Page 35 of His Best Friend's Baby

Celia was instantly sitting to attention, feet off the coffee table, eyes bright and wide, mouth stretched in a hopeful grin. ‘Come on, Polly, spill.’

‘Well, there is a guy at work who’s asked me out.’

‘Way to go, girlfriend! That’s brilliant. Tell me more. What’s he like?’

Polly shrugged. ‘Nice enough, I guess. A bit of a geek, of course. I mean, he’s in IT, after all.’

‘But you like him?’

‘I’m not madly smitten, or anything. But, yeah, like I said, he’s quite nice.’

‘So you’ve told him you’ll go out with him?’

‘Not yet. I need to find a babysitter.’

‘I can babysit, as long as it’s not Tuesday or Wednesday nights when I work back.’

‘Gosh, I wasn’t fishing, Celia, but thanks.’

‘Mind you,’ Celia added with a playful smile. ‘I’ve got to approve this guy first. You got a photo?’

Polly hesitated, not sure how far down this path she should go, but then she gave in. ‘He’s on Facebook.’

‘Cool.’ Quick as a western cowboy reaching for his gun holster, Celia pulled out her phone. ‘What’s his name?’

Again, Polly hesitated. But Celiahadoffered to babysit, so she told her. ‘He’s called Will Cooper.’

‘Hmm… Will Cooper. There’s a ton of them on Facebook.’ Celia frowned as she scrolled. ‘Hang on, here’s one in Melbourne who works in IT.’ She held up the phone. ‘This your guy? The one with the beard and glasses.’

‘Yep, that’s him,’ Polly said, although she found it a bit weird to have this work colleague she’d only known a short time referred to as her ‘guy’.

‘Hmm…’ Celia said again as she squinted at the image on her screen. ‘I know I shouldn’t judge a man by his profile pic.’

‘No, you shouldn’t.’

‘But I can’t help comparing him with your studly mate, Seth.’

At the mere mention of Seth, Polly nearly spilled what was left of her drink. Needing to camouflage this unhelpful reaction, she jumped to her feet and retrieved the prosecco from the fridge, first topping up Celia’s glass, and then her own.

The distraction worked. Feeling much calmer now, she was able to speak without faltering. ‘There’s no point in comparing Will with Seth. For starters, Seth’s not a potential date.’

Celia frowned again. ‘Pity about that.’

Please don’t start down this track again. Polly had already endured unnecessarily long conversations about Seth with Celia. When she’d first returned to Melbourne from Wirralong, Celia had been totally blown away when she heard about Seth’s role in Summer’s arrival. She’d carried on as if it was the most romantic story she’d ever heard.

‘And you’ve got to admit, Polly, the man’s not just a hero, he’s damnhot,’ Celia had declared. ‘And now you’re telling me he has a drop-dead gorgeous house as well?Andhe was offering this house to you for as long as you wanted to stay there?’

Polly had tried to set this story straight. ‘Seth was mainly concerned about Summer. He wanted her to have a chance to grow stronger before we travelled back to Melbourne.’

‘Oh, sure, the man was only thinking of the baby.’ Celia had accompanied this with an elaborate eye-roll. ‘Polly, Seth Ramsay didn’t even know about Summer when he came looking for you last February.’

Polly almost retorted that he probably wouldn’t have found her either, if Celia hadn’t interfered. But she didn’t want to annoy her friend and risk upsetting their delicate harmony. It wasn’t as if she had friends to spare.

So she’d had little choice but to listen to several rave sessions before Celia finally let the subject of Seth drop. Eventually, however, Celia had given it a rest and Polly had thought she was finished with the Seth Ramsay lectures.

Seemed she’d be in for another session now if she wasn’t careful.

‘I still reckon Seth really cares about you, Polly. I mean, why would he have bothered to come all this way, just to make sure you were okay, if he didn’t care?’

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