His best friend’s baby bombshell…

Georgie and Hamish have been best friends forever. So Hamish can’t refuse when Georgie asks him for the Christmas present she’s spent her whole life waiting for—a baby! But seeing a very pregnant Georgie changes everything. Not only is Hamish going to be a father, but suddenly he’s falling for the mother of his child….





This couldn’t be Georgie.

Apart from her voice, nothing about her was remotely familiar and he barely recognized her. Gone was her short-cropped hair and in its place a long, glossy, caramel-brown ponytail swept across her shoulders in a caress of curls. Her face, which had always seemed slightly too long for her, was now round and full. In fact, all of her was round and full. A white sundress fell from decorative shoulder straps, flowing across voluptuous breasts before cascading over a high and round belly and swirling against the enticing tilt of her hips, a curvaceous behind and firm thighs. She seemed taller, more sure of herself, and a secret smile played about her lips as if she knew things that others could never understand.

A thundering wave of pure sexual energy rode off her, spinning him into its orbit and rolling him inside its core. His groin tightened as a wondrous hot bolt of anticipation and excitement pounded through him. A second later his brain caught up with his body, its reaction horrified and stunned.

This is Georgie. Georgie. We’re platonic—we made that decision years ago.

“You—” His voice cracked over the husky word and he cleared his throat. “You look good.”





Dear Reader,

Christmas in Australia is a few days after the summer equinox and it’s the start of a traditional two-week holiday. Families flock to the coast to camp, rent holiday houses and be spoiled in boutique hotels, and the No Vacancy signs glow red until well into January. In my state of Victoria, the Bellarine Peninsula with its fabulous wineries, gourmet cafés and restaurants and quiet bayside beaches is a popular destination, as is the nearby Surf Coast on the Great Ocean Road. With its rugged coastline and the Otway rain forest behind it, it’s the perfect combination of forest and beach. If you want to holiday at either of these places, you have to book a year in advance, as many families have been camping down there for sixty years or more.

It’s family time. It’s fun traditions like decorating the tree, the annual beach cricket match, playing charades and board games, reading and teaching kids how to surf. Some people get really enthusiastic and entire families enter the many open-water swims and beach runs, but no matter the energy levels, everyone uses the time to kick back from routine and to recharge the batteries for another year ahead.

Despite being opposites, Hamish and Georgie have been best friends since university. They’ve been there for each other through good times and bad, so when Georgie asks Hamish one of the biggest favors a friend can ever ask, he reluctantly agrees. He has one caveat—his family can never know.

Both Georgie and Hamish have totally different plans for Christmas, but the universe has a different idea. Hamish finds himself living his worst nightmare. He’s in the heart of his extended family at Christmas, and Georgie and their secret is there, too.

I hope you enjoy spending Christmas at Weeroona with the Pettigrew family. For pictures of the beautiful Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast, head to my website at www.fionalowe.com. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

Wishing all my readers a very merry Christmas and a New Year filled with reading.

Fiona x








CHAPTER ONE

Nine years ago

‘LONDON via Africa?’

Dr Georgina Lambert high-fived her best mate, Hamish, and stomped on the eddies of disappointment that threatened to churn her stomach. ‘That’s awesome news.’

They’d just finished a fabulous hour of surfing and she quickly unwrapped the bulging white paper parcel of fish and chips that sat between them on a beach towel. Better to do that than think about the fact Hamish would soon be leaving Australia. Leaving her.

Breathing in the addictive aroma of salt and fat to block out her sadness, she said, ‘I guess this means we’re all grown up now.’

Hamish grinned as he brushed his wet, sun-and-salt-bleached curls out of his twinkling cornflower-blue eyes. ‘Grown up? Never.’

And that was Hamish to a T. He was the Pied Piper of fun and good times and generous in his inclusion of all. From the moment she’d met him when he’d dragged her out of her college study at university and had taken her to his then girlfriend’s party, he’d been telling her she needed to ‘take chances and live a little.’ Numerous girlfriends, a hundred parties later, along with a tough and