Читать книгу A Marriage Meant To Be - Josie Metcalfe - Страница 6

‘WHAT on earth’s wrong with Con?’ demanded one of the junior nurses as she entered the staffroom.

‘Sue and I just saw him in the car park and said hello,’ said her companion as she shrugged out of her coat, ‘but he walked straight past us without a word…and he looks dreadful.’

‘Haven’t you heard?’ someone said in hushed tones that still somehow managed to carry to everyone in the room. ‘Callie lost their baby…a stillbirth.’

‘No! Oh, she must be devastated!’ Sue said with a gasp of dismay. ‘It’s taken them so long to get pregnant, and just when everyone thought it was all going to be fine this time…’

‘Only the other day I overheard Con teasing her about how much the baby was kicking. He said something about this one being the start of their five-a-side football team,’ someone else piped up. ‘Why do such rotten things happen to such nice people? The two of them would be wonderful parents.’

‘To say nothing about what gorgeous children they’d produce,’ said another. ‘They’re both slim and elegant-looking and they’ve both got that beautiful dark hair. The only toss-up would be whether the kids got his blue eyes or her grey ones.’

‘How long will it be before they can start another round of IVF?’ Sue asked the room at large.

‘Months, I expect,’ her friend said grimly. ‘They’ll probably have to wait for her body to recover from the pregnancy before they can try again.’

‘That’s if they can face going through it another time,’ a fresh voice said coolly. ‘It must be frustrating for him to know that he’s firing on all cylinders and could have had his football team by now if he were married to someone else.’

With that comment there was a distinct change in the atmosphere of the staff room—a sour note that hadn’t been there before—and it wasn’t long before everyone was hurrying off in their different directions, leaving the nurse who had made the comment all alone.

‘Well, I was only saying aloud what everyone else knows,’ she muttered, tight-lipped. ‘He’s a good-looking man in a good job with the prospect of being made consultant in the not-too-distant future. Of course he wants a family…and a wife who can give him that family.’

She turned towards the mirror, watching herself with a calculating smile as she fluffed her blonde hair around her face.