Kate Hardy - The Baby That Changed Everything

‘I don’t mean to be rude,’ Vivienne said, ‘but I don’t want to be a coach or a doctor. I just want to play tennis. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.’

‘And you will play again,’ Bailey said. ‘But, as Dr Fraser said, you need to follow your rehab programme.’

‘Waiting is the worst bit,’ Jared said. ‘You’ll want to push yourself too hard. But don’t. Use that time to study instead. Look at different techniques, look at the way your opponents play and use that to hone your strategy. To really succeed at a top level in sport you need just as much up here …’ he tapped his head ‘… as you need the physical skills.’

‘Vivi picked up a racket practically as soon as she could walk,’ Mr Kaine said. ‘I used to play—nothing like at her level—just at a club on Sunday afternoons, and her mum would bring her to watch. And she ended up joining in.’ He ruffled her hair. ‘When she started beating us hollow and she wasn’t even ten years old, we knew we were seeing something special in the making. And you’ll get that back, love. We just have to make sure we do everything the doctors tell us, OK?’

‘OK,’ Vivienne said.

Bailey smiled at them both. ‘And I’ll do my very best to help you get that knee back to how it was, so you can go and get those grand slams.’

‘Can I be rude and ask, Mr Fraser, do you miss playing?’ Vivienne asked.

‘Sometimes,’ Jared said. ‘But I’m thirty-five now, so I’d be near the end of my professional playing career in any case. And I’m lucky because I really enjoy my job. It means I get the chance to help players fulfil their potential. If someone had told me that when I was your age, I would have laughed at them—but I really do feel I’ve achieved something when I see them grow and improve. So don’t rule it out as something you might do when you’re ready to retire from playing.’

Vivienne looked thoughtful, and Bailey could see that Jared’s words had given her a different perspective—something that would make all the waiting during her rehab a lot easier. ‘Thank you, Mr F —Dr Fraser,’ she amended.

When the Kaines had left, Jared was about to follow them out when Bailey stopped him. ‘Thanks for doing that, Jared—you’ve made a real difference to her.’

‘No worries.’

‘If I wasn’t up to my eyes in paperwork and appointments,’ she said, ‘I’d offer to take you for lunch to thank you properly. Or dinner—but I’m doing bridesmaid stuff for Joni tonight. So please consider this a kind of rain check.’ She took a plain white patisserie box from her desk drawer and handed it to him.

‘What’s this?’ he asked.

She smiled. ‘A little slice of heaven. Don’t open it now. Tell me what you think later.’

‘OK.’ He looked intrigued. ‘I’ll text you. Good luck for tonight.’

‘Thanks.’

Later that evening, she had a text that made her laugh.

Best chocolate cake in the universe. Would very much like to help with more patients. Quite happy to be paid in cake.

I’ll see what I can do, she texted back.

Funny, when she’d first met Jared, she’d thought him grumpy and surly and a pain in the neck. Now she rather liked his dry sense of humour and the quiet, sensible way he went about things.

But she’d better not let herself get too close. After the way her marriage to Ed had splintered, she just didn’t trust herself to get it right next time. It was best to stick to being colleagues. Friends, too, maybe; but she’d have to dampen down the attraction that sparkled through her veins every time she saw him. To keep her heart safe.

‘JONI, YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL,’ Bailey said, surveying her best friend.

‘So do you.’ But Joni also looked worried. ‘Bailey, are you sure you’re OK?’

‘Of course I am—why wouldn’t I be?’

‘Because I remember the last time that one of us was in a bridesmaid’s dress and the other was the bride,’ Joni said softly.

Bailey’s wedding day. A day so full of promise. A day when she’d thought she couldn’t be happier … And then, two short years later, she’d discovered that she couldn’t be any more unhappy when her whole world crashed down around her. ‘I’m fine. More than fine. Don’t give it another moment’s thought,’ she said brightly. Even if she hadn’t been fine, no way would Bailey rain on her best friend’s parade on her wedding day.

‘I can’t believe you’re actually bringing Herod as your plus-one.’

Bailey groaned. ‘Please don’t call him that when you meet him—he’ll be mortified.’

‘You’ve been very cagey about him. So you’re getting on OK together now?’

‘We’ve reached an understanding.’

Joni raised an eyebrow. ‘ That sort of understanding?’

‘Absolutely not. Even if I was looking for someone, Jared Fraser wouldn’t make my list of potentials.’ That was a big fat lie—Jared Fraser was one of the most attractive men she’d met, particularly when he smiled—but hopefully Joni would be too distracted by all the bridal stuff going on to call her on it. Bailey hoped. ‘No, he’s just doing me a favour and taking a bit of heat off me where my family’s concerned.’

‘As long as you’re OK.’

‘Of course I’m OK,’ Bailey reassured her. ‘I’m thrilled that my best friend’s getting married to the love of her life, and I get to follow her down the aisle in the most gorgeous bridesmaid’s dress ever. Now, the car’s going to be here at any second, so we need to get moving.’

Jared took a deep breath and walked down the path to the church. He hadn’t been to a wedding since his own marriage to Sasha. And, despite Bailey’s assurances that the bride and groom were right for each other, Jared still felt awkward. A cynic who’d lost his belief in marriage really shouldn’t be here to celebrate a wedding. He half wished Bailey was going to be there with him to take his mind off it, but as she was Joni’s bridesmaid he knew that she would be the very last person walking into the church, and she wouldn’t be sitting with him, either.

He really should have asked if he could at least meet the bride and groom before the wedding, so he would know someone there. Right at that moment he was really regretting the impulse that had made him offer to be Bailey’s ‘plus-one’.

His only consolation had been the text she’d sent him that morning: See you at the church. And thank you. I appreciate it.

And being appreciated was nice. It had been a while since he’d last felt appreciated.

The usher greeted him with a smile. ‘Bride’s side or groom’s?’

‘Bride’s,’ Jared said, feeling a total fake.

‘Sit anywhere on the left except the front two pews,’ the usher said with a smile, handing him an order of service booklet.

Jared remembered the drill: anywhere except the front two pews, where the bride’s and groom’s immediate family would be sitting.

Over the next few minutes the church filled up. Two men walked down to the front of the church; one of them was obviously the groom and the other the best man, Jared thought.

A wedding.

A room full of hope, with everyone wishing the bride and groom happiness until the end of their days. But how often did that hope turn sour? How many people did he know who’d actually stayed together, apart from his parents and two of his siblings? Not that many.

The organist started to play the wedding march, and the bride walked in on her father’s arm, looking gorgeous and deliriously happy. Behind her, carrying the long train and a bouquet of deep red roses—to match her knee-length dress and incredibly high-heeled shoes—was Bailey.

Jared had never seen her wearing make-up before, not even on that morning when they’d trained together and she’d come to breakfast in a suit. It was barely there—mainly mascara and a hint of lipstick, from what he could tell—but it served to show him that she was jaw-droppingly beautiful and didn’t need anything to enhance her looks. Right now, she looked incredibly glamorous, a million miles away from the slightly scruffy doctor he was used to—the one who walked around the football pitch in tracksuit pants and a hoodie.