Page 74

‘And just when we really needed someone with some crazy ideas on saving our surgery . . . there you were brimming with ideas.’ Evelyn grinned. ‘Like a modern fairy godmother with all the answers.’

‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ Liv said.

‘No, she’s more of a roll her sleeves up and drag everyone else on-board type than bibbity-bobbity-boo!’ Angela laughed. ‘Though some days I could totally see you with a magic wand instead of your stethoscope.’

‘Well, I’m pretty sure Sarah’s part fairy, so I could find one without too much difficulty.’ Liv laughed. ‘But if anyone in this room has fairy-tale magic, it’s you, Angela. Talking to animals, giving them their happy endings.’

‘It’s not all happy endings at Bill’s.’ She frowned, thinking of all the stresses and sadnesses she’d faced — the animals who she didn’t get to soon enough, the never-ending pile of bills. Not to mention her own presently tattered and battered heart.

‘No, it’s not always happy endings in medicine either.’ Liv sighed.

‘True enough,’ Evelyn commiserated, then she lifted her glass with a smile. ‘But there’s a lot more good outcomes, thanks to the two of you, than there would be if you weren’t here.’

‘Thanks to the three of us,’ Angela corrected, squeezing her friend’s fingers.

‘Then here’s to us.’ Liv raised her glass in salute. ‘To as many happy endings as it’s possible to create outside of fairy tales!’

‘To happy endings.’ Angela chinked her glass. ‘And probably fairy magic.’

‘And to Angela getting the happy ever after she deserves.’ Evelyn squeezed her fingers tightly.

‘Oh yeah,’ Angela agreed, ‘I’ll happily drink to that.’

* * *

It had been over a week since Yvette had sashayed back into his life, and it had been one of the worst weeks of his life. She’d been busy dragging her “essentials”, spreading their news all over social media and working with their agents to set up what felt like back-to-back appearances, shoots and opportunities. He’d done his best to avoid most of the calls — and just responded to his agent with brief messages. He didn’t really want or know how to engage — because everything seemed so impossibly surreal.

Part of him was glad to be swept back into the crazy, non-stop world of Maverick and VettyBaby, where his time was filled with being seen eating at the best restaurants, appearances at the hottest new places, and making videos of them jointly testing expensive baby gear — sent by companies who hoped to use their rocketing popularity to build their own sales. He was quite gratified to see that some of his animal videos were doing better than the new happy-expectant parent ones, but he didn’t dare tell Yvette that.

He was mostly just glad to not have to think. When he did, everything started to fall apart. He’d avoided answering calls from his family and friends — just sending them brief messages to let them know he was OK. And he was, at least as much as it was possible to be, OK. The irony was the only person he really wanted to hear from seemed to be the only person in the world who didn’t want to talk to him.

Angela hadn’t returned a single one of his calls or messages, and he hadn’t been back to Bill’s. He’d sent her a long, apologetic message trying — and probably failing — to explain everything, but although he could see that she’d read it, she hadn’t responded. Not that he could blame her.

And when Yvette had found out, she’d gone through the roof — screaming and crying about how she couldn’t trust him, and that she needed to feel safe, secure and loved to bring their baby into the world, and that she needed to be calm because stress was bad for growing babies. How could she possibly feel those things when he was trying to contact the woman he’d been screwing. Her entire life was changing — and she was giving up her body to give him a child — obviously she had to be his first priority.

He’d felt so guilty after she’d finished crying. And Angela hadn’t replied, so it had all been pointless anyway.

He really had fucked everything up — or at least his drunken, stupid Maverick persona had. He assumed it had been when they’d been drinking, as he was always careful otherwise. As much as he’d enjoyed being with Yvette, he’d wanted to avoid exactly this situation. The fact that this was all happening now, just when he’d started to get his life going in the way he’d wanted — and having found someone he really, really cared about — was beyond unfair. But he’d made his bed, he’d created this situation, so he would man up and deal with it, and he would make damn sure his child would be happy and loved, and have everything they needed and wanted that was within his ability to give them.

The only thing that gave him any real joy at the moment was playing with Mallow, helping her to strengthen her wings and teach her new tricks and words. Inspired by the mess she’d created during one of her Houdini moments, he’d invested in some non-toxic paints and art pads, and Mallow appeared to love creating her “art”, running around, splodging through the different colours, nibbling the edges of the pages and creating multi-coloured chaos, all while cackling and whistling joyfully. When she had picked up one of her favourite balls, dumped it in the red paint, and threw it happily across the paper, he’d grabbed his phone and started filming, turning their game into another reel.

He hadn’t bothered to involve Yvette, or even tell her what he was doing, because as much as he’d tried to encourage them to get along it was pretty clear they didn’t like each other. Yvette couldn’t seem to see past Mallow’s odd looks, while the bird didn’t help matters by lunging and snapping at the woman at every opportunity. So, instead, he just uploaded them to his separate animal account — the one he’d set up for Ruby and Ernie and their friends, and hadn’t told Angela about, let alone Yvette — and which was growing in popularity nonetheless.

‘Are you ready?’ Yvette bounced into the room, wearing a tiny top that showed off her neat little bump. ‘We need to leave now if we’re going to get to the scan on time.’

‘Right, yeah.’ The scan — the first time he’d get to see his child. He knew he should be excited, and on some level he probably was, but he couldn’t help feeling that it wasn’t the way it should be — or with the person he should be with.

‘And that’s what you’re wearing?’ She scowled at his hoodie and jeans combo. ‘You do realise there will be photos and maybe even fans?’

‘Why would there be fans?’

‘Because people care about us, and our baby.’ She rolled her eyes.

‘I know that, but how would they know where to find us?’

‘Because I posted about it, obviously. So you’re changing, right?’

He took a deep breath — thinking that he was spending a lot of time practising deep breathing and counting to ten, and all the other things he tried to do to extend his rapidly thinning patience. He reminded himself, yet again, that it was important to try and avoid stressing out pregnant women, so he smiled and nodded. ‘Yeah, I’ll change. Just give me five minutes.’