The Curvy Girls Baby Club Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 1.

  Chapter 2.

  Chapter 3.

  The Curvy Girls Baby Club

  Michele Gorman

  Copyright © 2015 Michele Gorman

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Also by Michele Gorman

  Match Me If You Can

  The Curvy Girls Club

  Perfect Girl

  Christmas Carol

  Life Change

  Single in the City (Single in the City book 1)

  Misfortune Cookie (Single in the City book 2)

  Twelve Days to Christmas (Single in the City book 3)

  Writing as Lilly Bartlett

  The Truth About Love and Dogs

  The Happy Home for Ladies

  The Big Dreams Beach Hotel

  The Big Little Wedding in Carlton Square

  The Second Chance Café in Carlton Square

  Christmas at the Falling-Down Guesthouse

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  Together Again

  Chapter 1

  Jane

  Jane watched Katie do one of those comedy double takes. ‘You’re… pregnant?!’ she said to Ellie, probably louder than she meant to, judging by the startled looks from the people around them. ‘I mean, you only moved out a month ago!’

  Jane was tempted to point out that there was no scientific link between moving boxes and insemination, but it didn’t seem the time. Katie was obviously still smarting about losing her flatmate, though you can’t really blame Ellie for wanting to move in with her new husband.

  Ellie nodded, the grin spreading across her face. ‘I know, isn’t it nuts?’

  That was one word for it. Jane’s head started spinning with the implications of this news. She set down her knitting and climbed out of the pub’s booth so she could hug their best friend. ‘I think what Katie means is congratulations, sweetheart.’

  It might have been her imagination but she swore Ellie was already glowing.

  After a few seconds Katie pushed Jane out of the way to launch herself on Ellie. ‘I’m so happy for you and Thomas. But please don’t ever leave for so long again!’

  Ellie giggled, squeezing back. ‘You’re right, I’m a total cow for going on my honeymoon and I promise not to do it again. I am sorry for not being in touch, though. The internet’s so dodgy in the bush and by the time we got to Fiji, well, I had other things on my mind.’

  ‘That’s obvious,’ Jane said. ‘And don’t pay any attention to Katie. You and Thomas deserved the month together after all the drama lately.’

  ‘Has he told his mother yet?’ Katie asked as they sat again at their usual scarred old pub table in Katie’s local. It had been Ellie’s local too until she moved in with Thomas on the other side of London.

  When Ellie sighed, her peaches and cream complexion reddened. ‘It’s only been five weeks so we’re not telling people yet. We just found out officially a few days ago when the GP confirmed it. It’s a honeymoon baby! Thomas is so excited… I’m surprised he’s been able to keep it from his mother. She rang nearly every day while we were away, as you’d expect, always with some ridiculous excuse. When she couldn’t get through on his mobile she rang the hotel. When she ran out of excuses she said she was checking that he’d put on enough sun cream.’

  ‘That woman needs to get in her box,’ Katie said.

  True, Jane thought, and then they should post it to the other side of the world for Ellie. Though given that Millicent harassed the honeymooners across a dozen time zones, the distance probably wouldn’t matter.

  ‘How on earth will you hold her back once she knows about the baby?’ wondered Katie.

  ‘I’ve no idea but at least I’ve got two more months before we have to tell her. I made Thomas promise.’

  ‘But he does know you’re telling us?’ Jane asked, suddenly worried that she was spilling secrets.

  Ellie nodded, trying to hold in her smile but completely failing. She did look amazing. She was slightly cheating by wearing white to emphasise her light tan – her pale skin never allowed much more – but even her usually flyaway light brown curls were tamed. Jane could forgive that kind of showing-off (it was only April) when Ellie looked so happy. What a complete turnaround from the days before the wedding.

  Her mother-in-law had a lot to answer for.

  ‘When are you due, sweetheart?’ Jane asked, feeling herself grinning like a loon.

  ‘You’re not going to believe this,’ Ellie said. ‘Christmas Day! So that’s my New Year’s Eve ruined. And I’m on orange juice for the rest of the year.’ But she didn’t look unhappy about being teetotal.

  ‘Better you than me,’ said Katie, extracting her purse. ‘I’ll get the champagne for Jane and me. And a pint of OJ for the mother-to-be.’

  ‘Katie, sweetheart, you’d better sit down for a sec,’ Jane said, pulling her gently back into her seat. She’d need a seat when she heard her announcement. ‘I’d like to change my order.’

  ‘That’s not exactly shocking news, Jane.’

  ‘You’ll have to make that two pints of juice.’

  ‘You’re not drinking either?’ Katie asked. ‘When did this start?’

  ‘I guess around the same time as Ellie, as it happens.’ She waited for the penny to drop.

  Ellie got there first. ‘You too?!’ she gasped.

  ‘Me too. Can you flippin’ believe it? I was going to tell you tonight anyway but then, with your news, I didn’t want to steal your thunder just now. It’s not as big a deal for me.’

  She knew she was lying as she said that.

