Free The Doctors' Baby by Marion Lennox

around her eyes. ‘You know, I don’t believe you.’
    â€˜You’d better.’ Em glowered. ‘If you find Jonas so attractive, why don’t you have an affair with him yourself?’
    â€˜Oh, great.’ Lori grinned placidly. ‘No, thanks. I have my Raymond, and he’s a far sexier being than even your Bernard!’
    That brought a chuckle. ‘I don’t know about that,’ Em said innocently, thinking of Lori’s boyfriend, Bay Beach’s local accountant, with a grin. ‘They look about the same around the middle. And with the weight Ray’s carrying, I bet they snore the same.’
    She got a glower back—and then a chuckle of agreement. ‘OK, you’re right,’ Lori said fondly. ‘Poor Raymond. But he has taken on board what you said about the dangers to his heart. He’s been on a diet for weeks now.’
    â€˜That’s great,’ Em said, mildly surprised. Lori’s Raymond was verging on truly fat, and she worried about him, but she thought he’d taken on the role of fat and jovial for ever.
    â€˜It’s not much use, though,’ Lori told her, still smiling. ‘It’s just lucky I love him tubby. He’s using the doughnut hole diet.’
    â€˜The doughnut hole diet?’
    â€˜Doughnut holes are the bits you get when you cut the middle out of the doughnut.’ Lori nodded sagely. ‘So, instead of eating donuts, Ray now only eats doughnutholes. He figures all the calories stay in the doughnuts themselves.’ She chuckled. ‘And yet still I love him. If I wasn’t so tied up with my kids I’d even marry him—but he’s content enough with the arrangement as it is.’
    â€˜Lucky Ray.’
    â€˜Lucky me.’ Her friend’s smile died. ‘Seriously, Em, you’ll be sharing a house with Jonas for the next three months. If I were you—’
    â€˜If I were me I’d be very careful,’ Em said solidly. ‘Unlike you, I can’t indulge in a love life. Seriously, Lori, do you know what would happen if I fell in love with Jonas Lunn?’
    â€˜No.’ Her friend sighed resignedly. ‘I don’t. But I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.’
    â€˜Yep.’ Em was on her bandwagon now, and there was no stopping her. ‘It’s one of two things. First, I could fall completely irrevocably in love, my passion would be returned in full by the wonderful Jonas, and I’d drop everything and follow the man of my dreams wherever he went.’
    â€˜Not necessarily. He could stay here.’
    â€˜Oh, come on, Lori. Do you seriously think a man like Jonas could ever be happy practising medicine in Bay Beach?’
    â€˜Maybe not, but—’
    â€˜Or, two,’ Em continued ruthlessly, ‘we could have a mad, passionate affair, then he leaves, I break my heart, and I sit around for the rest of my life like Miss Haversham in that Charles Dickens novel.’
    â€˜What, surrounded by rats and wedding cake?’ Her friend eyed her dubiously. ‘Unlikely! Bernard would stir himself to eat the cake, and your patients would queue even if you were wearing your fifty-year-old weddingdress. Em, you don’t think you could be going overboard here?’
    â€˜No.’ Em hardened her heart.
    â€˜There is a third option,’ Lori suggested.
    â€˜Which is?’
    Robby had fallen asleep in Em’s arms. Lori lifted him out, tucked him into his cot and kissed him goodnight. Then she stood back and eyed her friend in concern.
    â€˜You could just have fun,’ she told her. ‘You could just lighten up, have a fling and enjoy yourself. Heaven knows, you deserve it.’
    â€˜I—’
    â€˜The world won’t end if you have an affair,’ Lori said sternly. ‘And you might just have a very good time. Think about it. Now, go home. I’m sorry, love, but my Raymond’s coming to dinner and