The Baby of Their Dreams (Contemporary Medical Romance) (9 page)

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘Y
OU
SOUND
OUT
of breath,’ Dominic commented.

It was Thursday night, a few days since they’d met, and Cat had only just arrived home when she answered her phone and it was him.

‘That’s because I just took my boots off.’ She sighed. ‘Which is no mean feat these days.’

‘I’m just calling to let you know what you probably do already—Andrew called this afternoon while I was flying back from Spain and left a cheery message, asking me to call him. So it sounds like I got the job.’

‘You did,’ Cat said, flicking on the kettle.

‘Do you have an issue with that?’

‘I did,’ she admitted, ‘but I don’t now.’

‘He’s also asked if I can start a couple of weeks before I officially take up your position. Do you have an issue with that?’

‘A bit,’ she admitted, ‘but I’ll get over it. How was Spain?’

‘Still beautiful.’

‘How were your parents with the news?’

‘Elated.’

‘Oh!’

‘Invasive.’

‘Okay.’ She let out a laugh. ‘It’s not just them. Honestly, people think they can ask me the most personal questions and as for touching my bump...’ She shuddered.

‘I promise not to touch your bump uninvited.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I’m coming down this weekend and I’ll be looking at houses. I’m just checking you’re not planning on moving in the near future...’

Cat was silent. He really had meant it when he’d said he wanted to be around for his child.

‘No, I have no plans to move. Well, I might need a bigger house but I shan’t be leaving the area.’ She thought for a moment. ‘You’re not going to move too close, though? I mean...’

‘I don’t want to be your neighbour, Cat. Just close enough to make things easier on both of us. I was going to rent but I’ve been doing that for a couple of years. I want to give her a proper base.’

‘Sounds good. While I’ve got you on the phone I actually do have a couple of questions,’ she said.

She had quite a list actually.

‘Can they keep till the weekend?’ he asked. ‘I’m a bit swamped right now.’

‘Sure.’

‘We can go out for dinner and discuss things.’

And if he could be so brusque and direct, without apology, then so too could she.

‘I don’t want to go out,’ she said, because she’d had to swap to get this weekend off and there was a lot to be done. By evening all she would be ready for was a night flopped on the sofa. ‘I don’t want to discuss my private life in a restaurant. You can come here.’

‘Okay, don’t worry about cooking, though.’

‘Oh, I shan’t.’

‘Saturday, about six?’ Dominic checked. ‘I’ll come when I’ve finished looking through houses.’

‘Whenever,’ Cat said.

She heard a voice in the background.

A female voice.

‘I have to go.’

He was probably at work, she told herself as she ended the call.

And even if he wasn’t, it was none of her business.

Cat really didn’t have time to dwell on her feelings, if she even had feelings for Dominic. Aware she was only going to get bigger and that there weren’t too many days off between now and her maternity leave starting, when Saturday came she found herself back in the wallpaper shop. This time she had Gemma in tow and her brother’s offer to come and help this afternoon when the cot was being delivered.

‘We have the softest pink,’ Veronica said. ‘It actually feels like candy floss...’

‘The last time I ate candy floss I vomited,’ Cat said to Gemma.

‘It’s gorgeous,’ Gemma insisted as she ran her hands over it, but Cat shook her head as she opened up another sample book.

‘That,’ Cat said, ‘is what I call gorgeous.’

‘It’s blue!’

It was
so
blue, the paper was every shade of night and brushed with dandelions that looked as if they could blow away in the night wind.

And so Cat found herself up a ladder as her brother, Greg, hovered nervously. He had no idea how to hang wallpaper so he held the ladder instead and handed her the glued sheets to put up.

‘It’s very dark,’ Greg offered, when she was done.

‘It’s supposed to be for sleeping,’ Cat said. ‘You don’t like it?’

‘I don’t know,’ Greg admitted. ‘Maybe when the cot’s in and you’ve got the right furniture and light fittings...’

‘You have no imagination, Greg.’

‘I’m an accountant,’ Greg said. ‘What time’s the cot arriving?’

‘It’s a p.m. delivery, that’s all they’d say.’ A knock at the door had Cat smiling. ‘You can help set it up while I go and get changed.’

‘Help?’

