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Daisy had convinced her that having the baby was a no-brainer if that was what she wanted to do in her heart. She’d held her hand through the exam Maya had given her. She’d fed her, bought her enough pregnancy vitamins to stock a supermarket and embarked on a series of pep talks about not retreating back into her shell and not blaming everything that went wrong in her life on herself.
When Juno had woken up this morning with the dappled shade casting sunny shapes onto the luxury furnishings of
Daisy and Connor’s spare room, for the first time in a month she’d felt able to cope with everything that had happened to her and much better able to face what the future might hold.
But the one thing Juno had refused point-blank to talk about was Mac. And Daisy had respected her wishes, until she’d broached the question that Juno had been dreading a minute ago.
She didn’t know what to say to convince Daisy to drop it.
Daisy as usual took her silence as a challenge. ‘I hate to do this, but I’m forced to point out at this juncture that you said the exact same thing to me when I fell pregnant with Ronan. I didn’t want to tell Connor and you said I had to. And while I hate to say this even more,’ she added with a soft smile, ‘you were right.’
‘This is different,’ Juno murmured, staring at her half-eaten bowl of muesli. Trust Daisy to hoist her with her own petard.
‘How is it different? Doesn’t Mac have a right to know he’s going to become a father too?’
Juno shook her head. She hadn’t wanted to tell Daisy this.
It had hurt terribly to hear what Mac had said on their last night together—because it had reminded her so forcefully of what Tony had said all those years ago when she’d told him she was pregnant—but at least Mac had been honest and made it absolutely clear he had no desire to father a child with her. The reasons why hardly mattered now.
‘If I told him, he would expect me to have an abortion. And as I’ve decided not to, I don’t see much point in telling him.’
‘How could you possibly know that?’ Daisy demanded.
Juno looked up to see her friend’s horrified expression. This was exactly what she had wanted to avoid. She had no desire to make Mac look bad in front of his family. Maybe, one day, he’d want to contact Daisy and Connor again, and she didn’t want to sour the relationship.
‘Because he told me so.’
‘Are you sure?’ Daisy didn’t look convinced. ‘Yes, I’m sure.’ Or sure enough. He hadn’t loved her the way Connor loved Daisy. So why should he want her to have his baby?
Daisy blew out a breath. ‘I find that incredibly hard to believe. But even so, how on earth do you propose to keep it a secret?’
‘He won’t contact me again.’ Of that one thing she was absolutely sure; that vain, foolish hope had died a death days ago when she’d received no word from him. ‘And I don’t think he’s going to contact you again either. If he does I’ll handle it.’
Would he want to have a relationship with the baby once it was born? The question had plagued her ever since she’d made the decision to try and carry the baby to term. She’d eventually come to the conclusion that the answer was certainly no. He didn’t believe in love. And he’d told her he wasn’t interested in playing happy families. How much more conclusive proof did she need?
‘What about the press?’ Daisy said. ‘What if they find out?’
‘They’ve moved on. No one’s contacted me in over a week. As long as there’s no sign of Mac I have no celebrity value.’ Which was one major plus.
She settled her hand on her stomach. Make that two major pluses.
‘I have to move on, Daze. I have to handle what I can control and forget about the rest. Having a healthy baby is all I care about at the moment.’ It was all she could allow herself to care about.
Mac was her past. The baby was her future. And right now she had to concentrate on not panicking herself to death. On getting through the first three months of this pregnancy safely, so she could start to get excited about the prospect of becoming a mother.
Daisy gripped her hand, squeezed hard. ‘I understand that. But we do have one other major problem on our hands.’
‘Which is?’
‘What Connor’s going to make of all this when he gets back from Berlin this afternoon. He and Mac were hardly on speaking terms when Mac took you off to LA. I’ll be honest and tell you we had a bit of a row after you’d gone to the airport. You know how overprotective he can be.’
Juno huffed out a breath. Connor was another thing she didn’t want to think about. The business trip that had kept him out of the way for the last two days had been one small blessing in the massive mess she’d made of her life.
‘Do you want me to talk to him?’ she asked. Would nothing in her life ever be simple or straightforward again?
Daisy patted her hand. ‘It’s okay, you’ve got more than enough on your plate. Leave Connor to me. But I’m just warning you, I can’t make any promises.’
Juno sighed. She didn’t expect promises any more.
