Happy ultrasound. Having sleepover again with hunk from plane. Turns out he’s a doctor from ED. Not expecting forever, but today is very, very good. See you back on Setabilly. Xx A

As she read the message, Hana’s eyebrows crept up and her lips curved. She shot a glance at Jock, who was flicking through a magazine in the hospital waiting room. Her voice remained serene as she shared chosen parts of the message. ‘Ava’s staying at a friend’s today. She wishes us fun at the ultrasound and might not see us before we leave tomorrow. She’ll see us next week.’

Jock shifted his eyes to her. ‘Which friend?’

Hana studied the message, keeping her eyes fixed there. ‘I don’t know this one. She has lots of friends.’ Hana was saved from further creative sidestepping by the receptionist calling her name.

They both stood, and when she took Jock’s hand his fingers shook slightly and she realised he was nervous. She’d discovered that men, especially big, strong ones like her husband and her brother, didn’t like hospitals. Even ones that showed them cute 3D pictures of their baby. But she understood that the base hospital was a necessary part of life. Especially when you were pregnant with your first baby in the centre of Australia. There was no use having a birth problem out with the cattle, even if your sister-in-law was a midwife and your mother-in-law a nurse. And then there was Mim, the matriarch of them all who had handled an inconceivable number of isolated incidents in the fifty years she’d lived there.

Nope. Hana would come into Alice Springs when her time was near, they’d stay in town like all remote women did, and wait close to the hospital for their baby to arrive. Then they would celebrate back among the wide-open spaces she was growing to love once her baby was safe in her arms.

Hana felt surrounded not just by her husband’s love, but by strong women, and since she’d been pregnant, even her no-nonsense mother-in-law had softened a bit. Luckily, Hana had the ability to not be fazed by the forthright Stella. Jock was her dream man, and she knew that the love of her life would be a dream dad. She couldn’t wait.

Chapter Nine

Ava

The last thing Ava had expected when she’d agreed to the three shifts at Alice Springs was to sleep over at Zac’s for all three days before work.

But she had. By the third day, her mouth held a secret smile and her cheeks had a glow about them that didn’t have much to do with the midwifery job she loved.