Cat laughed as Greg went down to get the door and then she looked around the bedroom. ‘A brave choice’ had been Veronica’s words when she had made her selection. Gemma had looked worried and Greg was sitting on the fence...

‘Cat!’ Greg called. ‘The cot’s here and so is the reason for its purchase.’

Dominic gave a wry grin as Cat’s brother announced his early arrival.

He had surprised himself with his own reaction when he had seen a man waiting for the delivery of the cot.

A good-looking man around Cat’s age.

It had taken only a moment to work out it was probably her brother, and as he introduced himself the same green eyes had confirmed that fact.

Dominic, though, was unsettled by his brief two-bulls-in-one-paddock moment.

Another thing that needed to be discussed, he thought.

No, he wasn’t particularly looking forward to tonight.

Then he changed his mind because, wearing khaki trousers and with a vest top on, Cat came down the stairs and he noticed that between now and earlier this week her belly button had poked out.

‘Dominic.’ Cat gave a wary smile at the strange air of hostility in her hallway. ‘This is my brother, Greg.’

‘We’ve already introduced ourselves,’ Greg said as the delivery man dragged cardboard boxes up her stairs. ‘Right, I’m off.’ Greg gave his sister a brief kiss on the cheek.

‘I thought you were going to stay and help with the cot.’

‘Er... Cat,’ Greg said, ‘I’m sure Dominic can manage that much at least...so long as it’s not too much responsibility for him...’

Oh, no!

She groaned inwardly as Greg got all big brother and angry and tried to somehow equate putting up a cot with men who impregnated helpless virgins and left them heavy with child.

‘I’ve got this, thanks, Greg,’ she said, but only as her brother shot Dominic a filthy look and then stalked off did it dawn on her what the problem was.

‘Oh, God,’ she said to Dominic. ‘I forgot to tell him you weren’t married.’

‘Remind me never to take over a multi-trauma patient from you,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘Well, you’re not very good at passing on pertinent information.’ He smiled. ‘Anyway, the mood he’s in, it wouldn’t have made a difference. I’m still the one-night stand who left his precious little sister pregnant.’

‘He hasn’t been like that...’ she was about to say, since she’d broken down on Greg about Mike, but now wasn’t the time and anyway she had to sign for the delivery, so she finished with a lame ‘...in ages.’

He waited till she’d signed for the cot and the door was closed before he continued speaking.

‘Well, next time you’re talking, if you could slip into the conversation that I’m not cheating on my wife, it would be appreciated.’

‘I shall.’

Dominic doubted it.

He assumed he was way down on her list of topics of conversation.

He assumed rightly.

But he was up at the top of her thoughts.

Inappropriate thoughts for a heavily pregnant woman about a man she didn’t particularly like.

‘Lovely hallway,’ he said.

‘Come through.’ She opened the door to the lounge and Dominic stood there for a moment.

‘This is such a sight for sore eyes after some of the dumps I’ve seen today.’

‘Did you find anything you liked?’

‘One that I liked.’ He told her the address and it was close but not too close. ‘It needs far too much work, though.’

‘Ooh,’ Cat said. ‘Tell me.’

And so he told her about the dodgy plumbing, the ancient kitchen, fireplaces, cornices and the disgusting bathroom with green carpet and a study that was completely covered in cork tiles.

‘That sounds like my idea of heaven,’ Cat said, and she went to her perfect mantelpiece and took down a photo. ‘This was what this room looked like when I bought the place.’

‘Oh, my God, it’s worse than the one I saw today.’

‘We can do a tour if you like,’ she said. ‘I love showing off my handiwork.’

‘You renovated it?’

‘Every last bit of it.’

‘Oh, my...’ he said as they walked down her hallway and to the kitchen. ‘We could swap houses,’ he said. ‘You could renovate mine while you’re on maternity leave...’

‘I might be a bit busy, Dominic,’ she said.

‘I’m sure you could fit it in,’ he teased, and yet it made Cat smile because everyone else told her how zoned out and incapable she was going to be once the baby was here.

He seemed to know her better than everyone else.

It was strange, it was nice.

It was unexpected.

She took down a picture from the fridge and showed Dominic the absolute disaster the kitchen had once been.

‘I didn’t have a sink for the first three months. I had to do my dishes in the purple room of pain upstairs.’

