Page 39 of His Best Friend's Baby

Bummer.

Hastily, Polly checked her junk file, just in case. Still nothing.

It was so absurd the way her spirits sank.

Girl, get a grip. Surely you hadn’t expected Seth to be sitting around, twiddling his thumbs and just waiting to hear from you?

*

Two hours later,there was still no message and Polly knew she was going to take ages to get to sleep. It was so annoying. She didn’t need to consult Seth about this job offer. Sure, it meant leaving Australia for an unspecified stretch of time, but she didn’t need his permission to depart the country.

She’d been offered a fabulous chance to expand her horizons and make some serious money. And yet—

And yet, actually taking herself so far away from Seth suddenly felt—

Not wrong, exactly, but not exactly right, either.

Over the past months, Polly had been ridiculously comforted by the knowledge that Seth was just a couple of hours away. At times, she’d let her mind play with the possibility that at some point in the future, they might—

No, Polly, don’t start down that track again.

Rolling over, she thumped at her pillow and willed herself to relax. She’d deliberately left her phone in the kitchen and she was determined she wouldn’t check her emails again.

After an hour of sleepless tossing and turning, she gave in and rushed to the kitchen. But it was a waste of time, there was still no reply.

*

It took Sethtwo whole days before he felt ready to answer Polly’s email. In that time, he’d almost rung her on several occasions, but he knew he was in the totally wrong headspace for the supportive, encouraging, go-for-it conversation she needed.

The worst thing was, Seth hadn’t realised the truth about his feelings for Polly Martin until he’d seen that blasted email. The sudden slam of desolation had shocked him.

But damn it, the revelation about his feelings had come too late.

LeeAnne, Vince and Rory had eyed him cautiously over the two days that followed, as if they could read his tension and feared he might snap. By the third night, with the help of more than a couple of beers, he knew he couldn’t hold off any longer and somehow he managed to send the response Polly needed.

To: Polly Martin

From: Seth Ramsay

Subject: Re: You’ll never believe this

Hi Polly,

Sorry I’ve been a bit slack in getting back to you, but work’s been crazily busy. But hey, congratulations on the job! That’s amazing news.

I’m so glad your talent is being recognised. I don’t know much about the IT world, but everyone knows that Silicon Valley is ‘the’ place to be.

We might soon be talking about Polly the squillionaire and watching you take off for Mars. Anyway, Summer’s such an adaptable little person, I’m sure she’ll do just fine in America. I guess she might grow up with quite an accent.

Oh, and here’s the deck pic (attached) as promised. And you might like to send me another video of Summer’s latest crawling antics? She’s getting really fast, isn’t she?

Oh, and how do you put pink stripes in black hair?

Seth

*

Polly had justfinished settling Summer to sleep when she discovered Seth’s email. She read it three times, trying to decide if he’d made up the bit about busyness at work as an excuse. And then she told herself she was being unreasonable to mind about the time lapse. In every other way, Seth’s message was all that she’d expected and hoped for.

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