No Bra Required! (6 page)

Lucy had followed Dr Bryce’s directions to his house, and
just before seven stood at the end of his drive, wondering whether she was able
to go through with the evening.  Suddenly, the choice was no longer hers
to make.  The front door swung open to reveal a casually dressed Dr
Bryce. 

“Hi,” he called.  “I saw you standing there and thought
that perhaps you weren’t sure whether this was it or not.  Please, come
in.”  He beckoned Lucy up toward him

Lucy took a big intake of breath as her feet crunched on the
gravel.  She looked at him steadily as she approached.  His stylish
work wear and leather shoes was replaced with faded jeans, a white cotton
T-shirt and bare feet; even his feet were sexy, she thought.  She was also
glad that she’d changed into jeans, a loose white shirt and flip flops. Gerald
had almost persuaded her to wear something more formal as it was practically an
interview.  She’d then noticed the glint in his eyes and realised he was
mocking her.

“Come in and meet Nate.” Dr Bryce stood aside to let Lucy
in.

“Thanks Dr Bryce,” she whispered.

“Call me Ed, please there’s no need to be formal,” Ed said
smiling.

“Okay, thanks Ed.”  Lucy edged past, cautious not to
touch him.

“If you go through to the kitchen, down the hall and to the
left, Nate should be in there, finishing his dinner before bed.”

Lucy felt a flutter of panic in her chest; Nate wasn’t
having dinner with them.

Ed watched her carefully as she moved down the hall. She
looked so pretty and fresh and smelled delicious.  Her hair was piled up
on top of her head in a messy bun, with pieces escaping in a seductive, just
got out of bed look.  Her scarlet painted toe nails only added to her
sexiness.

Lucy hovered in the doorway of the kitchen until Ed was
behind her.  She could feel the heat from his hand in the small of her
back, although he wasn’t actually touching her.

“Please go through,” he urged.  “Nate, this is Lucy,
Lucy this is Nate.”

If Lucy had fallen utterly in lust with Ed, she now fell
utterly in love with his six-year-old son.  He was the most gorgeous
little boy.  He had his father’s colouring and equally messy hair,
although it was a longer, trendy style.  His cheeks were rosy pink, and
his eyes were the darkest brown and round as saucers as he looked up from his
spaghetti hoops on toast.

“Hi,” he said, averting his eyes a little as a slight blush
crept over his face. 

“Hello Nate pleased to meet you.”  Lucy held out her
hand.

Nate smiled widely now, displaying large gaps where his top
teeth should be.  Lucy wondered how cute one kid could be.

“Nice to meet you too,” said Nate, shaking her hand. “Are
you going to look after me while Nanny is on holiday?” Nate asked.  His
brief shyness and spaghetti hoops had been forgotten as he spun around on his
stool to face Lucy.  Ed put out a hand to stop him as he was in danger of
spinning off.  Lucy laughed and smiled warmly at Ed.

 “Yes I am if that’s okay with you?” she said. 

Nate thought about it for a few seconds and then did a spin
back to his food.  “Yep, okay.”

Ed laughed and turned to Lucy.  “And that is Nate;
short and very sweet, in every way.”  Ed ruffled his son’s hair. 
“Let’s have a chat while Nate finishes his dinner, then once I’ve got him into
bed we can eat?  Is that okay?”

“Hmm,” Lucy nodded.  The mere ruffling of his son’s
hair sent her crush on Ed into orbit.

Ed led the way back to the lounge and indicated for Lucy to
sit on the large leather sofa.  A glass of wine was already waiting for
her.

“You do like white wine, don’t you?” he asked, suddenly
concerned.

“Yes, I do thanks.  You have a beautiful house, by the way,”
Lucy commented trying hard not to stare at Ed.  “It’s lovely and bright.”
 Lucy looked around the lounge.  The walls were clean and crisp,
painted in a pale green. On the wooden floor was a thick purple rug and at the
large, bay windows were purple and green striped blinds.  Apart from a
couple of framed photographs of Ed and Nate, and a hurricane lamp on top of the
fireplace, there were no womanly touches to the room.

“Yes, we like it," Ed said.  We’ve been here, oh,
about three years now, I guess.  We lived with my parents for a while,
when I first came back from Manchester, but as much as I love them, I just
needed my own space.”

