Tempted By The Single Mum

‘And the children’s. Idiot.’ He held up a hand. ‘Sorry, not my place.’

‘Oh, no, feel free. Nobody’s going to argue with you except him, and he’s not here, thank goodness.’ She gave him a wry smile. ‘Just as well, or he’d be ranting at me for scraping my car on the wall this morning.’

He pulled a face, his mouth tipping ruefully up at one side. ‘Sorry—again. I ought to pay for it to be fixed.’

‘Why? You weren’t driving it.’

‘No, but it was my fault and I didn’t exactly make your morning any better, did I? And I really am sorry about that. You obviously have enough on your plate.’

She answered his smile, wondering why that little tilt of his lips was having such a weird effect on her. Crazy—

‘Yes, well, I think we need to forget all about it, and I think I need to do something a bit proactive or my afternoon’s going to go down the tubes as well. I’m duty doctor this afternoon so I’ve got all sorts of patients slotted in. I need to go.’

She got to her feet, hesitated a second and then leant across the table, holding out her hand, telling herself it wasn’t to find out if she felt that electric tingle again. ‘Friends?’ she asked, and he smiled and took her hand.

Yup, still there, fizzing all the way through her body.

‘Friends,’ he murmured, and she smiled and dropped his hand and straightened up, resisting the urge to rub her tingling palm on her trousers.

‘Good. I’ll see you on Monday, then,’ she said, as the door opened and Lucy Gallagher came in.

‘You’ll see him tonight at ours for dinner, I hope?’ Lucy said, and she turned to her friend and colleague, her jaw dropping.

‘Dinner?’ she said blankly.

‘Yes—Nick’s welcome dinner?’

Oh, no. ‘Isn’t it next Friday?’

‘No, it’s tonight, at seven. Ah...’ Lucy tilted her head to one side. ‘No babysitter?’

She closed her eyes and counted to ten. Could Liz help out? Maybe. Another favour—oh, lord.

‘No. I didn’t need one, but David changed his weekend, and I didn’t join the dots. Idiot me. I’m so, so sorry, Lucy. I’ll ask my mother-in-law, and I’ll let you know. I’ll come if I possibly can, but it might just be for a short while.’

Lucy smiled and shook her head. ‘Don’t worry, I quite understand. Give her a ring, do what you can.’

‘I will. I need to go; I’ve got a stack of patients. I’m sorry.’

She threw a vague smile in their direction, scooped up her coffee and headed for her room, her salad forgotten, but her hand was still tingling from his touch, scrambling her brain even further.

Liz said yes, bless her heart, and even volunteered to pick the children up from nursery for a sleepover, so after her surgery was finished she drove home, packed their things and dropped them round, then went back, threw the breakfast things in the dishwasher, brought in the washing off the line and then went to change. But into what?

She studied the contents of her wardrobe blankly, but nothing was right. Ridiculous. She was going for an informal supper with the rest of the doctors and their partners and the practice manager and her husband, just to welcome Nick. It didn’t matter what she wore. Anything would do.

Except it wouldn’t, somehow, because she’d already made a disastrous impression, and she wanted a chance to remedy that. If it wasn’t already way too late...

So, the blue dress? No, too dressy. Pink? No. Too casual. Black? Too formal. OK, not a dress, then. Trousers and a top and pretty pumps?

Better—but which top?

She tried all of them, in the end, and went for the one that hung well, disguised her flabby bits and made her feel good about herself. That alone was quite an ask, but hey. Not that it mattered, she reminded herself crossly. The only thing that really mattered was getting there on time, because if she knew Lucy’s husband, he would have been in the kitchen all day cooking up a storm, and the last thing she needed was to upset anyone else!

She touched up the makeup she’d hurled on hastily at six thirty this morning, slipped on her shoes and coat, grabbed the bottle of wine she’d bought for them and walked out without checking herself in the mirror again because it just didn’t matter.

The Gallaghers only lived round the corner, and the drive would be full, so she walked, timing it so she’d be there just after seven so that hopefully some of the others would have arrived and she could melt into the background without having to talk to him. Not that she wanted to be rude to Nick, she’d done enough of that today to last a lifetime, but she didn’t want to look over-keen either.

And heaven knows why she was letting it worry her! He was a work colleague, nothing more, and never would be. She’d be polite, friendly enough, and stop thinking about his cute behind and that lazy, oh-so-sexy smile. Surely she could manage that?

She arrived at five past seven, just as Dev and Reeta got there. Perfect.

Brian’s car was there, and she could hear the others talking as Dev opened the door, but there was no sign of Nick’s car on the drive. Had he walked? Or was he late? No. He didn’t seem like the type to be late—or totally forget that he’d been invited for dinner.

Thank God for her mother-in-law. She would have been sunk without Liz in so many ways. The woman was a saint.

She plastered on a smile and followed Dev and Reeta in.

He was sitting in between Julia Wade, the practice manager, and Sarah Baines, another part-time doctor whose husband was at home with their children, and on the other side of Julia was Brian Rowlings, the practice principal. He’d met him and Julia before at his interviews, and also Dev Patel, the only other full-time doctor apart from him and Brian.

Dev was seated on the other side of the table, his wife Reeta, another part-time doctor, on one side and Ellie on his other, with Julia’s husband next to Ellie on her other side, which put her right opposite him and gave him a perfect opportunity to study her. It was threatening to become a habit...

