Wife and Mother Wanted (13 page)

‘H
IGHER
, Mummy. Higher!’

Carissa smiled at Brody over the skipping rope, doing as Molly asked with one hand while resting the other on her growing bump.

‘Just a little while longer, munchkin. Mummy’s getting tired.’

Molly stopped jumping immediately and rushed over to Carissa. ‘Is it the baby? Is he making you tired?’

Carissa squatted down with all the grace of an overweight hippopotamus and pulled Molly close. ‘So you think it’s a he, huh?’

Molly placed one hand on Carissa’s swollen belly, screwed up her eyes tight as if deep in thought, and nodded. ‘Yep. It’s a he. Has to be. Boys are always trouble.’

Chuckling, Brody bent down and joined them on the lawn. ‘Even me?’

Doubt flickered across Molly’s face as she looked up at her father, blue eyes staring into brown. ‘Only sometimes.’

Brody hid his face behind his hands, pretending at
being hurt, before splitting his fingers apart and peering out from between them. ‘Like when?’

‘Like the time you went away to Sydney to see Carissa and didn’t take me.’ Molly waggled a finger at Brody, and Carissa stifled a laugh. ‘You were in big trouble then.’

Brody dropped his hands and kissed Molly on the cheek. ‘You’re right, munchkin. But look what I brought you. Isn’t Carissa a great present?’

Molly giggled and slipped a hand each into hers and Brody’s, completing their family circle. A circle that would soon include a precious baby as the perfect addition to the Elliott family.
Her
family.

Life just didn’t get any better than this. A husband who adored her, a daughter who grew into a more gorgeous girl with every passing day, and a new life to seal the bond they’d created. Together.

‘You’re right, Daddy. You brought me a mummy, and that’s the best present ever!’

‘Hear, hear,’ Brody said, sending Carissa a look of such love, such tenderness, that she knew she’d finally come home.

ISBN: 978-1-4603-6698-1

WIFE AND MOTHER WANTED

First North American Publication 2006.

Copyright © 2006 by Nicola Marsh.

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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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