Eden's Garden by Juliet Greenwood Read Free Book Online

a quick slurp from his wife’s tea. ‘See you in a minute, ladies.’
    ‘Perhaps I’d better go,’ said Carys, slightly regretfully.
    ‘And not see the babies?’ Poppy waggled a finger at her. ‘Don’t think you can escape that quickly. Stuart will never forgive you. You’ve never seen a man so proud of his achievements. You’d think he’d given birth to them himself. I’d finish your tea, though. Once they arrive, chaos reigns.’
    Above them came the soothing sounds of Stuart relapsing into baby-speak as a second wail erupted to echo the first.
    Carys giggled. She had known Stuart through work for years, almost as long as she had been friends with Poppy. The transformation of Mr Sex-on-Legs, smart-suited alpha male into doting dad from the moment Poppy’s bump appeared, never ceased to amaze her.
    ‘I know,’ said Poppy. ‘Architects don’t change nappies.’
    ‘Suits him,’ said Carys. ‘To be honest, I thought you were mad when you two got together. I’d never have put him down as the fatherly type.’
    ‘Oh, he’s an old softie really, underneath all that strut,’ said Poppy fondly. ‘Bit of an old-fashioned family, that’s all. Got to keep the front up, don’t you know? His dad would throw a fit if he knew anything about our real lives.’ Her grin was mischievous. ‘I’m always careful to appear ever so dutiful whenever we visit, and I haven’t sworn once.’
    ‘Never.’
    ‘Hey, it keeps the family peace, so no skin off my nose for a couple of days every now and again. The least I can do for Stuart loving the real crotchety, loud-mouthed with serious issues, no-holds-barred, me. It’s a manhood thing.’
    Above their heads, the wails had softened more towards burbling, to much creaking of floorboards and running of water, along with encouraging mutterings from Stuart, who was clearly taking on single-handed the heroics of a double nappy-change to give them a few more minutes in peace.
    Carys sighed. She and Poppy were almost exactly the same age, only a few days between them. It was strange to think now that at their joint thirtieth birthday party, just three years ago, neither of them had even considered the whole settling down and having children thing. They’d eyed without envy the friends nursing fractious babies, or chasing toddlers with minds of their own and an ability to get into all kinds of trouble. They’d pitied the ones who left before the dancing really got going to relieve the babysitter and get as much sleep as they could before the next day began. What kind of life was that? they’d whispered to each other over their champagne. Especially when compared to the three weeks backpacking round Thailand that stretched in front of them to mark this momentous milestone in their lives.
    It seemed that the crossover from their twenties to thirties had changed them both in more ways than simply the appearance of the first fine lines and a B&B unaccountably gaining in appeal over a sleeping bag in a tent.
    ‘Joe said it was just hormones, when I first started thinking about children,’ she said. Women were like that, he’d informed her sagely, she remembered with a wince. It was the approaching thirty-five and the biological clock ticking that did it, according to Joe. ‘Maybe he thinks he can get me to change my mind about that, too.’
    ‘I thought you said he’s become quite misty-eyed these days whenever you’ve visited friends with kids?’
    ‘That’s true.’ Carys gave a wry smile. ‘But that’s when we’ve been able to hand them back after a few minutes. He likes the idea of taking them to football matches and teaching them how to surf. I’m not entirely sure he’s got his head around the rest of what having a family means.’
    Above their heads, nappy changing appeared to have been successfully completed, and was being followed by a tuneless, but enthusiastic rendition of ‘Hickory dickory doc’, accompanied by fresh-nappy squeals and chortles.
    ‘At