  ‘Don’t be daft, of course it’s a big deal,’ said Ellie. ‘We’re having babies together!’ Then her mouth fell open. ‘And after…’

  Jane nodded. After the years she and Andy spent trying for their first child, Matthew, she shouldn’t technically even be pregnant without the doctor’s help. Although it had to be said that Abigail was conceived the old-fashioned way – after a bottle of wine and a Friday night takeaway – so their reproductive organs did sometimes work.

  She rubbed her tummy, which of course wasn’t showing yet. The swell beneath her dress was all her.

  She caught Katie studying her expression. Of course she knew what she was thinking… what she’d been thinking since she found out. With two children already who hadn’t needed nappies in years, not to mention a blooming chat show career, how exactly was this supposed to work? She’d have to stash the baby behind the studio sofa and feed him during the advert breaks.

  ‘Thank you,’ Jane said. ‘Andy and I are still in shock but we went to the GP on Tuesday and it is official. We’ll be a family of five by the end of the year.’ She picked up her knitti
ng again. The clacking needles were always relaxing and just then, she needed to calm down. Another baby!

  But Ellie was rightly more concerned about Katie. ‘You don’t feel left out, do you?’ she asked, grabbing her hand.

  ‘Leave me well out of it!’ she sputtered. ‘I’m absolutely over the moon for both of you, and I can’t wait to be an honorary auntie, as long as I don’t have to change nappies, but that’s enough for me. We’re definitely not ready to be parents yet. We’ve only just moved in together.’

  Katie did have a point. It was easy to forget that they hadn’t been together forever, but for years Rob was just their fellow Slimming Zone friend, builder of the Curvy Girls Club website and all-round good guy. Then he got to be the love of Katie’s life, too. It was a pretty great upgrade.

  ‘But think of the fun you’d have trying to have a baby!’ Ellie said, refusing to accept that not everyone wanted morning sickness and stretch marks as the result of a night of passion.

  ‘Urgh, I haven’t been able to even think about sex lately,’ Katie said.

  ‘Still feeling delicate?’ Jane asked. Katie rang her a few days ago between toilet visits to say that her intestines were falling out.

  ‘Much better now, thanks, but please don’t ever let me order sushi from a leaflet pushed through the letterbox again… though it has brought up an interesting question, given the circumstances. Let’s just say I’ve had a lot of time to ponder it.’

  She narrowed her dark blue eyes at them. ‘Should the toilet roll unroll from on top or underneath? Rob and I disagree.’

  ‘On top,’ Ellie and Jane said together.

  ‘Thank you. Someone please tell him that, along with everything else he has to learn about being a civilised flatmate. I don’t understand why it has to be so hard living with a man. You didn’t tell me it would be this hard. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but it’s a huge adjustment and I loved living with Ellie. We had our routines and we didn’t get in each other’s way. Now I spend half my time hiding in the loo to take care of the things Rob’s not allowed to see… you know… maintenance-wise.’

  Ellie nodded. ‘Try living in hotel rooms for a month. There’s no chance of doing anything private in there. I had to come back to the room during breakfast each day to, ehem, take care of business.’

  Jane set her knitting aside. ‘Ellie, you’re not seriously saying you won’t poo with Thomas around? God, Andy and I don’t even close the door anymore. Wait a few years. You’ll be brushing your teeth while he’s on the loo. And trust me; once you’ve been in the delivery room you won’t be shy about the rest of it. Just try keeping the mystery alive after he’s seen a person emerge from your vagina.’

  ‘That’s charming, Jane, thanks for the image.’

  ‘Do you want to know how big it is?’ Ellie asked.

  ‘You’re not talking about Jane’s…?’

  ‘No, Katie! I mean the baby. Right now it’s the size of a hundred-and-thousand. You know, those bits you have on an ice cream.’

  ‘Only one?’ Katie asked.

  ‘Believe me,’ Jane said. ‘You only want one in there.’

  Week Five… Mothers

  Chapter 2

  Ellie

  Ellie didn’t like dwelling on the past but whenever she thought about her mother-in-law, Millicent, she could feel her blood start to boil. So standing on her doorstep wasn’t helping her composure. Nor was the fact that morning sickness seemed to be one of nature’s biggest lies. It was nearly 7 p.m. and she felt like vomming in her mother-in-law’s hydrangeas.

  But she didn’t have much choice about being there when Thomas went every Tuesday for dinner. If he knew the depth of her feelings for the woman who gave him life he’d be devastated, so she turned up for the sake of marital harmony, really. The one time she did let her feelings fly, Thomas acted like she’d rubbished Father Christmas.

  ‘Thomas!’ Millicent cried when she opened the family’s mock-Tudor front door. Millicent was a big believer in keeping Ye Olde England alive, which explained the medieval façade inside London’s Zone 4. She’d have dressed Thomas like Oliver Twist if it wouldn’t have meant turning him into the school punching bag.

  ‘And Ellie, hello,’ she said as an afterthought, coolly appraising her with the same startling green eyes that Thomas had.

