Читать книгу Resisting The Single Dad: Resisting the Single Dad / Reunited by Their Secret Son - Louisa George, Scarlet Wilson, Louisa George - Страница 13

CHAPTER FOUR

SHE’D JUST FINISHED pulling on her pyjamas when her bedroom door opened.

A little mop of blond hair appeared at the edge of the door. ‘Rory? Is something wrong?’

‘Want some milk,’ he murmured.

She looked behind him. Gene wasn’t in the corridor. ‘Where’s your dad?’ she asked.

‘He’s in the shower. But I want some milk.’ Rory walked tentatively into her room, holding a dog-eared book in one hand.

‘Okay.’ She nodded. ‘I can get you some milk.’ She looked at his bare feet. She wasn’t quite sure where his slippers were, and didn’t want to go into Gene’s room to find them. Things had been a little tense for the last few days since the incident at the institute. He’d clearly been annoyed with her when he’d come to speak to her afterwards. She’d tried to make excuses but somehow she knew he hadn’t really believed her.

Gene Du Bois was curious. He didn’t like being fobbed off, and that’s exactly what she’d tried to do.

It felt like they’d spent the last few days purposely avoiding each other and staying out of each other’s way. It was almost like some carefully choreographed dance—but, then, she hadn’t danced since she’d been a teenager and she’d no intention of starting again now.

She lifted Rory up onto her bed. ‘Why don’t you sit here for a minute while I go downstairs and get you some milk?’

‘Okay,’ he said, as he sat on her bed and looked around the room. She almost laughed out loud. Somewhere inside this four-year-old was a little old man waiting to get out. She could see him eyeing the clothes she’d thrown across a chair and her two pairs of shoes lying in one corner of the room.

Thankfully they had plenty of cold milk in the fridge downstairs so she poured some into a mug and carried it back up with her.

She walked around to the other side of the bed and climbed up alongside him, handing him the mug and praying he wouldn’t spill it.

‘I like your pyjamas,’ he said as he took a sip of milk.

Her light jersey nightwear was bright pink and covered in tiny teddies. ‘Thanks very much. I like yours too. Are they space rockets?’

He nodded. ‘And planets. I was going to be an astronaut. But Dad says I might not be able to do that. So I’m going to be the scientist that presses the buttons and sends the shuttle into space.’

Her skin prickled. He was just a little guy but his vocabulary was so good. And his comprehension. But just because he sounded older than he was, it made her a little wary.

‘You know, I think they get thousands of people who apply for every job as an astronaut. It’s tough.’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t care. I’d get through.’

He said it with the confidence that only a child could have. She liked that. She wished she still had that herself. The fearlessness. The expectations.

Nowadays, if you could bottle and sell something like that you would be a millionaire.

She lay back on the bed and looked out at the dark night sky. She hadn’t remembered to close the curtains yet. She pointed up at the stars. ‘Don’t you think it might be a bit lonely up there?’

Her heart was giving a few little flutters in her chest. Not because anything was wrong but because somewhere along the line she figured that Gene must have had that general conversation with his little boy about doing certain things and getting certain jobs.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was a tricky disease. The advice frequently said that children and adolescents with HCM should refrain from competitive high-activity sports to prevent the risk of sudden death.

Anyone with the HCM genes would never get on the space programme. Never be a deep-sea diver. Never be able to do certain other jobs. But did Gene really need to tell his kid that now?

She turned to face Rory as he took another sip of milk. ‘But I wouldn’t be lonely up there.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because my mom’s up there.’

Her breath caught somewhere in the back of her throat. From the mouth of babes. She opened her mouth to speak but he kept talking, ‘And I would take my girlfriend with me too. She’s new. I met her today.’

Cordelia’s brain was still dealing with the first statement. But she couldn’t help but smile at the second. ‘You have a girlfriend already? Who is she?’

He looked at Cordelia in surprise. ‘I always have a girlfriend. Her name is Jana.’

Cordelia knew a lot of kids in the nursery and she frantically tried to remember which one was Jana.

‘Blonde hair? Curls?’

Rory gave her a wide smile. ‘That’s her.’

‘You’ve only been at nursery for a week and you’ve got a girlfriend already?’

He wrinkled his nose. ‘Don’t you have a boyfriend?’

She felt herself blushing. ‘No. Not right now.’ She gave a casual wave of her hand. ‘Boys are too much trouble.’ Then she rolled her eyes. ‘And too messy.’

His dark brown eyes looked between her, her untidy pile of clothes, then back at her again. He didn’t even have to say the words out loud.

Cordelia decided it was time for a quick subject change. ‘Do you think your girlfriend wants to be an astronaut?’

Rory took another sip of milk and nodded his head thoughtfully. ‘I’m not sure. Didn’t you want to be an astronaut?’

She loved the way he asked her. As if every person on the planet wanted that job. She shook her head. ‘Nope. I want to explore the pyramids. Or build a pirate ship and paint it red. Whatever came first.’

Something swept over his little face. ‘Is that where your mom is?’

She almost felt her heart fold over in her chest. She couldn’t help herself and did the most natural thing in the world. She sat up and put her arm around Rory’s shoulder. ‘No, honey. I’m very lucky. My mom is still here. She’s quite old, but she lives by herself now.’