“I know what you mean.  I love staying with Dad and
Richard, but I’m not sure I could do it for longer than six weeks.  We get
on, and I adore them, but there’s nothing like doing what you want to do when
you want to do it is there?”  Lucy picked up her drink and took a sip,
taking a peek at Ed over the top of the glass.

“Hmm,” he said, now taking a drink from his beer bottle. 
“If you want to watch TV in the nude you can.”  Ed’s neck coloured as he
realised what he’d just said.

Lucy also blushed as images of Ed watching TV in the nude
flitted through her mind.  “Exactly,” she said taking a larger sip.

“So,” Ed coughed nervously.  “Well, I guess we need to
talk about your looking after Nate.  I know we’ve not done this formally
or anything, but I would like to pay you.  Plus there are a few things you
need to know about him and a few little guidelines, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not, I understand.  Children are very
precious.”  Lucy eyes involuntarily filled with tears, she dropped her
head so Ed couldn’t see.

“Okay, but to be honest there’s not much.  Firstly, if
Nate needs disciplining over anything, then you’re the expert, so I’m happy for
you to do that.  Go for it, if it's use your manners, or eat your tea, but
obviously if it’s anything more serious let me know, and I’ll sort it.”

Lucy nodded.  “Okay.”

“Right, well I don’t expect you to cook for me, although I
do like to eat with Nate whenever possible.  If I know that I’ll be home
in time I’ll call you, and I can cook, and you’re welcome to join us anytime,
by the way.” 

“Oh okay, that’s no problem.”  That wouldn’t be
happening often, Lucy thought.

“The final thing is my ex-wife.”  Ed dropped his head
and ran a hand through his hair.  “I need to tell you all about her, and
why I don’t want her anywhere near Nate, not that she’s likely to come here.
 She has her own life in America.”  Ed went on to tell Lucy all about
Katie and Luke and how they’d broke his and Nate’s hearts.

Lucy looked at Ed totally shocked by what he’d told
her.  “So, she didn’t even ask to have Nate with her?”  Lucy watched
Ed’s crumpled face and sad eyes and took a deep breath; she would do anything
to have her daughter with her.

He shook his head. “No.  She said that it was best that
he stayed with me, thank God.  You know what’s ironic, it’s that she’s
ended up with a carbon copy of the life she hated, the life she couldn’t wait
to leave behind.”

“Why, what was so bad it?” Lucy asked.

“Well, when we met Katie was only twenty-three and a bit of
a party girl, but within a few months was pregnant, and I think she blamed Nate
for spoiling her fun.  You see I was always working shifts at the
hospital, so she had to cope with Nate on her own for most of the time.” 
Ed sighed deeply. 

“That must hurt then that she now seems happy to live a
family life.”

Ed laughed emptily. “Hah, just a bit, especially as Luke is
a carbon copy too; we’re twins you see.”

Lucy stared at Ed wide eyed.  “Blimey, I thought going
off with your brother was bad, but that’s a double whammy.”

“I suppose, but we’re nothing alike, he was obviously just
more exciting.”  Ed smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.  “Anyway, I
don’t care anymore, it’s Nate I care about.”

 “Does he ever ask after her?”  Lucy put a hand to
her mouth.  She couldn’t help but think of her own much loved, greatly
missed daughter now as tears pricked her eyes.

“He did at first, but after a month away from her he was
used to Katie not being there.  While Nate was ill I either worked or sat
at his bedside, and if I wasn’t there then my mum was.  She was brilliant,
and when he came out of hospital she carried on being brilliant, she’d spend
hours driving up and down the motorway.  Then I saw how tired she looked,
and it wasn’t fair on Dad either, left at home alone for half the week, so
that’s when we moved up here.  So there you have it,” Ed said his voice a
little brighter now.  “I thought it best to tell you, rather than hearing
the version that the crowd outside the school gates has come up with.  I
know Callie would like to know the truth, but I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell
her.  As much as I love her she’s a little loose in the tongue area, and I
never want Nate to be told that his mum left him but chose to have two more
children that she does live with.”

Lucy smiled at Ed, full of sympathy for him.  “I
promise no one will hear it from me.  Do you think that she’ll ever come
back, even just to visit Nate?”

Ed shrugged as he took a swig from his beer.  “Who
knows?”  Ed was suddenly up out of his chair and reaching behind a book
from the shelf behind him.  “This is a picture of her, I kept it for
Nate.  It's only one I have,” he said, passing a colour print to Lucy.