‘Show me your purple room of pain, Cat...’

Whoops, were they flirting?

Up the stairway they went, admiring the wooden bannister as they did so. ‘There were about twenty layers of gloss paint,’ Cat told him, and then she opened the bathroom door and took a photo from a small dark wooden chest so he might understand just how painful purple could be.

‘Everything was purple,’ Cat said, ‘even the toilet seat cover...’

‘But it’s like something you’d find at a yoga retreat now,’ he said. ‘Not that I frequent them, but if I did...’ he looked at the rolled white towels on the dark wood and the gorgeous claw-foot bath ‘...well, I’d demand a bathroom like this.’

‘It’s fabulous, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘But the place is tiny. No room for a nanny.’

‘A nanny?’

‘I’m going to be working full-time, Dominic.’ She didn’t look to see his expression. ‘Do you want to see her room?’

‘The nanny’s?’

‘The baby’s.’

‘I would.’

She was a little nervous about opening the door, she wasn’t sure why, but as she did and he stepped in, she found she was holding her breath. Dominic looked around.

‘It’s like...’ he started, and she braced herself for ‘a brave choice’ or to be told how dark it was, or for Dominic to point out that it was dark blue when they were having a little girl. ‘It’s like a magical night-time,’ Dominic said. ‘It’s amazing. You just want to...’

‘Say it!’

‘Sleep!’

‘Yes.’ Cat was delighted. ‘That’s what I thought. It’s just so dark and peaceful and once the curtains are in and the light fittings...’

‘And the cot,’ he said, looking at it all piled against the wall. ‘Do I have to do that?’

‘You’d look a right bastard if you left it for me to do.’

‘Fair call,’ Dominic said. ‘Right, shall I go and get dinner?’

Cat nodded.

‘Anything in particular?’

‘I’d love a hot curry,’ she said. ‘And mango chutney...’

‘How hot?’

‘Very hot.’

‘Okay.’ Dominic frowned. ‘But I thought pregnant women would avoid curries...’

‘What’s the population of India?’ Cat asked as they walked back down the hall. ‘I’d like a beef curry and lots of naan. You get dinner and I’m going to have a bath and get changed.’

‘What’s in there?’ Dominic asked, fully knowing they were passing her bedroom door.

‘Something you’ll never see.’ She smirked as he headed off.

But as Dominic got into the car and Cat stripped for the bath, she wondered if she should just run it cold to put out the fire down below. They’d both known she was lying.

Her bedroom was
yet
to be seen.

Which was a problem.

A very real one.

Sex would only make things complicated.

And they were complicated enough already.

CHAPTER NINE

H
E
WAS
GONE
for ages.

Ages.

So much so that when Cat came out of the bath and peered out of her bedroom window and saw that there was no car coming down the street, instead of quickly dressing, she took a few minutes to put on moisturiser. As she rubbed it into her stomach she wondered just how much bigger she could get.

She put on a long grey tube dress and then combed through her hair.

Still no car.

Was he shopping for ingredients? she wondered.

She didn’t bother with make-up.

Instead, she poured a nice big glass of iced water, her latest favourite drink, and then she put the door on the latch and went back upstairs and started taking the cardboard off the cot.

‘It’s open,’ she called, when he finally arrived. ‘I’ll be down soon.’

Dominic was serving up dinner when she came down five or so minutes later, carrying a pile of cardboard.

‘Come and eat.’

She did so, but first she poured herself a small glass of antacid for her inevitable heartburn and he smiled as she took a seat on the floor at the coffee table, where he had set up.

‘If I’m going to get heartburn, I want it to be worth it,’ she said. ‘It smells fantastic. Where did you go?’

‘About fifteen minutes away. I worked near here a few years ago and I was guessing this curry house wouldn’t have closed down.’

She could see why it hadn’t when she tasted the curry.

‘We can put the cot up after dinner,’ he suggested, and Cat nodded.

‘It will be good to have that room done.’

‘You had some questions for me.’

‘I do,’ she agreed, and took a breath. ‘Are you going to tell people at work that, well, that you’re going to be a father?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘And if you do, are you going to say that the mother is me?’

Dominic pondered for a moment. He hadn’t thought this through properly. ‘I guess not. Well, not at first. Maybe once you’ve gone on leave, or you’ve had the baby. Has anyone actually asked who the father is?’

