LITMIR.BIZ

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get your things and put them in my car.’

      ‘I want to go home. Not to the hospital.’ The pain was stark in her voice.

      He’d suspected that was coming. ‘Fine. I’m sure your own personal midwives will arrive as soon as they hear you are home.’

      He smiled and Montana found she could smile back. He was right. Of course she didn’t have to go to the hospital. Mia and Misty would make sure she was fine.

      CHAPTER TWO

      ANDY spent the week of his holidays doing three things.

      First, he accumulated extra operating hours as a locum surgeon for the occasional disaster that cropped up at the lake to ensure his skills remained current. You never knew when a casualty would arrive without time for transfer to the base hospital.

      Second, he lost no opportunity to promote the idea of transfer to Lyrebird Lake for any health professional who would listen and might be remotely interested in relocating.

      The Lake needed staff if it was to move into the new era the mine would bring, and this was a great opportunity to scout for potential colleagues.

      Andy had sworn he would do his best to help find staff. If he didn’t, the hospital would be downgraded even further and the funding diverted to the base hospital eighty kilometres away.

      That would happen over his dead body.

      And the third thing he did was try not to think about Montana Browne.

      His was a busman’s holiday that allowed him to catch up with his only sister once a year and not intended for relaxation or dalliance.

      Since Montana’s baby had arrived early he’d spent a lot of time in and out of Misty’s friend’s house after work because Misty had taken on the cooking and shopping role for Montana in some pre-arranged, pre-birth deal the girls had going.

      The other friend, Mia, had been assigned washing and garden work so Andy had offered to mow the lawns before he left.

      He didn’t mind. It gave him a chance to watch Montana, a pastime he suspected he could become captivated by.

      Something wasn’t right with Montana today.

      It was a typical three-women-and-extra-brother afternoon at Montana’s house and he found it all strangely poignant that it was the last he would be present at.

      Misty stroked Dawn’s downy cheek as she whispered to the tiny baby in her arms. ‘You are beautiful. Yes you are.’

      Andy heard his sister’s crooning but his attention was on Montana as she rested back in the lounge with the cup of jasmine tea he’d made for her and fielded the barrage of questions Mia seemed obsessed with.

      ‘You sure you didn’t mean to have Dawn up there in the mountains all the time? You must have known you were going into labour? Didn’t you have a premonition?’

      ‘No premonition. I leave that to Misty.’ Montana’s quiet voice drifted across to him and he saw her glance at him but she didn’t smile.

      Why did he need her to smile? ‘And to Andy,’ she finished, and he savoured the way she said his name.

      He should go. Get out of this hens’ party and think about packing to head home. He still had a heap of shopping to do before he flew back tomorrow morning and if he went back to the Lake without the special ingredients Louisa, their housekeeper, had requested, he was a dead man.

      He just couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from Montana today—though that was nothing new. The day he’d met her replayed like a favourite movie in his brain.

      He could still see her alone in an isolated clearing on the side of a mountain surrounded by mist—a woman as calm and tranquil as a Tibetan monk—after giving birth alone.

      She’d declined hospital assessment even though he admitted she had two willing experts in his sister and Mia.

      Here in her own home, even with her new baby, he’d never seen her succumb to any sort of anxiety, until now.

      He kept remembering how serene she’d been when he’d first arrived to bring her back. That serenity was missing, and he didn’t think it was just the fact that Mia was hounding her again, but maybe it was.

      ‘Mia, leave her alone.’ Although he said it quietly, his voice cut across the room and the three women turned towards him.

      Dawn began to cry and Misty carried her across to her mother as she glared at her brother. Andy smiled.

      All three women could indicate displeasure with their eyes but his sister won hands down. Their mother had been the same but Misty would have been too young to remember that.

      ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle everyone. Forget it.’ His sister would flay him for upsetting the baby but he was more worried about upsetting Montana.

      Maybe his sister could help. ‘Can I see you for a minute, Misty, please?’

      Misty shrugged and Montana raised one eyebrow mockingly as if to say he’d picked the wrong household to assert his authority, but he could see she was fine with him at least.

      Misty approached with that militant look in her eye and he turned away with her so the other two couldn’t see their faces.

      ‘Sorry.’ Diversion might be a useful deflection. ‘Just wanted to ask you if you think it’s a good thing Montana stays here when it obviously makes her so sad.’

      As a spur-of-the-moment diversion it had come with a lot of thought.

      Misty frowned and tilted her head as if to peer inside his brain. He hated it when she did that because a lot of the time she could guess what he was thinking, and he didn’t even know what he was thinking himself.

      ‘What choice does she have?’ She spoke slowly as she watched him and he tried his own attempt at peering. She probably thought he was interested in Montana. Well, he was—but not like that!

      He’d been there when Montana had said she didn’t want to come back to this house, this town, anywhere near the hospital.

      ‘Montana could come back to Lyrebird Lake with me and work in the hospital when she’s ready. She said she didn’t want to go back to Westside. We’re still looking for a midwife and an evening supervisor. Maybe she could fill those positions until she decides what she wants to do.’

      Misty was still peering. ‘You’d have to talk to her about that yourself. And how would you get her there? She hates small planes.’

      He didn’t like the scepticism in Misty’s voice but she didn’t seem as negative the more she thought about it.

      She shook her head but again not as convincingly. ‘I can’t imagine Montana wanting to uproot herself from Douglas’s house and head to the back of beyond with a new baby.’

      It wasn’t that dumb an idea. He frowned as he watched his sister consider the idea.

      Too bad if she didn’t agree. It was Montana he needed to convince. ‘People in South East Queensland live there with babies. There’s no strangeness in that,’ he said.

      Misty screwed her face up in disbelief that he could be so obtuse. ‘There is the problem of leaving everyone you know at a time you need them most.’

      He’d be there for her and so would the others. ‘She’d know me. There’s a town full of people who would help.’

      ‘Strangers!’ Misty’s scorn came out a little forced and he began to hope she’d seen some advantage for Montana in his suggestion.

      He lowered his voice. ‘Maybe that’s what she needs right now.’

      Montana drifted across the room towards them and he watched her approach. Misty looked pointedly at her brother. ‘Ask her.’

      He grimaced. It wasn’t how he would have chosen to broach

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