Lucy held the print gently in her fingers and gazed down at
the gorgeous woman staring up at her.  “She’s beautiful,” she muttered
looking at long dark hair framing a perfect face with almond eyes and full
lips.

“I thought Nate looked like you, but I can see that he has
his mother’s mouth and nose.”

“Well, she may be beautiful from the outside, but that’s
all,” murmured Ed huskily, taking the photograph from Lucy.  “Anyway
enough about me, what about you, how are you coping after what’s happened?”

“Blimey,” Lucy giggled.  “Don’t tell me you know all
about my philandering husband as well, but I suppose if Callie knows why should
I be surprised that you do too?”  She smiled widely, letting Ed know that
she wasn’t annoyed.

“To be fair, at risk of getting him into trouble, it was
Richard.  I think he wanted me to know the truth as you were going to be
working at the surgery.”

“Oh, so you only let me work at the surgery because you felt
sorry for me?”  Lucy joked.

Ed smiled and shook his head.  “No, not at all, maybe
he just thought that I could look after you.”  He eyed Lucy from over the
lip of his bottle, a small smile upon his mouth.

“Hmm, okay so what did he tell you?”  Lucy felt hot,
was he flirting with her again?

“Just that your husband left you for a woman from work, and
that she was pregnant.”

Lucy felt relieved that Richard hadn’t mentioned
Lottie.  That was part of her life that she didn’t want to share with
strangers.  “Yep, that’s about it, I suppose.”

“At least there were no children caught in the crossfire,”
Ed said putting his bottle down and standing up.  “Talking of which, I’d
better check on Nate and get him off to bed.  He thinks if he’s quiet I’ll
forget about him and he’ll be able to watch Eastenders in the kitchen. 
I’ll be back in a few minutes, and then we can eat.”

“Okay, no problem.”  Lucy smiled up at Ed as he left
the room.

She thought about what he’d told her and how it affected him
and Nate.  Lucy was amazed how any woman could leave their child
voluntarily like that.  To spend just one more day with Lottie would be
her dream.  Lucy felt herself blush as she thought of Ed; it also amazed
her that his wife could leave him too.  He was extremely sexy, and so
adorable with Nate.  His brother would have to have been something
special, because Ed appeared to be the perfect package, but then who was she to
judge.  She hadn’t even noticed that her own husband had been leading a
double life for months.  Lucy blew out a breath of air.  This was
going to be so hard, not the job - that would be pretty simple compared with a
class of 30, eight-year-old children, or a shop full of aged bargain
hunters.  It would, however, be difficult being near to Ed.  It would
be hard work not to throw herself at him and not to beg him to ravish her.

After about fifteen minutes, Lucy heard Ed’s tread upon the
stairs and realised that he’d gone along to the kitchen.  She picked up
her wine glass and his half-drunk bottle of beer and went to join him.

“Here you go,” Lucy said, passing Ed his drink.  “Is
there anything I can do?”

“No nothing at all.  You sit down, it's all
ready.  It’s only chicken and salad, I hope that’s okay.  My culinary
skills aren’t bad, but not too adventurous.”  Ed grinned at Lucy over his
shoulder and after a few minutes turned to her armed with two plates of food,
and some knives and forks.

Lucy smiled as he placed the plate in front of her. 
“Thank you,” she said.

“It should fill a space,” he responded, reaching up into a
cupboard for salt and pepper, before sitting down.

They ate in silence for a few minutes until Ed broached
conversation with Lucy.  “So why don’t you tell me a little about
yourself?  Obviously Richard has told me about your current situation, but
what about you? What do you like and don’t like?”  He didn’t look up but
carried on eating.

Lucy was thankful he wasn’t looking as she was
blushing.  She couldn’t say to him “you, you are what I like.”

“Ooh,” she said, pulling herself together.  “What do I
like?  Well I like chocolate cake, white wine, romantic novels, people who
make me laugh, Oasis and beetroot sandwiches.”

Ed looked at her now and laughed.  “Okay, I didn’t
expect a shopping list, but at least I know we have a couple of things in
common: Oasis and beetroot sandwiches.  I bloody well love them both. 
What’s your favourite album?”

“Well I’m a traditionalist it has to be ‘What’s The Story’,
I just love ‘She’s Electric’.”

Ed dropped his knife and fork with a clatter on to his
plate.  “No way, that’s my all-time favourite song.  In fact, I used
to sing it to Nate when he was little, to try to get him to sleep.”