‘Not at work,’ Cat said. ‘Well, not directly. I keep my personal life to myself pretty much.’

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Well, you don’t have to worry about me saying anything. What else?’

She was rather nervous to ask the next one. ‘Are you going to want to be there at the birth?’

This question Dominic had thought about. ‘I think that depends on what you want, and I would guess that you might not want me there...’ He gave a tight shrug and then he looked at Cat for her response.

‘I don’t want to rob you of anything, but...’

‘Just the first six months of the pregnancy,’ he sniped, and then he stopped trying to score points. ‘Sorry, go on.’

She didn’t really know how best to say it. ‘If you add it all up, we’ve probably spent less than forty-eight hours together.’

‘I get that.’

‘And I just think I’d do better on my own.’

‘Fair enough.’

She was grateful for his words but she knew that it wasn’t completely fine with him, that she was denying him being present at the birth of his daughter.

Well, tough, she thought, scooping some curry onto her naan. Surely some things were better unseen!

‘My parents both want to be there, though,’ Dominic said suddenly, and she nearly choked on the water she was drinking. She looked at his expressionless face and she had no idea if he was joking. ‘I pointed out that I didn’t even know whether I’d be there and they suggested that you film it...’

‘For them?’ she croaked, and he nodded. ‘I know we don’t know each other very well,’ she said, ‘but I trust we know each other enough that you said an emphatic no.’

‘I did,’ he said. ‘While I wouldn’t normally presume to speak on your behalf I delivered that no for you and reminded my father that he was away on business when I was born and didn’t see me till I was six weeks old.’

‘Really?’

‘This apple fell very far from that tree. I’ll be seeing her very soon after she’s born.’

‘Of course.’

He got up then and Cat waited as he went out to the car and when he came back he handed her a bag. ‘I wasn’t going to give this to you.’

‘What is it?’

‘My mother’s been shopping.’

She most certainly had. Wow, the Spanish had amazing taste in baby clothes. There were tiny little sleepsuits and little hats and cute socks and a thick envelope, which Cat opened with a frown.

‘I’ve no idea...’ Dominic said.

‘They just wanted to say congratulations,’ she said as she read the letter, ‘and to let me know that whatever goes on between us two, I’m welcome any time in their home.’

‘Too much?’ he checked.

‘No,’ she admitted. ‘That’s actually very nice of them.’ She thought for a moment—it really was. Suddenly her baby had a whole other family and, aside from Dominic, they included her.

‘Don’t expect the same from my family,’ Cat warned.

‘Oh, I don’t.’ Dominic smiled. ‘Next question.’

‘I’m hoping to breastfeed. I know that you’ll want to see her and have her stay over, but...’

‘Not till she’s old enough,’ he said. ‘I understand that she’ll need her mum. Maybe we play that one by ear, trust that we’ll work out what’s right for her.’

‘Okay.’

It sounded a lot better than trying to work out some neat arrangement with a lawyer.

‘Any more questions?’

‘I think that’s it,’ she said. She’d had loads but, really, now that he’d said they’d play things by ear she felt soothed by that.

‘You’re sure?’ he said, as if he expected there to be more, but Cat nodded.

‘Do you?’ she asked.

‘Well, I guess that I do... Are you seeing anyone at the moment? I mean, is there someone who’s going to...?’ He couldn’t really admit that he didn’t like the idea of another man being more of a constant in his child’s life than he was but Cat had started to laugh.

‘I have no idea why, Dominic,’ she said, ‘but I can’t seem to pull lately. It’s like I’ve got two heads or something.’ Then she was serious. ‘No, I’m not seeing anyone.’

It didn’t fully answer the sudden questions that filled both their minds, how they’d feel about the other dating, but they decided to drop that hot coal for now.

After dinner they headed upstairs and between them they put up the cot.

‘This is about as far as my DIY skills go,’ Dominic warned. ‘I only know how to use a drill from my orthopaedic rotation.’

It was more a fiddly job than a difficult one, though it was easier with two, but after a few attempts it was up. Cat put in the mattress and then Dominic checked that the side slid up and down.

‘Do you think,’ Dominic asked as they surveyed their handiwork, ‘that I should maybe get the same wallpaper for her room at my place?’

