what would you be doing?’
    ‘Relaxing. Lying by the pool.’
    ‘We can do that here.’
    ‘Swimming?’
    ‘The pool awaits,’ he said, gesturing to the amazing wet-edge pool outside the window, its aquamarine water glistening in the afternoon sunlight.
    ‘That water is calling to me,’ she said, twisting herself up and out of the chair so she stood in the circle of his arms, looking up at him. She splayed her hands against his chest, still revelling in the fact she could touch him.
    For these few days he was hers.
    His eyes narrowed. ‘I’m just getting to know you, Eliza. But I suspect there’s a list you want to check off before you fly home—you might even have scheduled some activities in to your days.’
    ‘List? Schedules?’ she said, pretending to look around her. ‘Have you been talking to Andie? She always teases me about the way I order my day.’
    ‘I’m not admitting to anything,’ he said. ‘So there is a list?’
    ‘We-e-ell...’ She drew out the word. ‘There are a few things I’d like to do. But only if you want to do them as well.’
    ‘Fire away,’ he said.
    ‘One: go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. Two: play golf on one of the fabulous courses up here. Then—’
    Jake put up one large, well-shaped hand in a halt sign. ‘Just wait there. Did I hear you say “play golf”?’
    ‘Uh, yes. But you don’t have to, of course. I enjoy golf. When I was in magazine advertising sales it was a very useful game to play. I signed a number of lucrative deals after a round with senior decision-makers.’
    He lifted her up and swooped her around the room. ‘Golf! The girl plays golf . One of my favourite sports.’
    ‘You being a senior decision-maker and all,’ she said with a smile.
    ‘Me being a guy who likes to swing a club and slam a little white ball,’ he said.
    ‘In my case a neon pink ball. I can see it better on the fairway,’ she said.
    ‘She plays with a pink ball? Of course she does. Are you the perfect woman,