Page 126 of The Life Daisy Devlin Designed
Daisy squealed and threw her arms around her again.
“Group hug?” Fionn looked hopeful.
Laura glanced over and extended one arm. “Come on, then. But this willnotbe a regular thing!”
As Fionn wrapped his arms around the two of them, Daisy felt a rush of pure happiness for her friend.
Laura was the first to pull away. “Stephanie didn’t mean to put you in that position, Fionn,” she said. “She thought you knew. And I had no idea Daisy would send you, or I’d have warned Stephanie not to say a word.”
“Hey, don’t even mention it.” Fionn flicked away his fringe.
“I can’t believe I didn’t guess,” Daisy admitted. “I kind of thought you were just putting on a tiny bit of weight, but I figured it was either a side-effect of your new contraception, or that you were bulking up for your training.”
Laura burst out laughing. “You know I’ve no intention of running a marathon, don’t you? Not at the moment, anyway. I just needed an excuse for eating more, and not drinking, without you getting suspicious.”
Daisy remembered something else. “That needle I saw ...”
“I had to self-inject coming up to the procedure.” Laura sighed. “I had that excuse ready in case you ever spotted one of them.”
Daisy caught Fionn’s expression. “Are you feeling okay? You look a bit ...”
“Sorry, I should have just left when you started talking about ...” He swallowed. “I’m a bit squeamish.”
“We won’t talk any more about it, I promise.” Laura winked at Daisy. “Not in front of you!”
Fionn looked relieved as he picked up the box of doughnuts. “So, can I get you a coffee?”
“Not for the moment.” Laura shook her head. “But you can get me a green tea. I’ll have it with my avocado toast.”
“One green tea coming up!” Fionn turned to go.
“Oh, and Fionn?” Laura said.
He turned back.
“Stephanie told me she was really pleased with how things went yesterday. Well done.”
Fionn’s ears turned pink. “Thanks.”
After he left, Daisy looked at Laura for a long moment. “I’m a complete dope for not guessing. You were pregnant at my birthday: that’s why you weren’t drinking.”
“Yeah, I’d just found out.” Laura shrugged slightly. “My periods have always been fairly irregular, which didn’t help when we were doing IVF.”
“You know you could have told me what you were doing, Laura? I’d have understood.”
“Ah babes, I know. But I didn’t want you wondering if I was okay all the time. Not when we work together – it would have been intense!” Laura stretched, and for the first time Daisy could almost make out a tiny rounding under her clothes. “I’ll want to take time off after the baby is born, maybe even a year.”
Daisy glanced towards the door. “I’ll have to get maternity cover for you.”
“Hmm.” Laura’s eyes twinkled. “Can I suggest someone?”
“Fionn?”
“He’ll have graduated, Daisy. We could give him a trial period? Just don’t throw him in at the deep end.”
“Yeah, I won’t tell him yet. He needs to concentrate on his final project for college.”
Laura sat down. “Good. By the way, don’t you dare tell him I suggested it.”