‘I think that would be really nice for her.’

For the first time she glimpsed the two of them getting this right, not just able to manage but that their daughter’s future would be better for having him in her life.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t let you know,’ she said. ‘I had my reasons.’

‘You thought I was married,’ he said. ‘I really wish you hadn’t gone snooping that day. I don’t like snoops.’

‘I don’t usually. Remember on the beach, when I went to get the mouthguard?’

He frowned in recall as Cat spoke on.

‘I saw a ridge in your wallet that felt like a ring and then I kept seeing a pink line on your ring finger, and the more you stayed out in the sun the pinker it got. When you were having a shower I let curiosity get the better of me.’

‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘I’d only just started to take the ring off.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me you were widowed?’

‘I wasn’t ready to share her with you,’ Dominic said. ‘That might sound odd...’

‘No, no, I get it.’

That part Cat did, because she still wasn’t ready to share Thomas.

‘Heather had several brain tumours and that’s all I want to say about it.’

‘Okay,’ she said, and she glanced over and saw how uncomfortable he was with the topic. ‘We didn’t sign up for this, did we?’

He understood what she was trying to say. ‘The baby’s actually the easy part.’

It was opening up and sharing your life with another person that was the difficult bit.

He looked down at her stomach and the mini-gymnast within, because in her tight dress you could see the baby moving. Cat did the right thing.

She took his hand and he felt the solid bulge of their child’s head trying to climb into Cat’s ribs, and then she guided his hand down past her belly button to a foot, and then she left him free to roam.

And that lump of hot coal that they had dodged was back, it had to be, because she was terribly hot and for once it had nothing to do with the extra person she was carrying.

It had more to do with the reason her baby was there.

‘Haven’t you got another question, Cat?’

Her cheeks were pink and she wondered how to broach the most difficult question of all.

‘Us.’ Dominic did it for her. ‘Dating.’

She swallowed.

‘My parents and sister all seem to think we should give us a go,’ he said. ‘I’ve told them that it’s the most terrible idea I’ve ever heard.’

‘Terrible?’

‘Well, we know the sex part would be fine...’

‘You assume it would be fine,’ Cat corrected.

‘I know it would be fine for me,’ he said. ‘I’ve never found a pregnant woman attractive till now...’ His hand was on her stomach and it wanted to move up to the thick nipple and stroke it, he wanted that dress off, and from the loaded silence between them he guessed that she did too. ‘From my perspective,’ he said with a low, sexy huskiness, ‘I’d have no problem doing you on the floor right now.’

‘You could,’ she admitted.

‘But then what?’ He looked at her and met eyes that glittered with lust. ‘What if we break up? What if it doesn’t work out between us?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘So,’ he said, when he’d far rather not, ‘no sex for us, none of the easy part. What I’m proposing is six months...’

‘Of what?’

‘No dating anyone else...just us, getting to know each other, working out how we can be friends, concentrating on the baby...’

It was the most sensible thing she had ever heard.

She should be cheering really.

No pressure, no stepping on the roller-coaster, no promises made that might prove impossible to keep.

No sex.

It was the last part she was wrestling with.

‘Sure.’ She smiled. ‘Can you remove your hand, please?’

‘Yep.’ He did so. ‘I’m going to go,’ he said.

‘Where are you staying?’

He didn’t answer her question. ‘I start work in three weeks on Monday...’

‘Where will you stay? I mean, even if you put in an offer on the house...’

‘Not your problem, Cat,’ he said, though he said it nicely. ‘You worry about yourself and the baby. I’ll sort out things at my end.’

He did.

The next day he had another look at the house before heading for home. It was a ten-minute walk from Cat’s.

Two weeks later, driving home, Cat found herself slowing the car down as she always did when she drove past it.

Actually, she had no need at all to be driving past.

She just did these days.

SOLD.

She tried to imagine the future.

Stopping the car at this very spot and getting her baby and its bags out and handing her heart over to him.

She couldn’t.

And it was even harder to imagine driving off.

Going home alone to an empty house when the people she loved were in another one.

No, Cat corrected, the baby she loved...

No,
a little voice told her,
you are crazy about him and have been since the moment you met him.

They just didn’t know each other at all.