The Midwife's Christmas Miracle (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 5)

He was easy to live with, she discovered, and after that first night he’d kept the conversation friendly but impersonal.

Which was a good thing, she told herself firmly as she slid out of bed on a Saturday morning a month or so after she’d first moved in. She didn’t want anything else.

Anticipating a slow, lazy day, she dressed in comfortable clothes and went downstairs to the kitchen to find Jake frying bacon.

‘It’s a lovely day.’ He glanced towards her. ‘Fancy a walk?’

After her first, disastrous foray into the mountains, he’d taken her to the mountain rescue base and shown her all the equipment they used in rescues and talked to her about safety. She realised again how fortunate she was that he’d been the one to find her on Christmas Day. Since then he’d found walking gear that fitted her and had insisted on taking her on some gentle hikes.

She slid a hand over her rounded abdomen. ‘You fancy delivering a baby in the wild, Mr Blackwell?’

‘You know me.’ He gave her a wicked grin as he slid crispy bacon onto a plate. ‘I love a challenge.’

She stared at the bacon. ‘Is that for me? Because I can cook my own breakfast and you don’t have to—’

‘I don’t have to wait on you.’ His tone was patient. ‘I know that, Miranda, and I’m not waiting on you. I was making breakfast for myself so adding a few extra rashers of bacon seemed like common sense.’

It sounded logical, put like that. ‘I’m going to be the size of a small bus.’

‘You have no flesh on you whatsoever,’ he said dryly, dropping two slices of bread onto her plate and putting a jug of coffee in the centre of the table. ‘That bump is all baby. Am I allowed to pour your coffee or does that offend your independent streak?’

‘I know you’re laughing at me but I won’t depend on anyone.’

‘You can relax. I don’t want you to depend on me. Just for the record, you’re cooking dinner tonight.’ He poured coffee into two mugs and pushed one across to her. ‘There we are. You should put milk in it. You need building up.’

She patted her stomach and there was humour in her eyes. ‘You want to have to refashion all your doors just so that I can pass through them?’

‘As I said, that bump is all baby.’

‘Big baby, then.’

‘Does that worry you?’ He bit into his own sandwich and she looked at him, thinking, not for the first time, that he was incredibly astute. She saw it over and over again at work and not just among the women he delivered. He noticed when a midwife was slightly off colour, he knew that Delia in the staff restaurant was having trouble with her hip. He didn’t miss anything and she really liked that about him.

Men were supposed to be useless at picking up signals and yet Jake seemed to notice everything.

‘Honestly? A bit, yes. I suppose all women are apprehensive about delivery.’ She picked up the sandwich and nibbled the corners. ‘But I’m sure it will be all right. I took your advice and saw Tom Hunter. He’s a nice guy.’

‘Everything all right?’

‘Yes, seems to be. I’m boringly healthy. Low blood pressure, plenty of movements.’ She felt a little embarrassed discussing it. ‘He didn’t anticipate any problems.’

‘He’s a good obstetrician.’ Jake sipped his coffee and grinned. ‘Not as outstanding as me, of course, but I couldn’t deliver your baby.’

‘Why not?’

His eyes locked on hers. ‘Because I’m emotionally involved and that isn’t a good thing. Obstetricians have to b

e able to take a step back.’

His words made her insides shift alarmingly. ‘Why are you emotionally involved? I’m just your lodger.’

He studied her face for a long moment, his blue eyes revealing nothing of his thoughts. ‘If you’ve finished your breakfast, I think we should go for that walk. Exercise is good for you. If Tom didn’t mention that fact then he should have done.’

‘Jake—’ she couldn’t let the subject drop that easily ‘—we’ve been living together for a month now and you haven’t mentioned—’ She broke off and he smiled.

‘The fact that there’s this amazing chemistry between us?’

She blushed. ‘After a month of living with me you’ve probably discovered that I’m a long way from being your ideal woman. I’m stubborn and independent and I fall asleep when I’m not working—’