Second Chance With The Single Dad. Kandy Shepherd

thought aside to consider later. By not denying his from-out-of-nowhere claim—how could she have?—she had committed to playing along. Especially as Wil’s former sister-in-law seemed still determined to fight.

      Wil pulled her closer. She tried to relax against him, difficult when she was so intensely aware of his strength and warmth, the utter masculinity of him. He still smelled the same. She’d always managed to deny how attractive she found him. Pretending to be his wife-to-be took her denial to a whole new level.

      Sharyn continued. ‘But that doesn’t qualify you to be a mum. Especially to a little girl who has lost her own. She looks cheerful enough now but she knows her mummy is gone, that something is very wrong in her world.’ She choked up but scowled at Georgia’s look of sympathy.

      Georgia glanced up at Wil, trying to seem like a concerned fiancée seeking reassurance, then back to Sharyn. ‘I’ll do my best. I should imagine Nina would be a very easy child to...to love. Just because Nina is going to live with her dad and...uh...me, doesn’t mean she has to say goodbye for ever to her aunty and cousins. I’m sure Wil will want you to be part of her life.’

      Georgia sensed Wil still beside her. Had she overstepped the mark, gone where a pretend fiancée shouldn’t go?

      ‘Really?’ said Sharyn, relief softening her combative expression. ‘We’ll get to see her?’

      Georgia was so disconcerted at the situation she found herself in, she struggled to sound normal. ‘Of course. Family is important.’ She looked back up at him. ‘Isn’t it, Wil?’

      ‘Yes, it is,’ he said with a vehemence that surprised her.

      ‘So I don’t have to tell the boys they’ll never see their baby cousin again?’ Sharyn said.

      ‘No. Uh...in fact they could be pageboys at our wedding.’ Georgia had to suppress a grin at the look on Wil’s face. Served him right for dropping her into this. ‘They’d make cute little ring-bearers, wouldn’t they, Wil?’ she said, perhaps a little too sweetly.

      ‘Uh, yes,’ he muttered.

      Sharyn’s face lightened. ‘Pageboys? I’m not sure they’d stay still long enough for that,’ she said. ‘But you’re serious about keeping in touch?’

      Georgia gritted her teeth. How could she possibly be expected to answer such a question? She pasted on a fake fiancée smile as she gave Wil a glance she hoped he would recognise as over to you.

      ‘I’ll make sure Nina keeps in touch with her cousins,’ he said.

      His former sister-in-law nodded and reluctantly handed her little niece over to her father. ‘Make sure you do,’ she said.

      Wil took Nina from her, a little awkwardly but with growing confidence. Georgia caught her breath as she watched him.

      There was something about a tall, broad-shouldered, manly guy holding a little baby in strong, protective arms that was heart-stoppingly appealing. Even more appealing when the guy in question was her friend Wil, and the little daughter he had only just discovered. He so big and powerful; Nina so small and vulnerable. The way he held her, the intensity of his gaze were as if he was silently assuring Nina he would protect her from every possible bad arrow the world might have in wait for her. But the way the tiny girl looked back up at him with the same dark eyes made Georgia’s heart turn over. There was a connection there. Now she really believed it—Wil was a father.

      A wave of yearning swept over her. Not for Wil—of course not for Wil. He was just a friend. Or for his daughter. Her days were filled with looking after other women’s children. She wanted her own baby one day. At twenty-seven going on twenty-eight, her biological clock had started to tick insistently. But as her track record with marriageable-type males was abysmal, that particular dream might not be coming true any time soon.

      She’d knocked back three proposals, the first while she’d still been at uni. Commitment was what she’d craved but the guys just hadn’t been quite right. The most recent had been Toby. She’d let the relationship go on for too long, wasting her time and his. But she’d thought that pathway was expected of her—marriage to the steady kind of guy everyone had liked. Children to follow. Even to the fact that Toby had been a fellow schoolteacher—just think how convenient all those school holidays would have been when it came to vacation childcare. But that hadn’t been enough for her to want a ring on her finger. Even after Wil had married and dashed any deeply suppressed hope she’d had of their friendship developing into something deeper.

      Wil turned to her and smiled. The dimple was in full force. ‘Do you want to hold her?’ he said, as if offering a gift of inestimable value.

      Hold baby Nina? As a potential stepmother? Of course she wanted to hold the dear little thing. But she wasn’t sure what Wil expected of her. To gush that she couldn’t wait to be little Nina’s mummy? That would be going too far in this crazy charade he had thrust her into. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—lie. Instead, she would try to behave as she normally would when offered a cuddle of an adorable baby.

      She held out her arms with a smile, was rewarded with the deliciousness of a soft, sweet-smelling baby in her arms. ‘Hello, Nina,’ she murmured. ‘I’m Georgia.’ The baby replied with her cute, four-toothed smile and a string of babble that just might have meant pleased to meet you. Nina was, without a doubt, enchanting.

      But how dare Wil put her in a position when she had to pretend to be a doting mum-to-be? Engaged to be married to him? It stretched the boundaries of a newly ignited friendship a step too far. She didn’t want to fall back into the good old Georgia trap—always obliging, always helpful, making excuses for the inexcusable—not for her family, not for her friends and especially not for Wil, who had ignored her for two whole years.