The Baby of Their Dreams (Contemporary Medical Romance) (8 page)

‘When did we get to not being able to stand each other?’

‘Oh, about the time you started snooping through my wallet, about the time I found out that you’d deny me knowledge of my own child...’

‘I thought you had a wife, maybe a family...’

‘Even if I had, I still should have been told.’

Their food came then and she stared at his rather than hers.

‘That was really horrible of me,’ he admitted as he looked at his large plate of paella, especially as it looked seriously nice.

‘Hopefully you’ll have a massive allergic reaction.’ Cat, less than sweetly, smiled.

‘Yes, and no doubt you’ll take ages to find the adrenaline pen so I’ll be dead and that will take care of that...’

There was a tiny silence.

‘When you said you didn’t want to tell me you were a widower because of
that
look,’ Cat said as she cut her steak. ‘What did you mean?’

‘Things change when you tell people that you’re a widower...’ He scooped out a mussel and then pulled a misty-eyed face that made her smile reluctantly. ‘I can’t really explain it. Honestly, since Heather died I’ve had more offers for sex than a rock star. Which sounds good but women seem to think I want to make love, or that I’m comparing them to my poor late wife, or even that I must want a wife... They don’t get I just want to get down and dirty.’

‘So we weren’t making love?’ Cat pouted and he smiled. ‘Dominic, it was supposed to be a one-night stand.’

‘And now we have to deal with the consequences.’ He got back to his food. ‘Did you find out what
we’re
having?’

The ‘we’re’ was very deliberate.

‘I only just found that out now,’ she said. ‘A girl.’

She watched as his fork paused midway to his mouth and then he put it down.

The past ten days, since he had seen the maternity cover position being advertised, since he’d started to suspect she might be pregnant, had been spent in a whir of fury and concern. Now, in the midst of anger and change, he got a moment in the quiet centre of the storm.

A girl.

A daughter.

He just sat there as the news sank in and somehow, he had no idea how, it changed things, because, in that moment, he went from none to having not just one but two ladies to take care of and he looked at the bump of the little one and then into the eyes of her mum.

‘Oh.’

‘I know,’ Cat said. ‘I thought I was having a...’ She was about to say
another boy
but she quickly changed. ‘A boy.’

Yes, she understood Dominic a little better than he knew because she didn’t want to be the recipient of
that
look.

Baby two after such a turbulent baby one was a private pain, one she could barely share with Gemma, let alone a man whose bed she’d been in for a single night.

No, he didn’t need to know all about her.

There was a lot to talk about but they finished their meal in silence, lost in their own private thoughts.

‘Have you thought of names?’ Dominic asked as they put their cutlery down.

‘I was leaning towards Harry till tonight.’

‘I never thought I’d be running through baby names,’ Dominic said.

‘Didn’t you and...?’ She hesitated. It was none of her business whether or not he and his wife had planned on having children.

Dominic was grateful that she didn’t finish the question. No, he and Heather hadn’t got around to thinking of children. And he didn’t want to share his wife with this virtual stranger.

‘Do you want a quick coffee? Then I’m going to have to go,’ he said, ‘if I want to make my flight.’

‘You’re going back to Scotland tonight?’

‘No, I’m going to Spain for a few days. As I said, I’m in the middle of relocating there and I’ve been looking at homes. Given that the baby is mine, there’s a lot to do there. I’ll have to withdraw my application and I’d like to do that in person, and I want to tell my parents face-to-face what’s happening.’

‘Will they be disappointed that you’re not moving there now?’

‘I don’t think so. I wasn’t exactly going to be living next door to them or anything. I expect they’ll be surprised about the baby and then pleased.’

‘Where are you flying out from?’

‘Gatwick.’

‘Good luck with your luggage,’ Cat said, and gave a low laugh. ‘I’ll drive you.’

‘I can take a taxi.’

‘You’re the one banging on about how we need to talk.’

He conceded with a nod.

‘And no coffee for me, unfortunately.’ Cat sighed. ‘It gives me hiccoughs. I’m stuck with tea. I miss champagne, I miss coffee, I miss seafood...’

‘I’ll buy you the biggest bottle of champagne and have paella delivered to your hospital bed once the baby is here.’

It was a very nice thing to say, Cat thought. It was a nice thought to have because, even if they were the odd couple and doing this on the run, at least they weren’t at each other’s throats now.

‘How did you find out about the baby?’ Cat asked a little later as they walked to her car.

‘Well, I keep an eye on jobs and things and I saw one come up in your department. I remembered something you said about being the only female consultant...’

She flashed the lights of her car and they walked over to it.

‘I told myself that I was being ridiculous. You could have been married or anything...’

‘Would you have cared if I was married that weekend?’ she asked.

‘No,’ he admitted.

‘I don’t like you,’ Cat said, but he just laughed.

‘You don’t have to like me. Anyway, I’d never have cheated on my wife, but that weekend, had you been cheating...’ Dominic shrugged. ‘Anyway, it’s all hypothetical.’

