Page 29 of Best Laid Plans

HE HADN’T been totally crazy, Will told himself as he strode back along the track beside the creek. He hadn’t committed to a full-on relationship with his brother’s ex. He’d simply offered to help her to have a baby.

This was purely and simply about the baby.

The baby Lucy longed for.

But it meant he’d be a father and he really liked that idea.

He’d be able to watch the baby grow. He’d help out with finances – school fees, pony club, whatever the kid needed. And who knew? Maybe some day in the future, the kid might take an interest in Tambaroora, if it still belonged to the Carruthers family.

But the big thing was, the lucky child would have Lucy as its mother.

If any woman deserved to be a mother, Lucy did.

Will had dated a lot of women, but he couldn’t think of anyone who was more suitable than Lucy McKenty to be the mother of his child.

And it wasn’t such a crazy situation. Being good friends with his baby’s mother was a vast improvement on some of the unhappy broken family setups that he’d heard his workmates complain about.

But the details of the baby’s conception caused a road bump.

Will came to a halt as he thought about that. He snagged another grass stalk and chewed at it thoughtfully.

Anyway he looked at this situation, leaping into bed with Lucy McKenty was stretching the boundaries of friendship.

But it was highly unlikely that she would agree to sex. Apart from the fact that Will was the brother of the man she’d planned to marry, and setting their friendship issues aside, Lucy was a vet. She used IVF all the time in her practice and she was bound to look on it as the straightforward and practical solution.

Except that she’d tried the clinical route once and it hadn’t worked.

Which brought him back to the alternative. With Lucy.

Damn. He could still remember their long ago kiss on the veranda.

He should have forgotten it by now. He’d tried so hard to forget, but he could remember every detail of those few sweet minutes – the way Lucy had felt so alive and warm in his arms, the way she’d smelled of summer and tasted of every temptation known to man.

Hell. There was no contest, was there?

IVF was most definitely their sanest, safest option.

Lucy was in a daze as she walked back to her ute. She couldn’t believe Will had given her suggestion serious thought. It was astonishing that he was actually prepared to help her to have her baby.

She couldn’t deny she was tempted.

Tempted? Heavens, she was completely sold on the whole idea of having a dear little baby fathered by Will.

It was the means to this end that had her in a dither.

Sex with Will was so totally not a good idea. The very thought of it filled her foolish longings and multiple anxieties.

She’d loved Will for so long now, it was like a chronic illness that she’d learned to adjust to. But to sleep with him would be like dancing on the edge of a cliff. She would be terrified of falling.

If only IVF was simpler.

She’d hated the process last time. All the tests and injections and clinical procedures and then the huge disappointment of failure. Not to mention the expense and the fact that if she wanted to try again, she’d have to go back on that long waiting list.

Oh, man. Her thoughts went round and round, like dairy cows on a milking rotator. One minute she rejected the whole idea of having Will’s baby, the next she was desperately trying to find a way to make it happen.

Could it work?

Could it possibly work?

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