‘Did we land on the beach?’ Ethan asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ Penny admitted. ‘I can’t actually see.’ She felt a gurgle of laughter swirl inside her, only it wasn’t laughter, she realised, just this glimpse of being free. ‘And it’s actually thirty-fifteen now,’ Penny said. ‘You forfeited the last game if I remember rightly.’
He’d had no idea what to expect when he’d arrived tonight at her door, but felt as if, in that small conversation, he’d met the real Penny, the one that he’d sometimes glimpsed. Or was it more that it was a different him? Usually Ethan was snoring his head off right about now, but instead it was Penny dozing as he went and dimmed the lights before climbing into bed beside her.
‘Happy birthday, Penny.’
And as she lay there, feeling his big body beside her, she thought that it really shouldn’t have been a happy birthday; it had had every ingredient for it not to be, except it had just turned into her most memorable, possibly favourite one.
‘Thank you,’ Penny said, and then turned over to him. ‘You were right—it wasn’t the drugs.’
‘IT’S MY MUM.’
Unfortunately Penny hadn’t come into the bathroom to join him in the shower later the next morning. They were up to deuce after a much more tender lovemaking session and Penny was fixing some breakfast while Ethan showered when the intercom buzzed. ‘I know this sounds like I’m eighteen …’
‘You want me to hide?’ Ethan grinned as she pulled on her nightdress and then her dressing gown.
‘Not hide, just don’t come out of the bedroom,’ Penny said. ‘She’ll tell Jasmine and, honestly, by the time we get back to work they’ll all have us engaged or something.’
‘Mum!’ Penny opened the door and stood as her mum gave her a cuddle.
‘I’m so sorry, Penny, I wish I’d been here. I told you not to try till after my trip.’
And there were so many things she could have said to that, but Penny buttoned her lip and forced a smile.
‘How was the cruise?’
‘It was amazing!’ It must have been because Louise looked amazing! She was suntanned and relaxed-looking and wearing new clothes and jewellery, and her hair was a fabulous caramel colour and very well cut. ‘I had the best time, Penny. You’d love it!’
‘I think I might,’ Penny said, because till her mother had set off, she’d never even considered one, but she was seeing the benefits now.
‘All you do is eat and be pampered—I’ve got so much to tell you!’
And Ethan lay on the bed, reading magazines, listening as Penny did her best to limit his exposure to her mother’s love life, because Penny kept asking her to describe islands, but her mum just kept talking about a man she had met. ‘I go all the way to Greece and Bradley’s from Melbourne and he’s so romantic. One night—’
‘Hold on a minute, Mum,’ Penny interrupted. ‘I’m just going to get changed.’
She brought Ethan in a coffee, which she would pretend she’d left in her room, not that her mother would notice. She was way too busy discussing Bradley and comparing the differences with Penny’s father.
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s interesting.’
It was, and it became more so because Penny could not stop her mother from talking, and Ethan heard how useless her father had been and that maybe Louise had been a bit harsh in her summing up of all men to her daughters, because Bradley was nothing like that at all.
They were serious, in fact, he heard her tell Penny.
‘It’s a month, Mum.’
‘And I’m old enough to know what I like and that this is right.’
‘Well, why not just see how it goes now you’re back?’ He could hear Penny’s wariness and then her mother’s exasperation.
‘Can’t you just be happy for me, Penny?’
‘Of course I am.’
But they all knew it was qualified and then the strain was back in Penny’s voice, especially when her mother asked how she felt about losing the baby.
‘It wasn’t a baby, Mum! I got my period.’ Ethan closed his eyes. Kate had been right—it was different for everyone, because Kate had had photos and named every embryo. ‘It just didn’t work.’
‘Okay, Penny.’
They chatted some more and then with Penny promising to go round tomorrow she finally got her mother out of the door. Ethan looked up at Penny’s strained features as she came through the bedroom door.
‘Sorry about that.’
‘No need to say sorry.’
‘She just goes too far.’ Penny let out an angry breath. ‘I can’t think of it as a baby.’ Ethan was terribly aware suddenly that he was lying not in a bed but a minefield. ‘I’d go mad otherwise, if I thought like that.’
‘I know.’
‘I bet she didn’t ask Jasmine to hold off trying to conceive till she got back.’ Ethan swallowed, thought it best not to say a thing, though was tempted to fire a quick SOS to his sister just in case he said the wrong thing. ‘Well, she can go over there now and hear Jasmine’s latest happy news.’ Penny joined him on the bed. ‘She’s met the love of her life, apparently.’
‘Bradley,’ Ethan said, and she gave a little laugh.
She turned to him. ‘I’m supposed to be happy for her.’
‘Aren’t you?’
Penny looked back at him. ‘From past experience I really don’t trust my mother’s taste in men so no, I’m not going to clap hands and get all excited. He’s the first person she’s seriously dated since my father left.’
‘Do you ever see him?’
‘Never,’ Penny said. ‘And I’ve never wanted to. I see enough of his sort at work and I’ve stitched up enough of his sort’s handiwork too.’ She didn’t want to talk about her father. ‘What did you do while we were talking?’ Penny asked.
‘Read,’ Ethan said. ‘Had a little walk around the bed, worked out that you rotate your wardrobe …’
‘Of course I do,’ Penny said. ‘I haven’t got time to think what to wear each day.’ She climbed off the bed. ‘I’m going to have a shower.’
‘Good,’ Ethan said. ‘And I’ll find you something to wear.’
‘I can choose my own clothes, thank you.’
‘You don’t know where we’re going.’
‘Ethan, I don’t want to go out.’
‘Which is exactly why you should.’
Penny chose her own clothes, thank you very much. A pair of shorts and a T-shirt and wedge sandals and Ethan watched in amusement as she applied factor thirty to every exposed piece of skin. When they walked out of her smart townhouse and didn’t head straight for his car, Penny actually felt a bit shaky.
‘I’ve been inside too long.’
‘I know you have.’
Really, since her walk on the beach with Jasmine it had been