Mark turned and faced her, his face a storm cloud of emotion. ‘I’m not growing my baby in a test tube. That’s just not right. You can’t give me children, Nicky. And I don’t know what that means for us.’ He turned and walked away.

It was his pain talking. She got that. She was hurting too.

He just needed some time to process things. They both did. It was all such a shock. How could either of them think straight at the moment?

She’d make an appointment for them to see a psychologist in a couple of weeks. Once they’d had some time to digest all the information. And then they could start to think about how they were going to navigate the new landscape of their life. They just needed time.

Thirteen

Mandy watched as Nicole carefully folded the egg whites into the cheese. ‘That’s it. Nice and gently. We don’t want to knock the air out.’

‘Like the mousse.’ Nicole smiled.

‘Yes, well, no need to relive that one.’ Mandy shook her head. ‘Can you believe how far you’ve come?’

Nicole laughed. She may have come a long way, but it hadn’t been easy. Poor Mandy had continued the weekly lessons for the last month, patiently sharing her culinary knowledge with Nicole. It had taken her three goes to get the mousse to set properly, the cheesecake had the texture of rubber, the lamb roast landed on the floor with a loud thud when she took it out of the oven, and it was more than a little embarrassing when Jim and Danny turned up after someone called the Rural Fire Service, reporting smoke billowing from the cottage. Nicole had set the casserole too high and she and Mandy had got distracted chatting on the verandah. They were the butt of every joke at The Royal for some time afterward.

Still, ever so slowly, Nicole was getting the hang of it. Her chicken parmigiana had turned out quite well and the caramel slice had been delicious. Even Charlie had enjoyed that one.

And here she was attempting a soufflé. Mandy kept reassuring her it was easier than most people thought, but Nicole wasn’t convinced.

‘Secret’s in the prep of the ramekins,’ Mandy said. She’d given Nicole a set as a gift a few weeks earlier.

Nicole poured the mixture into the ceramic moulds that sat on a tray, which she slowly lifted into the oven.

‘See, nothing to it.’ Mandy grinned.

‘Don’t jinx me.’ Nicole still didn’t believe jinxes, but there was no point tempting fate. ‘We’ll know in thirty minutes if there was nothing to it.’

‘Twenty minutes.’ Mandy corrected her and set the timer. ‘I’d better go. See you at trivia at seven.’ Mandy called as she headed off to see her mum in the home. ‘Let me know how these turn out.’