Bye Bye Baby Read Online Free PDF

Amy.’
    ‘You’re most welcome. How rude of you not to return my call.’

    ‘I know, I know. I’m sorry. If only you knew . . .’
    ‘I do,’ she said, her sunny voice making him feel warm inside. ‘Tell me it arrived in time. Did you wear it?’
    ‘It did. I did. Another thank you.’
    ‘Do you love it?’
    ‘Reminded me of ice-cream.’
    ‘I can hear that you hated it.’
    ‘That’s not true. I just need to gear up to wearing mint and pink stripes.’
    ‘Well, someone has to try and break you free of schoolboy blue. I bet you’re wearing that now.’
    ‘I’m naked actually. You interrupted something.’ She squealed — as he’d hoped she might — and he laughed with delight that he could still do that to her. ‘I’m not, I promise. I can’t help that I favour old-fashioned colours.’
    ‘Just like Dad. Are you still listening to Roy Orbison?’
    ‘Now and then.’
    ‘Break free, little brother. Come on, come over here for a few weeks. I’m all alone so I can give you one hundred per cent, undivided attention. There’s so much we can do. Shopping for shirts, for instance.’
    ‘Soon, I promise.’
    ‘Now!’ she urged.
    ‘I can’t. We’re in the middle of something here.’
    ‘Nasty?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Ooh, what, really gruesome, you mean?’
    ‘I’m afraid so, just like the stuff you love to read but with none of those smart-talking, whip-cracking, brilliant know-all women solving the murder.’

    She sighed. ‘I miss you.’
    ‘I wish you were closer, too. Why couldn’t you have married a Spaniard, or we’d have even coped if he was French.’
    ‘You know me, never do things by halves. Listen, I have something to tell you.’ She sounded suddenly serious.
    ‘What’s cooking?’
    ‘I am. And I’ve got a fat little bun in the oven.’
    It was his turn for a pause as this sank in. ‘A baby?’ he asked, incredulous.
    ‘Yes!’ she screamed across the thousands of miles that separated them. ‘But not just one bun.’
    ‘You’re having twins?’
    He heard her begin to weep. ‘Two beautiful babies, Henry. Can you imagine? I just wish Mum and Dad were around to share this with me . . . and you’re so far away, damn it!’ It broke his heart that he couldn’t hug her. ‘Come home, Amy.’
    ‘I can’t,’ she said, sniffing. ‘Rob needs me here too, and he’s so excited I can’t shut him up.’
    ‘When am I going to have nieces and nephews?’
    ‘By June, we think.’
    ‘Well.’ He blew out his cheeks, overwhelmed by this happy family news. ‘My congratulations, old girl. And to Rob. That’s it, I was trying to summon the energy to cook but now I’m definitely going to get drunk instead.’
    ‘Well, someone has to! Robert must be the only Australian bloke who doesn’t drink.’
    ‘To Pinky and Perky then.’
    She laughed and he was glad to hear it. ‘And if theydon’t resemble sweet, chubby pink piglets, to Bleep and Booster,’ she said.
    ‘I’ll have to insist upon those names as godfather.’
    ‘Godfathers have to be present at the christening, Henry.’
    ‘That’s a promise.’ He counted off the months in his head until the babies would be six months. ‘I’ve got roughly a year, right?’
    ‘Don’t you want to see me enormous?’
    ‘I want to see you with Pinky and Perky in your arms.’
    ‘That’s a date. Next April let’s say you’re coming to Sydney. I’ll take you to a game and you can see football played by real men who run straight into each other — none of this rolling around on the pitch in agony because their toe’s been trodden on or they’ve chipped a fingernail.’
    It was a familiar dig but he didn’t rise to her bait this time.
    Instead he laughed, blew her a kiss. ‘Love to you both. Now leave me, woman, I have a bottle or two of riesling to consume.’
    She kissed him back. ‘I’ll ring again soon because I know you won’t ring me.’
    No sooner had they hung up than the phone rang again. Jack assumed it was his