His brow creased and he looked up at her. ‘Oh. My dad doesn’t have his mommy any more, and neither do I.’

She wasn’t used to kids. And she wasn’t quite sure how to frame her reply. She’d had lots of life and death conversations with patients over the years—and with grief-stricken relatives. But this was a kid. Way out of her range of expertise.

‘I heard that. And I’m sorry. But you’ve got a great dad. And I bet he does everything with you that a mom and a dad would do.’

Rory seemed to think for a few seconds then took another big glug of milk, resulting in the cutest milk moustache she’d ever seen.

This little guy could tear the heart clean out of her chest. It didn’t matter that she felt as if she were treading on eggshells. It didn’t matter she was so far out of her comfort zone it was scary. He had a way about him. An aura that just pulled her straight in.

‘I might get a new mommy one day.’

She swallowed and spoke carefully. ‘You might.’

His wide brown eyes looked up at her. ‘Do you think she’ll like me?’

She pulled him up on to her lap. ‘Rory Du Bois, I think anyone who could be a mommy to you would consider herself the luckiest woman on the planet. Of course she’ll like you. She won’t just like you. She’ll love you. Just as much as she loves your dad. That’s how these things work. Your dad wouldn’t marry anyone who didn’t love you just as much as he does.’

She was probably way overstepping here. But even knowing Gene for a few days made her know that would be true.

Rory’s big brown eyes were fixed on hers. He blinked. Just once, and put his head back down, leaning on her shoulder. ‘That’s okay, then,’ he murmured.

She reached over and picked up the picture book. Strangely enough, it had a picture of a space rocket on the front cover. ‘Want me to read this to you?’ she asked.

Rory nodded and climbed off her lap and settled himself back under her arm. She didn’t even want to acknowledge how that made her feel. The way that a tiny part of her that been tightly coiled up in her stomach for so long was slowly starting to unravel.

Or the fact that it made her realise just how much she was missing.

* * *

Gene wandered out of the shower and into an empty room. For a second his heart stopped.

He started to walk out into the corridor and stopped. He was naked. And he was a guest in someone else’s house. He roughly towelled himself off and yanked on his jeans. The water was still running down his chest as he walked to the door and started to towel-dry his hair. ‘Rory?’

The corridor was empty.

His heart rate quickened. He opened his mouth to shout again and then he stopped. And listened.

He could hear murmuring voices. There was only one other person in this house apart from Rory. Cordelia.

His curiosity was piqued. He took a few steps towards the door to Cordelia’s room. It was ajar and he could see Rory sitting up on the bed next to Cordelia, drinking a glass of milk.

He put his hand on the door to push through and apologise but the words stopped him dead.

‘My mom’s up there.’

Gene winced as his stomach clenched.

The one thing he couldn’t control. Just how much his son missed his mother.

It was normal. It was natural. Rory had attended a few nurseries and seen lots of other kids being picked up by their mommies. Gene always kept a photograph of Mindy around. He told Rory that was his mom and that she’d loved him very much.

Rory asked questions sometimes, but not often. Maybe he hadn’t spoken about Mindy enough? The trouble was, there was no one else to tell Rory about Mindy, and what Gene knew wasn’t really that much. He wasn’t really into embellishments. But that looked like the only solution he had left.

His son had just told a perfect stranger that he wanted to be an astronaut because his mom was up in the stars. It was a story that families the world over told little kids. That someone they missed or loved who had died was up in the stars, watching over them.

Rory had long held a fascination with the planets and stars. But he’d never mentioned his mother. Gene had no idea that was the way he’d been thinking.

He was frozen. His feet rooted to the floor. But the woman who’d been prickly at their first meeting seemed to be managing around Rory.

In normal circumstances he would walk in and take over. But was that really best for Rory right now?

Rory had just told Cordelia Greenway something he hadn’t shared with his dad. That made Gene’s skin prickle. Was he failing his child? Wasn’t he being the best dad that he could be?

His mouth felt dry.

He kept listening, watching through the gap in the door.

It felt like prowling. And he certainly wasn’t doing that. Rory was safe.

And right now he was seeing a side of Cordelia he hadn’t noticed before.

He could see she was dedicated to her work. The staff at the institute appeared to both like and respect her.

It almost made him want to push what had happened the other day out of his head. But he couldn’t. It sat there, churning away in his mind, making him wonder what he was missing.

He could hear Cordelia still talking softly to Rory. Occasionally there was a little tremor in her voice. But she also sounded reassuring.

He closed his eyes for a second. Could he imagine Karen ever doing something like this? The truth was, no. He’d been hurt when she’d walked away. She’d been clear that she couldn’t see herself taking on someone else’s child. And that had hurt. Because Rory had been like a bolt out of the blue to him too. But he couldn’t walk away. He would never have dreamed of it.

But here was sometimes prickly Cordelia being sweet to his son in a way he would never have expected.

When Rory asked about getting a new mommy and if she would love him, Gene’s stomach clenched so hard it felt like it was made of lead.

