“Helen, would you like to cook the turkey roast? And Mom, you can be in charge of the dessert. Maybe an ice cream version of Christmas pudding?”
“I’d rather desert, you know,” said Helen quietly.
Zoe was about to speak when her mom quickly interrupted. “And I’d rather cook the mains. Want to swap?”
“Yes. And you don’t have to cook a traditional turkey roast if you don’t want to,” suggested Helen with a smile.
“I wouldn’t know what to cook if I didn’t roast a turkey,” grinned Leanne.
“Neither would I. But I thought I’d mention it, you know, in case you had your own family recipe you wanted to cook.”
“Bubbles all round?” asked the waiter as he returned with a bubble of champagne.
“Not for me,” said Zoe.
“Or me,” said her dad.
Zoe caught his eye and he winked.
She smiled inwardly.
Things might work out after all, with the family lunch and a shopping trip.
“It great,” said her mom. “Look at your cute bump. You got to show it off now.”
Zoe wasn’t sure. She was tired and beginning to feel a little unwell. This was the third shop that they had been in. Things weren’t so tense between Helen and Leanne now, but the strain was still there.
Zoe forced herself to look in the change room mirror. The jeans fitted well enough, but she just wasn’t used to the stretchy band at the top to accommodate her growing a baby. The black and white top was tight, and showed off her bump. She felt a little self-conscious noticing how big her breasts were getting.
No wonder Max can’t keep his hands off them.
The thought helped to improve her mood. It was telling how much she missed him. It was the reassurance she needed right now for herself that she was attracted to him, and being pregnant aside, she did actually want to be with him and building a life together. It seemed her mom thought Max should be doing more. Zoe was starting to think the same, but then Helen had been so defensive. She just didn’t know enough about farm life to be able to tell if Max was using this as an excuse not to come with her or not. She hoped he wasn’t.
“I dunno, it feels funny on my belly.” Zoe flicked the top of the jeans, the stretchy material coming up over her belly button, and not at all where jeans were meant to sit.
“Trust me, you’ll grow into it.”
Zoe didn’t want to think how big her belly was going to get.
“Come on out and show us.” Helen’s legs were hurting from varicose veins and so she sat in the corridor of the change rooms with Kate keeping her company.
Her mom held open the curtain, suggesting she went out to show them. This had been the routine for the afternoon, and Zoe was starting to tire of it. It did seem that her mom and Helen, even Kate, were having more fun at picking out the clothes than she was. Despite the tension between the older women, they weren’t saying anything to put Zoe off.
What Zoe really wanted was to have arranged to meet up with her friends Ellie and Billie, but they told her they knew nothing about buying maternity clothes. Billie was further north near Port Augusta, doing some shearing, and Ellie was back on her farm in the southeast, and neither of them couldn’t make it today. They did, at least, promise to come to the baby shower when she had it.
“Very nice, I like it,” said Helen as Zoe stepped out of the change room.
“You do?”
“Yes. You can wear it out on the farm with Max,” said Kate.
“If he lets me go with him.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“I think he’s worried something will happen to me.”
Kate rolled his eyes and looked at her mom. “We better talk to him.”