‘But very telling.’

‘Do you want me to lie to you, Cat, just say the right thing?’

‘No.’

‘Anyway, back to how I tracked you down—the dates for the leave all added up and...’ They stopped talking as they got in but once they were pulling out of the car park the conversation resumed. ‘I was going to call you but then I decided to surprise you.’

‘That wasn’t very nice.’

‘No, I know that it wasn’t,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t feeling very nice at the time, but...’ He didn’t continue, they just drove in silence, but as the airport came into view conversation started again. ‘You haven’t chosen badly, Cat. I might have been a bit of a bastard the way I landed on you and some of the things I’ve said tonight but I’m not going to be a negative in your baby’s life. And,’ he added, ‘I’m sure you don’t need my opinion of you but when I think of some of the women that I could have been having this conversation with, I’m very happy that it’s you. I think you’ll be a brilliant mum and I’m quite sure we’ll do this right. We’ve still got a couple of months to work things out...’

‘We do,’ Cat said.

He went into his wallet, pulled out a business card and wrote a few things on the back and Cat frowned when she read them.

‘Why would I need your social network details? I’m not going to be checking up on you...’ Then she went pink when she recalled how he’d caught her going through his wallet.

‘Or me you,’ Dominic said. ‘But if you update about the baby and things...’

‘I’ll call you if there’s a problem.’

‘I meant for day-to-day stuff,’ he said. ‘I don’t need formal emails and progress updates. Soon you might want the same...’

‘Sorry?’

‘Well, she won’t stay a baby. My family lives in Spain.’

‘You’d take her on holiday? No.’

She was adamant, her response was instant. ‘You’re not taking her out of the country.’

And Dominic was about to respond that his lawyer would see to it but he held that in. He could see the conflict in her eyes and he knew that she was struggling with the concept.

Cat was. She had glimpsed the future.

There would be pictures of her child with her father in houses she never set foot in. Holidays spent apart.

‘I just sent a friend request,’ Dominic said. ‘Up to you whether or not you accept it.’

‘Here...’ She went into her bag and wrote down her number, then she remembered the recording.

‘What’s this?’

‘I had an ultrasound today. If you want to see her...’

‘Thanks.’

He went to get out of the car. ‘I am sorry for not telling you, Dominic.’

He gave her a grim smile. ‘Yeah, well, I don’t accept your apology—I’m not that magnanimous. Call me when you need to...’

‘I shan’t.’

‘Oh, I’m sure you’ll have questions.’

‘I won’t.’

But even before she got home Cat had found several.

Would he want to be at the birth?

The very thought filled her with horror!

Cat did her best to stay in control and the one place she was guaranteed to lose it was in the labour ward.

No, she did not want arrogant, surly Dominic seeing her swearing like a sailor and breaking down.

No way!

And what were they going to tell people at work?

Her mind was darting as she stepped back into her home.

She put some washing on and, completely wrecked from a long and difficult day, wrestled off her boots, which was very hard with a stomach like a basketball, and then had a very quick bath and went to bed.

Except, though tired, she couldn’t sleep and she picked up her phone and, sure enough, there was his friend request, which she accepted.

His status was given as single and Cat frowned, wondering why he didn’t say he was widowed.

Oh, that’s right, he loathed
that
look.

Then she smiled when she read his status. A little cryptic note that she was sure was aimed at her.

You can run but you can’t hide.

She carried on reading and looking at photos of his eccentric parents and terribly beautiful sister and then there she was.

Heather.

She knew it was her from the photo she had glimpsed in the hotel.

Now she felt as if she was snooping, so she went back to Dominic and saw a picture of him all wet and gorgeous coming out of a swimming pool. At thirty weeks pregnant and not wanting to be, she was terribly, terribly turned on.

‘So not happening,’ she said, and turned off her phone.

His body was still there, goading her to have another glimpse, at six the next morning when she drank her tea and switched her phone back on.

But then she smiled when she saw what he had changed his relationship status to.

It’s complicated.

It most certainly was but, the funniest thing was that as she dressed for work and headed out to face the day, even if they weren’t together, they were on the same side—her baby had a father and that sat right with Cat.

She didn’t feel quite so alone.

CHAPTER SEVEN

D
OMINIC
’
S
PARENTS
WERE
, though initially surprised, completely delighted with the news.

There was too much wine drunk and they spoke late into the night, and they kept making the most ridiculous suggestions.

‘Why don’t you bring her here so we can get to know her and she can have a little holiday?’

‘She’s thirty weeks pregnant,’ Dominic said, and looked over at Kelly for some help.

‘Mum, they’re not a couple,’ his sister said.

‘Perhaps, but I’d still like to meet her. We could come over.’ His mother, Anna, was warming to the idea. ‘We could fly over for the birth. I’d love to see my granddaughter being born.’

Dominic swore under his breath before answering. ‘I don’t even know if I’m going to be present at the birth...’

‘You could film it,’ Anna said. ‘Live-stream it.’