  Ellie kissed the woman’s cheek, holding her breath against her rose-scented perfume. As usual, she was dressed like Princess Margaret about to go walking on the moors, her tartan tweed skirt and worsted hunting jacket looking a bit incongruous over a silk pussy bow blouse. The blouse was black, also as usual, as befitted her status as grieving widow. Never mind that her ex-husband was alive and well and living with his second wife in Surrey.

  ‘Do you have the photos of your holiday?’ Millicent wanted to know as they settled on the old-fashioned leather sofas in the sitting room. When Ellie first visited she assumed the house was full of heirlooms. Nobody would choose to have so much brocade, tapestry and tartan if they could help it. But it didn’t come from ancestors. It came from online catalogues. Except for the dining table. That belonged to Thomas’s dad’s family, but it was a sore subject for Millicent so nobody mentioned it.

  ‘I haven’t had them printed yet, Mum. I’ll try to do it at the weekend.’

  ‘But I’ve waited over a week to see them!’ she cried, jutting her bottom lip out.

  Ellie hated when she did that. She knew the beginning of a strop when she saw one. ‘I could try to get to Boots to print them out at lunchtime tomorrow,’ she offered. Not that her job left her much free time during the day. She tried to recall the meetings scheduled for tomorrow. If she had a mid-morning snack she could hold out for lunch at 3 p.m. after the board meeting.

  Thomas grasped her hand. ‘No, Ellie, I’m just being selfish. I’ll print them out tomorrow, Mum.’

  ‘Oh wonderful, then you can show me at dinner tomorrow night.’ She patted her platinum blonde bob. It hardly moved with all the hairspray in there. ‘I’ll come into town so you don’t have to travel.’

  Thomas looked confused. How did he not see that coming? ‘We have dinner plans tomorrow,’ Ellie reminded him.

  ‘I don’t want to intrude. I’ll come after dinner then,’ said Millicent, as if that settled things.

  Ellie wouldn’t win, so she didn’t bother. ‘I’ll just get some biscuits to go with the cheese,’ she said, starting for the kitchen.

  ‘No, dear, this cheese is meant to be eaten on its own. It’s French. Have some.’

  She was just about to whack off a great slice of brie when she remembered the list of banned foods now that she was eating for two. ‘No, thank you. I don’t want to spoil my appetite.’

  Millicent looked at her as if to say No chance of that and all Ellie’s insecurities threatened to bob to the surface. She pushed them down again.

  And Millicent had wondered why she didn’t get invited to go with Ellie and her mum to shop for wedding dresses. It was bad enough for Ellie trying to fit her lumps and bumps into a svelte dream dress. She didn’t need Millicent, the Talking Scales, reminding her that she’d been a size eight for thirty years, ever since her own wedding.

  It was only a tiny victory, though, keeping her out of the dress shops, because she’d meddled everywhere else. Ellie had to laugh when she thought about how naïve she’d been when Thomas proposed. She’d imagined their perfect wedding and the fun they’d have planning it together. Her mind raced with ideas about going to see bands they both loved and sampling wedding cakes and choosing a venue.

  They did all of that. Only they weren’t alone.

  When Thomas suggested that Millicent come to the first gig with them, Ellie’s heart melted. How close he was to his mother! No wonder he was so sensitive and kind. Of course Millicent could come, she’d told him graciously.

  That was before she realised that having a chaperone on their date wouldn’t be a one-off.

  Her mind was dragged back to the chintzy living room when Mi
llicent asked Thomas about work. As if they hadn’t already talked at least once that day. She never asked Ellie about her job, despite the fact that she worked for the same company as Thomas. Perhaps being a secretary wasn’t as interesting as being a marketing exec. More likely, she just couldn’t give a toss about Ellie’s life.

  As Thomas described his latest campaign, Ellie glanced at the framed wedding photo on the mahogany table. She looked so happy. And Thomas was gorgeous in his blue tie and light grey morning suit. The only thing marring the photograph was Millicent wedged between them. That pretty much summed up their life together at the moment.

  She’d had no idea about any of that at first, though. They’d already been together months before she’d even met Millicent. And she couldn’t have been more different than Thomas’s description.

  Ellie expected a mild-mannered single mum with Thomas’s personality – fun, easy-going and kind. Not this blonde-bobbed dragon in tweed.

  When they first met, she’d assumed Millicent’s lack of questions were out of respect for her privacy. Obviously she was sensitive about prying too much.

  Ha! That woman didn’t have a sensitive bone in her body, except when it came to herself.

  The trouble was, she made her behaviour seem normal and if Ellie objected, somehow it always ended up sounding like she was the one with the problem. Trying wedding cakes? Well, Millicent was an excellent baker and Thomas trusted her palate. Same with the wine and the catering choices. And with her family friends willing to cut a great deal on their wonderful venue, it made sense to go with Millicent’s suggestion. Every time Ellie objected there seemed to be a perfectly good reason to let Thomas’s mother get her way.

  Until the day that an unstoppable force met an immovable object.

  ‘You’re not inviting that woman to the wedding?’ she’d asked as she scanned the excel sheet that Thomas had printed out for her.

  They both knew who she meant. There’d been a lot of discussion about that woman. ‘Mum, please. She’s married to Dad. She has to come.’