‘Is that a name you and Will picked out?’

‘We didn’t choose,’ she whispered. ‘We didn’t dare to think there’d ever be a baby. I did wonder about Chloe, only now I see her…she’s just Rose. And I’ll add an Elizabeth for Betty.’ She smiled shyly up at him, looking almost anxious. ‘What do you think?’

‘Pretty much perfect.’

‘I think so,’ she said. ‘Stitches?’

‘Nothing to stitch.’

‘Too perfect,’ she said, shy giving way to smug. She was relaxing again now, and she was looking just about as happy as it was possible for a woman to be. ‘I’m so good at this.’

Right. He didn’t mention the cord around Rose’s neck. There were some things Maggie didn’t need to know. How close she might have come…

It didn’t bear thinking about.

‘I’d like you up this end of the bed,’ Maggie said, sounding suddenly like the old Maggie, like the strong and imperious woman he loved.

‘I believe I need to clean up.’

‘It can wait,’ she said. ‘I need to be kissed.’

So much for the doctor-patient relationship. He touched her face again, loving her with every part of his being.

He still needed to be sensible. He still needed to remember that instinctive ‘But’.

Okay, Maggie needed to see that what he was feeling wasn’t the result of need and loss and all the things that had been messing with his head for so long. But right now…

‘Max, right now I’m holding my daughter and I believe my world is wonderfully, amazingly fabulous,’ she whispered, loving him with her smile. ‘The only thing that could make it more perfect is if you kissed me. So…’

So he’d never know how she was going to finish that sentence, for he had her in his arms, her daughter gently cradled between them, and he was kissing her as she wanted to be kissed.

As he wanted to kiss her.

Which was pretty much as perfect as a kiss could be.


They slept-or Maggie and Rose slept, and Max lay with Maggie in his arms, with tiny Rose wrapped and snuggled between them.

If he slept he might move too close, put in peril this tiny, precious creature who already felt a part of him. He had her nestled between them so Maggie could feel her daughter’s closeness, but Max could feel the baby’s warmth as well, her tiny snuggling movements, her flawlessness.

With the roads still blocked from the night, the usual sounds from the street below were silent. There was only the ocean, the moonlight over the water, this woman, this baby.

Life was perfect.

There were complications. He knew it. He was a surgeon in a major teaching hospital and Maggie had committed herself to be a country doctor and farmer. Were the two compatible?

Could Maggie leave Yandilagong to be with him?

The decision was too hard for now. They needed time to think.

Only there wasn’t much space in his head to think. All he could think was how right Maggie felt in his arms, and how wonderful life felt right now.


Maggie stirred some time toward dawn. It was still dark. She could close her eyes and sleep again, only right now she was too happy to sleep. She felt her daughter nestled beside her. Max’s arm was under her shoulders, his chest was her pillow, she was cradled against him and she felt so happy she was almost floating.

Yet she’d said, ‘But.’

Why? It had been an instinctive reaction, a stab of acknowledgement of every barrier that lay between them. ‘But it’s impossible that you love me.’ Only right now she couldn’t even think what those barriers were.

So why had she said it?

It had changed things, she thought, no matter how he’d reassured her. She’d told him she’d loved him, but he’d moved onto practical things again. She had allowed the real world a glimpse in.

But she wanted to love him in the real world as well. She wanted to be with him. In Max’s arms, with her daughter by her side, she felt like the luckiest woman in the world.

There were problems. Even within her haze of relief and love and happiness she could dimly acknowledge that. Maybe that’s what her ‘But’ had been about. She’d promised Betty that she’d care for Angus, she’d care for the farm, she’d even told her the medical needs of Yandilagong were settled. How could she simply abandon that promise and walk into Max’s life?

She would if he asked her. She must. She’d find a way.

Max loved her. How wonderful was that? How wonderful was life?

It was too wonderful to let herself think about problems right now, she thought dreamily. Problems were for tomorrow. Right now she was in the arms of the man she loved with all her heart, and her daughter-their daughter?-was between them.

She smiled a cat-got-the-cream smile and she nestled closer into Max. His arm tightened instinctively around her.

She was loved.

She slept.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

SOON after the sun rose, when the power finally came on, when the city slowly came back to life, an ambulance arrived. Maggie was bundled up to be taken to hospital, so Rose could have all the checks she needed, and Maggie could be cared for.

