Page 54 of This Time Around

She was pregnant withhiskid, not the bloke’s she’d been going to marry.

“Jane? Rafe?”

Doctor Chen called their names and ushered them through the door of her office, closing it behind them. “Please, have a seat,” she said, smiling as she settled herself in her own chair. “Now, what can I help you with today? Is your nausea still giving you trouble?”

“No, nothing like that,” Jane assured her. “It’s actually gotten better the last couple of days. I haven’t thrown up since Sunday.”

The keys on the doctor’s computer keyboard made a click-clack sound as she took notes. “Great! And you’re getting enough sleep?”

Jane glanced at Rafe and grinned. “Yeah. I’ve very recently had some help there.”

“Oh?”

Rafe rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been giving Jane massages before bed,” he said. “With lavender oil.”

No way was he telling the good doctor the whole truth: that for the past two nights he’d given Jane orgasms so intense she’d practically passed out after coming all over his face, then lay curled up in his arms, softly snoring until their alarms went off in the morning.

“I see,” she said, and made more notes. “That’s good.” She faced them again and spoke to Rafe. “When Jane came to see me, to confirm her pregnancy, she told me she thought the baby was yours. I’m happy to see you taking an active roll here. Especially after the… unpleasantness over the weekend.”

“Of course,” Rafe said, shifting in his seat. “But that’s why we’re here.” He glanced at Jane, then took her hand, more for his own benefit than hers. “We need a paternity test done.”

All semblance of warmth vanished, her brow shot up to her hairline and her whole face pinched in annoyance. “I see.” More typing.

He threw a pleading look at Jane. “Please help.”

Grinning, Jane said, “It’s okay, Marie. His heart’s in the right place.”

Doctor Chen narrowed her gaze on Rafe again. “Oh?”

“I need to know if the baby’s mine or not,” he said, then told the doctor what he’d told Jane over the weekend.

By the time he’d finished explaining, her face had softened again and her typing had lost its murderous edge. “So if the baby isn’t yours, you intend to adopt it?” She shook her head. “I did not see that coming. Usually when men want a paternity test, it’s to get out of paying child support.”

The printer on her desk whirred to life and a few seconds later she was scrawling her signature across the bottom of the printout and handing it to Jane.

“Take this next door to pathology. All we need is blood sample from you, and a cheek swab from Rafe, then they’ll send it to Brisbane for analysis and I’ll give you a call when we get the results back.”

“When should that be?” Jane asked.

“This time next week. These sorts of tests are pretty straightforward.”

The visit to pathology took less than ten minutes, and then they were off to Rafe’s office. He’d offered to drive Jane home but she’d asked if she could stay with him instead.

He was happy to keep her close by. It would give him more time to work on his marriage sales pitch. But he warned her anyway, “You’ll be bored.”

“Nope. You were right. I thought of something to do.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to write a cook book,” she’d said, flashing him a smile a mile wide.

Rafe smiled back. “That’s my girl.”

As he parked his car on the street out front, he saw two women dressed in office attire standing by the door. His hired help. One of them had her hands cupped around her face as she peered through the window into what would be his reception area.

The other was Donna, his former assistant at the firm in Brisbane.

Jane glared in the other woman’s direction. “What isshedoing here?”

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