‘What do you mean? You’re not thinking of getting rid of the baby, are you?’

‘Do we want a baby?’ she asked, not answering him. ‘Do you want one? A real baby, not some hypothetical one-day-in-the-future baby. This is happening now.’

‘Hey, I meant what I said when I told you I wanted a family, so I think this is wonderful news. I couldn’t be happier.’

She looked at him doubtfully. ‘You know that babies are very untidy, don’t you? Within no time your immaculate flat will be turned into a tip. You’ll hate it.’ She was remembering all the times he’d tutted or sighed at some mess she’d made, or because she’d forgotten to put something away. How would he ever cope with the clutter that came with a baby? She didn’t know that much about them, but she did know they came with a crazy amount of stuff – clothes, nappies, bottles, blankets, toys, prams and cots.

But he simply laughed at her question. ‘Ours will be the tidiest baby ever!’

Not if she or he takes after me, Willow thought miserably.

The pressure of Rick’s hands on her knees increased. He said, ‘I can see that you’ve been worrying yourself sick how I would react, but you have to trust me when I say that I have never felt surer about a thing in my life.’

She frowned, thinking that she had never felt less sure about a thing in her life. It was all her fault, too. She should have carried on taking the pill, even though it had started to mess up her cycle and make her feel unwell at times. Rick had said it was probably because she had been taking it for so many years and he’d urged her to take a break from it, and then try a new one at a later date. Meanwhile he had taken care of matters, and as was so typical of him, he’d been very thorough in that department, never taking a risk. But somehow, one of his sneaky sperm must have made a break for it and escaped.

As if reading her mind, he said, ‘No contraceptive device is one hundred per cent safe, Willow. We’ll just have to chalk this up to one of those things. A happy accident,’ he added with a smile. ‘By the way, how many weeks do you think you are?’

‘About ten.’

‘As much as that and you didn’t tell me before now?’

She swallowed. ‘I was waiting for the right time to tell you.’

‘Have you been to see a doctor yet?’

She shook her head.

‘Well then, we’ll need to put that right. But for now, I need to go to work, I have an important conference call. Why don’t we eat out to celebrate this evening?’

‘I’m on the evening shift again,’ she said.

‘Ring in and cancel. Tell them you’ve picked up a bug.’ He moved his hands from her knees to her stomach. ‘Our Little Bug,’ he said happily, ‘that’s what we’ll call him or her from now on.’