Cordelia’s answer seemed so simple. And completely and utterly true. He would never be with someone who couldn’t love his son as much as he did. They were a package deal.

His heart squeezed in his chest. The woman he’d been angry with a few days ago got that. She had got that about him straight away. And as he watched she settled Rory under her arm and started reading him his favourite story book.

Now his heart gave an unsteady flutter. Rory looked so comfortable there. His little body had adopted the slumped position it normally did just before he fell asleep. Sure enough, like clockwork, only a few pages into the book Rory’s eyelids started to droop.

Gene took a deep breath and collected himself, willing that he’d look as if he’d just appeared this second.

He stuck his head around the door and whispered, ‘Cordelia?’

She looked up and stopped reading. Her eyes widened as he realised he still hadn’t put a shirt on.

He almost hesitated, then dismissed it. She was a doctor, she’d seen more than enough naked torsos in her line of work. He walked over to the bed. ‘Apologies,’ he whispered. ‘I was in the shower. Rory hasn’t really grasped the concept of patience.’

She looked down at the mop of blond hair and ruffled it with her fingers. His head was completely sagging now. He was fast asleep.

‘I’m not too good at the whole patience thing myself.’ She looked up and met his gaze. The sincerity in her green eyes made him catch his breath.

‘I’m sorry. I was in the shower,’ he repeated. Crazy. He’d already said that. What was wrong with him?

‘So I can see.’ A smile danced across her lips as her eyes fixed on his bare chest.

He held out his hands and smiled back. ‘What can I say? I didn’t have time to put all my clothes on. I came out of the shower and realised I was missing a child.’

She shook her head. ‘Poor excuse. You never got paged when you were in the shower when you were working as a resident?’

The hours and workload of resident doctors were notorious. By the time every doctor had finished training they had dozens of stories to tell.

She tutted and shook her head. ‘I can’t believe you don’t know how to do the ten-second soaked-to-fully-clothed dance.’

There was a gleam in her eyes. She was teasing. Of course she was.

He shook his head and slid his arms under Rory’s body. ‘I can assure you I’m a professional.’ He winked. ‘I can do it in eight. Give me a sec, let me put Rory to bed.’

He kissed Rory on top of his head and walked back through to their room, putting him into the double bed and pulling the cover over him. He grabbed a grey T-shirt and tugged it over his head. She was standing at the door with her arms folded over her chest. She tilted her head to the side. ‘If you can do it in eight, then how come you didn’t manage?’

He stepped closer. He hadn’t even realised she was wearing a pair of cute pink pyjamas. Now she was standing up, even though every part of her was covered, he could see the way the jersey hugged her curves.

He gave a shake of his head and held up his hands as he kept his voice low. ‘Clothes aren’t really required when you’re missing a four-year-old.’ He rubbed his hands on his jeans. ‘Just be glad I put on these.’

She started to laugh then put her hand up to her mouth and stepped back. ‘Sorry, don’t want to wake Rory.’

‘Oh, don’t worry. You won’t wake Rory. Once he goes to sleep, that’s it. Nothing—not even a freight train—could wake him.’

She smiled again. ‘Sleep’s a funny thing. I could sleep within a few seconds when I was resident, but I was always on alert, waiting for the next page. But as soon as I got home? That’s it. I was out like a light—just like Rory. I once slept through guys drilling on the road outside.’

Gene felt something wash over him. Completely unexpected.

‘I used to do that.’ The words came out almost on autopilot.

She met his gaze. ‘And you don’t any more?’

He glanced at the sleeping figure on the bed. Rory’s head was resting on the pillow and he was curled into a ball. When Gene sucked in a breath he almost juddered. ‘I haven’t slept like that since Rory arrived.’

She blinked. And for a second he thought he’d made her feel uncomfortable. But she just gave a gentle shake of her head. ‘I can’t imagine how it must be to hear out of the blue that you’ve got a child. And that his mom was so sick. But whatever you’ve done over the last few years, it’s worked. He’s a gorgeous kid. Bright, articulate, intelligent and...’ she smiled ‘...very, very sweet.’

For a second he thought there was a flash of sadness across her face. But as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished again.

She pulled up one of legs behind her, catching her foot by the ankle and letting it click loudly. ‘Sorry, aches and pains. I get that way sometimes. Must be my old dance injuries—or my age.’

He put his hand at the back of his neck. ‘Mine too. But it’s an old football injury.’

She gave a smile. ‘Well, I can’t claim any kind of sport injuries. My biggest sport these days is how quickly I can read a book.’

He didn’t quite believe her. She was only wearing thin pyjamas and although she had a few curves, there was no hint of heaviness in her frame.

‘Did you recognise that book that Rory made you read? You seemed to relate easily.’

She laughed. ‘It’s a book. I always relate to books. When I was a kid you were only allowed four books with your library card. I tried to pretend to be another kid and get an extra card so I could check out eight books at a time.’

‘Did your plan work?’

‘Are you joking? My disguise was very flawed. I only took my outdoor jacket off.’

He couldn’t help but laugh out loud too. He was watching the easy, casual way Cordelia was chatting—as if it were completely normal to be chatting to someone she didn’t know that well in her pyjamas.