“Hello, Uncle Troy.” Fiona held out a blue bundle with a thatch of dark blond hair.
“I don’t um…”
“Sure you do. He won’t break. Have a hold.”
Troy took the tiny bundle. “He looks pretty good.”
“Have you decided on his name?” Madelaine asked. They’d tossed up all sorts of names over the months, but Fiona wasn’t taken with any of them. Madelaine peered into the bundle Troy was holding.
“Not yet. I’ll sleep on it a bit more. Now that he’s here it’ll be easier to pick one.”
Troy handed the baby to Madelaine. “I’m worried I’ll drop him.”
“Me too,” said Madelaine, who bounced the bundle a little bit, checked that he was perfect then handed him over to his mother.
“You guys,” Fiona chided and then gazed down at her sleeping baby. “Good thing you got here when you did. He came out so fast, I—”
“I think I’ll wait outside,” Troy said. “Good work, Fiona.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I’ll just be out there,” he said to Madelaine, and pointed to the corridor.
“Squeamish,” Fiona said and Troy nodded on his way out. “I’m glad you were here,” she said to Madelaine.
Madelaine had been in the birthing suite with Fiona, and had only just made it in time. “Me too,” Madelaine said again.
“Hope we didn’t interrupt anything.” Fiona was gazing at her bundle sleeping soundly. A nurse came in, grinning broadly and held out her arms for the baby. Fiona handed him over and watched as the nurse tucked him into his crib alongside her bed.
“No, of course not. But you must be really tired. I know I am.” Madelaine watched as Fiona closed her eyes a second or two. “I’m coming down off my delivery high and I wasn’t even breathing heavy... I didn’t expect him to come out so damn fast.”
“Same here. But you were pretty brave,” Fiona said.
“I know. I didn’t faint.”
“Me either.”
“He’s beautiful.” Madelaine looked across at the sleeping cherub.
“Looks just like me.” Fiona propped herself up, glanced at the crib then back at her friend. “You know what this means.”
“What?”
“I can buy a new dress for your wedding.”
***
“We should celebrate or something,” Troy said as they drove out of Regency.
“I just want to get home,” Madelaine answered. “We could have a drink there if you like.”
“Yeah. Good idea. Safer.” He glanced across at her. “You’re pretty tired.”
She laughed a little. “You know, giving birth.”
“And to nine pounds. Big boy.”
“His dad is a pretty big guy.”
Troy braked at the give-way sign. “No chance of him coming back?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Were they married?”
Madelaine shook her head. “No. He never wanted to. When she fell pregnant, he accused her of doing it deliberately, so he packed up overnight and took off.”
“Charmer.”
“Well. You can never tell with some people.”
He turned on to the highway towards Secluded, Madelaine’s house. They drove in silence for a while.
The paddocks were looking good, those Madelaine could see from the road. Sometimes the roadside vegetation was so thick it was like driving in a green corridor. She couldn’t see anything past the scrub on the side of the road.
A thought drifted past her and she glanced at him. “Have you actually invited anyone to the wedding?”
Troy shook his head. “No. Dad and Carol of course are coming. I have a suspicion they’ve told a number of people, invited a number of people.”
“Yeah.” She looked out the window again. “Fiona will break her neck to be there.”
“You asking any mates?”
“No. There’s a couple of girls interstate, one in Western Australia, one in the Northern Territory, but it’s too late. Besides, it’s—”
“Yeah, I know, ‘not a real wedding’.” He shoved the visor lower. “There are my cousins over here, and a few dozen people in Adelaide I could—”
“Don’t.” She stared straight ahead. “It’s not real, we agree. There’s no point.”
“Madelaine. It is real. That’s why we’re doing it.” He fiddled with the air-conditioning. “You’re doing it because you know us and you trust us and we trust you.”
“It’s not right, though, Troy,” she cried, surprising even herself.
He glanced over. “Are you pulling out?”
“No.” She aimed an air vent towards herself. “Just want to make it clear that there are no…added benefits.”
“I get it. We’re not friends-with-benefits. I get it. You’ve said before.” He shifted in his seat, gripped the steering wheel, flicked a look out the side window and back to the road ahead. “But financially there are benefits for both of us and that’s all we’re aiming for.”
She nodded. “That’s right. Good.”
Troy glanced at her again.
She let the conversation die, though there was an awful lot more she wanted to say. It wasn’t giving her the right space to get to know him like she felt she wanted to. It was like she was being forced into something which would have been right in a couple of years, left to make its own way but was just made a mockery of now… or like knowing they were married didn’t mean they should act married, or be married or feel—
And that was the trouble. They would be married. And there was no reason after September twenty-sixth to pretend otherwise.
She just hadn’t wanted her marriage to be this way.
***
Troy parked the vehicle in the wash bay. They got out of the car, gathered their own bags and paperwork and bits and pieces and walked into the house to their separate quarters.
When Troy came back to the living area, there didn’t appear to be any drinks happening after all. He shoved hands in his pockets and turned to look back up the hill. He could see Madelaine outside, going up to the kitchens.
His shirt pocket vibrated. Troy pulled out his phone and checked it. Forgotten he’d put it on silent at the hospital.
Three messages, all from Liam.
What now?
He listened to all three in succession, then rang his father.
“So what do you think?” Liam asked before Troy had a chance.
“We don’t want a fuss.”
“I know that, but you are getting married and—”
“Dad. We don’t want a fuss.”
“I heard you the first time. But wouldn’t you like a—”
“No. We wouldn’t.”
“Not even—”
“No.”
Liam waited a moment. “It’s not all about you, you know.”
“Yes, it is. Me and Madelaine. And we don’t want to make any more of this than what it is.”
Another beat as Liam waited. Then, “Well, what if we took a few people off to Regency afterwards, had a few drinks…”
“You and Carol?” Troy waited to hear confirmation. “Dad?”
“…And about thirty others.”
“What? Who?”
“You know, Mike and his wife, some of the blokes at work and their girls, that sort of thing. Madelaine must have friends coming.”
“Only one. Listen, Dad, this is not a good idea.”
“Someone’s got to celebrate. If I foot the bill, you’ll give me the go ahead?”
Troy shook his head. He didn’t believe what he was hearing. “I don’t think money is the issue here, Dad.”
There was silence for a moment. “No. Of course it isn’t.” Liam went quiet for a moment. “Anyway, I can’t very well uninvite people, so we’ll just have to run with it. Besides, I don’t really understand the problem.”
“The problem is that we’re not marrying because we want to, but because we have to.”
“Balls. No one has to do that.”
“C’mon, Dad.”
“All right. I know what you mean. All right, all right. But there will be about thirty of us, can’t be helped. Talk to you later.” And Liam hung up.
Troy stared at his phone.
Madelaine would go nuts.