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“Trey, I wish I could stay, but there are things beyond my control dictating my return,” Chloe said with confidence. “You’ll forget about me as soon as I’m gone and your wife arrives.”
“I’ll never forget you, Chloe. I wish I’d never started this mail-order bride thing.” I picked at grass around my feet.
Before Chloe could respond, Mia and Sophie returned.
“Mummy, there is a bunch of tiny little baby ducks over there. You have to come see.” Sophie squealed in delight. “I love babies. Don’t you, Mummy? Aunt Mia said she likes them too.”
Mia had gone to the back of the blanket and was crumbling a roll for the baby ducklings.
“You look like you are well-prepared for feeding a baby,” Chloe teased Mia. “Sorry, I meant feeding those baby ducklings.”
“Dr. Trey and Mummy, come with me to see the baby ducks.” Sophie grabbed both of our hands and pulled us along with her. Mia followed behind with the crumbs.
“I was told I would find you all here by the ducks,” Parker said from behind us. “Look at all those babies. “Are they all the same mommy?”
“No, those babies go with that mummy and these are with this mummy,” Sophie explained. “Does that mean the babies from the other mummy are cousins?”
“Well, they would be, if the two mummies were sisters,” Mia said.
“I think they’re sisters. They can be sisters, that way all the babies are cousins.” Sophie tossed crumbs into the water. “I wish I had a cousin.”
“Would you really, really, like to have one?” Mia asked.
“I think a cousin is a great idea,” Parker added, with his arm across Mia’s shoulder.
“What’s going on?” I asked, watching a goofy grin appear on Parker’s face. “Am I hearing these clues correctly?”
“What clues?” Chloe turned from the water to look at Mia. “Oh my God! Cousin clues?”
Mia and Parker smiled ear-to-ear. “Sophie, I’m going to have a baby, and the baby will be your cousin.”
“Yay!” Sophie hugged Mia, then ran around the field continuing to celebrate.
“Is that enough to get you to stay?” Mia asked Chloe.
“You know I can’t, but it’ll make me work harder on the issues so I can come back sooner.” Chloe hugged Mia, then Parker. “This will be the luckiest baby in the world. Mia, you will be a great mother.”
“Does anyone else know yet?” I asked, feeling the excitement boiling up. “Mom will go nuts. I have to be there when you tell her.”
“I wish I could be there when you tell her.” Chloe frowned. “Maybe someone could video it.”
“The more I think about it, you may want to wait a little while.” I nodded toward Sophie. “You know, let things settle a little. Wait, I can just postpone the marriage.”
“No, you’re not doing that.” Mia shouldered me. “This can wait a little longer anyways. I just wanted to tell Sophie in person.”
“We plan on telling her this weekend. We didn’t want it to interfere with Chloe’s visit,” Parker said.
“Mummy, can we live here so I can play with my new cousin?” Sophie ran back over to ask.
“No baby girl, people need us back in Sydney, but we can visit again soon.” Chloe wiped tears off her cheek with her sleeve. “Mia, I’m so happy.”
“I really think I should postpone,” I urged. “This is so much bigger news.”
Chapter 76
Chloe
I’d been packing our bags all morning while Sophie had gone off to spend some time with Mia at the library. I’d chosen to not join them so the time could be just about Sophie. So much had happened in the last four weeks, and I felt like life wasn’t going to be the same. Now I was also being forced to miss out on my sister having a baby. I knew I was stupidly running away, running from seeing Trey married, and running from letting Jimmy hurt the Hawthornes.