‘And then you could set it to music and forward it to your hippy friends...’ Dominic sarcastically responded, and when his father nodded this time Dominic swore out loud. ‘You weren’t even there when we...’ he gestured to Kelly ‘...were born.’

‘And I regret it to this day,’ James said. ‘That’s the beauty of being a grandparent, you get to do things right the second time around.’

What planet were they from? Dominic wondered.

Even if they made him laugh, they drove him mad at times, and this was one of those times. He could only imagine how well that suggestion would go down with the cool and rather distant Cat.

Yes, they made him laugh, because he was doing that now as he pictured her shocked expression as he told her he wanted to film the birth.

‘Cat and I are going to sort things out between us.’ Dominic told his parents how it would be. ‘Preferably without lawyers. You guys need to stay back.’

‘From our grandchild?’

He closed his eyes for a brief moment. He’d never considered having a baby but now that he was he wanted his parents in his child’s life, so he thought long and hard before answering.

‘From Cat and me,’ he said. ‘We’ve got two months to work things out. You’re to stay out of things.’

Anna didn’t answer. In fact, Dominic was sure she shook her head.

After his parents had gone to bed, he sat, listening to the trickle from the pool filter and enjoying sitting with his sister outside. It was cool and they had the gas heaters on but after a cold Scottish winter it was blissful.

‘I love it here,’ Dominic said.

‘Would Cat?’

‘Oh, we are so far from that, Kelly,’ he said. ‘It was a one-night stand, a weekend conference...’

‘That’s completely changed your life,’ Kelly said. ‘You were all set to move here.’

‘I was
almost
all set,’ he said.

‘Almost?’

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

He didn’t.

He didn’t want to tell his sister that, despite the seriousness of his plans, since August they had started to change. Unable to get that night out of his mind, and furious at how the weekend had ended, he had considered calling Cat to explain things. And if he was thinking about calling her, it had seemed a bit nonsensical to be considering moving further away than he was already.

Yes, he hadn’t been idly flicking through jobs in London.

He’d been wondering how he could ask her to give them a chance.

‘Is there any hope for the two of you?’ Kelly asked. ‘You obviously fancied each other and you said things went well when you saw her again...’

‘Kelly, the stakes are a lot higher now. Surely we should be concentrating on how we’re best going to be as parents rather than trying to establish a relationship.’

‘I guess.’

‘What if it doesn’t work? What if we give it a go and one of us wants to end it? God, we don’t need hurt feelings and resentment added to the mix. I hardly know anything about her.’

‘Does she know about Heather?’

‘I told her tonight that I was a widower.’

‘Tonight?’ Kelly checked.

‘Yep.’

‘So what were you two talking about that weekend?’

Dominic rolled his eyes. ‘We weren’t really talking.’

Except that wasn’t entirely true.

They had talked, they had shared more than sex. That was the reason he had wanted to look her up.

‘I took her to Collserola Park,’ Dominic said. ‘We watched the sun come up. You know how Heather had a thing about sunrise?’ he asked, and Kelly nodded. ‘Not once, when I’ve been with someone, have I felt guilty. It’s always just been sex and I knew Heather would get that but that morning, sitting watching the sun come up with someone who wasn’t Heather, was the most unfaithful I’d ever felt.’

‘It sounds like you two have something to build on...’

‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But it would be foolish at best to rush this. I’ve had one brilliant marriage, Kelly. I’m not downgrading for the second one. Right now Cat and I need to sort out how we’re going to be for the baby. The two of us as a couple will just have to wait. I’m not going to see her for another three weeks and that’s if I even get the job.’

‘Won’t she see to it that you do?’

Dominic managed a wry laugh. ‘You have a far sweeter mind than I do, or Cat come to that. I’m quite sure she’ll be seeing to it that I don’t.’

They said goodnight and as he lay in bed he took out his laptop and plugged in the recording and saw for the first time the life they had made.

She was beautiful, so beautiful that it actually brought tears to his eyes.

It should feel like a mistake—surely this was something he should have been doing with Heather—and yet, seeing his baby on the screen, thinking of Cat...

It didn’t feel like a mistake.

It felt right.

Was there a chance for them?

Could strangers who had shared just a night have got it so right that they could spend the rest of their lives together?

Cautious with his emotions, it had taken years to get around to getting engaged to Heather.

They had gone out for more than two years before they’d moved in together.

Another three years before they’d got married.

And they hadn’t been ready to even start trying for a baby before Heather had been taken ill.

He flicked on his social media site and saw that Cat had accepted his friend request and it was Dominic who snooped.

She had the most boring page ever.

He found out nothing new about her, other than that her star sign was Virgo and that her friends wrote on her wall more than she did.

No mention of Spain, no lovers’ names.

Nothing.

He wanted to know more, though, and even if they needed to be concentrating on the baby, somehow they had to make time for them, and that was why he changed his status.

Not single.

Not in a relationship.

It’s complicated
sounded about right, so that, for now, would do.