If Maggie had her way she’d stay right where she was, but it wasn’t possible. Max couldn’t stay with her-or wouldn’t. The impulsive declarations of the night were over.

‘For we do need to take this slowly,’ he told her as he helped lift them both into the back of the ambulance. ‘I need to go back to work. You need to go back to the farm.’

‘I don’t want to go back.’ Impulsive, stupid or not, that was an absolute.

But Max was made of sterner stuff than she. Some time during the night a decision had been made.

‘Maggie, I said I won’t rush you and I won’t,’ he said. ‘Last night you had a baby. You’re an emotional-’

‘Mess? I am not,’ she said, ready to be indignant, but he smiled and placed a finger on her lips.

‘Of course you’re not. But there’s all sorts of things to be thought out before we decide where to take…what we’re feeling for each other. You promised Betty you’d stay on the farm. Yes?’

‘I…’ Her face clouded. ‘Yes.’

‘Today’s not the day to make a decision to break that promise,’ he said gently. ‘I love you and I want you but I will not pressure you. You go to hospital, then you go back to the farm and we’ll take things from there. Maybe in three months…’

‘Three months!’ She was on a stretcher, settled into the ambulance and she said the ‘three months’ as a wail. If she hadn’t been cradling her daughter she might have got up and told him where he could put his three months.

But Max’s expression was firm. A decision had been made. ‘Maggie, it’s life-changing decisions we’re talking here,’ he told her, and he kissed her lightly on the lips-and then, as if he couldn’t help himself, he kissed her more deeply. ‘I want no regrets when we move forward together,’ he added.

‘Will you still want me in three months?’

‘I’ll always want you,’ he said simply, and he kissed her again, so deeply this time that the paramedics sighed and looked at their watches. He pulled away at last, smiled ruefully and climbed out of the van. ‘Off you go, then, you and Rose. I’ll clean up here and bring a suitcase to you later. And then…I’m working in the same hospital, my love. I won’t be far away. Three months, my Maggie. We’ll live that long.’

‘Only if I have you waiting for me at the end,’ she muttered, but she knew in her heart that what he was saying was sensible. She even managed to smile back. ‘Oh, Max, I love you so much.’


Three months… Why had he said it? But even as he questioned himself he knew he was right. Maybe the time frame could be shorter but he doubted it. There were so many things that needed thinking through.

At least he hadn’t been stupid enough to say he’d stay away from her. Yes, she needed space to think. Yes, her need of him might be hormonal. Yes, it was fair to give her time to recover from the emotions of the birth and, yes, he needed time to work out an idea that was still only a vague possibility-but staying away from her was impossible.

So Maggie was admitted to South Sydney, and if he happened to pass her ward a dozen times a day it wouldn’t be proper not to check on her. Rose decided to be jaundiced, and there was another reason for him to be there. Yes, Maggie was a doctor, but she couldn’t be dispassionate about her own daughter. It was hard enough for Max to be dispassionate, watching this tiny creature wearing her sunglasses under the lights. This tiny girl who held his heart in her hands almost as tightly as her mother did.

Their hospital stay was thus extended, but finally the jaundice resolved, and when Rose’s colour faded from golden back to pink it was Max who drove them both back to the farm.

And if he hugged Maggie as he helped her into the car, if he kissed her as he closed the car door, and if he drove down the coast road feeling all the smugness of a man with a new family, who could blame him?

Beside him Maggie smiled and smiled. She was happy to be going home, he thought, and there was another stab of disquiet. Home to the farm. How to make this work?

Angus was watching for their arrival from the back of an ancient Lanz Bulldog. Angus was a part of Maggie’s family. There were complications everywhere. How could he ask her to abandon Angus?

He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

Maggie had attempted to raise the issue with him but he’d shushed her. ‘It’s not time,’ he’d said, and he wouldn’t be budged.

His wonderful idea was growing. There were still so many factors, though. Somehow Max had to figure a way around them.

Was three months long enough? It had to be. He had to figure out a way.

Focus on now, he told himself harshly. One step at a time. Angus was watching them and Maggie was smiling at him. Angus wasn’t smiling back. He was holding onto his tractor as if it was his refuge.