He dragged his eyes off her and looked up at their hosts. Lucy Gallagher, the most senior doctor after Brian, and her husband Andy, who he gathered was a part-time ED consultant at Yoxburgh Park Hospital, were busy piling food on dishes and setting them down along the length of the table, watched longingly by their black Labrador, Stanley.

‘Just dig in, folks,’ Andy said, so they did, passing things around, spoons waving in the air and not a trace of inhibition. It felt like a noisy, cheerful family Sunday lunch, he thought, not a formal introduction to the practice, and he liked it. He liked all of them, but he wanted to know more about them, most particularly Ellie.

He didn’t get a chance to talk to her, though, because not surprisingly everyone wanted to ask him questions or tell him interesting and useful things about the practice, and he had to force himself to pay attention, but he was still aware of every breath she took.

After the main course they swapped places, and he ended up next to Ellie, which would have been fine if it hadn’t been for the unmistakeable current of something seriously tempting that ran between them.

She wanted trifle but she couldn’t reach it, so he stood up and leant across her, feeling the brush of her arm against his thigh as he picked it up, and he nearly dropped the dish.

‘Here,’ he said, sitting down again and holding it for her, then passing it across to Brian when she was done. And then Brian started to tell him things about the practice, things he probably needed to know, and at any other time would have been interested in, so he still didn’t get to talk to her. Didn’t mean he wasn’t still utterly aware of her, of her scent, the sound of her laugh, the hitch in her breath and slight shift of her leg away from his as his thigh accidentally brushed hers—

‘Coffee, anybody?’ Lucy asked when they’d all ground to a halt, and Ellie shook her head.

‘No, it’s been lovely, Lucy, but I need to make a move. Sorry. I had a very early start and I’m running out of steam.’

‘Yes, me, too,’ he said, getting to his feet with a rueful smile. ‘It’s been great to meet you all, and I’m looking forward to working with you and getting to know you all much better, but I’ve got a lot to do over the weekend before I start on Monday. My house is in chaos and I need to be able to find my clothes, at the very least.’

‘Give us a shout if you need a hand,’ Andy offered, which produced a chorus of other offers, and he nodded and thanked them all, thanked Lucy and Andy for the meal and ended up on the drive at the same time as Ellie.

‘Did you walk or are you driving?’ he asked her.

‘I walked—why?’

‘So did I. I’ll walk you home.’

‘You don’t need to do that—’

‘Yes, I do. I don’t want you on my conscience.’

She laughed at that. ‘Nick, this is Yoxburgh! Nothing’s going to happen to me.’

‘Nevertheless,’ he said with a smile, with no intention of backing down. ‘And anyway, I want to talk to you. I have questions.’

She looked up at him, her face illuminated by the porch light, her expression sceptical as if she could see right through him. ‘Such as?’

‘Oh, practice stuff. Well, people stuff, really,’ he added, improvising like crazy, but she nodded as if that seemed reasonable, and then turned away and set off, and he fell in beside her.

‘So, ask away,’ she prompted.

‘Brian,’ he said, because he genuinely was interested in what she had to say about him, so it seemed a good place to start.

She glanced at him. ‘What about him?’

‘He was on his own, and I understand he’s had some time off recently. Anything I should know?’

‘Yes. His wife had early onset Alzheimer’s, and he took time off and looked after her. She was only fifty-eight when she died last year, and she didn’t know him for the last few months.’

He felt the weight of a familiar burden settle over him. ‘That must have been difficult.’

‘It was difficult. I covered what I could, but I was pregnant with Evie so we all picked up a bit and we got a locum for one day a week, and then she died and he came back a couple of months later. I think he was glad to get back to normal, to be honest. He’d been very isolated.’

He knew how that felt, when he’d been coping with his brother after Rachel had left him. He’d been hanging by a thread by the time Sam died. Still was, in a way.

‘So, what else do you want to know?’

Nothing, really, but he drummed up a few questions to take his mind off Sam as much as anything, and then she came to a halt outside a surprisingly modest and fairly boring little eighties house—or at least it would have been, if it wasn’t for the fact that it overlooked the sea.

‘Well, this is me,’ she said with a smile. ‘See, no muggers or rapists or roving gangs.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Well, I’ll say goodnight, then.’

She said nothing for a moment, and then looked up at him. ‘Coffee?’

He tried to read her eyes, but it was too dark to see them properly. ‘I thought you needed an early night?’

‘I do, but I’m going to sit down first and chill for a while. It’s been a hectic day. And we can talk more about the practice if you like. Up to you.’

The practice was the last thing on his mind. Getting to know her better, though...

‘No, I don’t fancy coffee.’

Did her face fall? Maybe, and he tipped his head on one side and smiled slowly. ‘Tea, on the other hand...’

She let out a soft huff of laughter and turned away.

‘You’d better come in, then.’

CHAPTER TWO

IT WAS A MESS. Why had she invited him in? She must have been nuts.

‘Come on through. I’m sorry, it’s a bit of a tip. I left in a hurry this morning and I haven’t had time to tidy it.’

He gave a quiet chuckle that did something weird to her nerve endings. ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ve seen much worse.’

‘Very likely, but that doesn’t mean I’m proud of it.’

He chuckled again, the sound soft and rich and oddly disturbing. She busied herself with the kettle, ridiculously aware of him behind her. What was he making of the house? And what did it matter what he thought of her or her house?

‘Are these the kids’ drawings?’

‘Well, they’re not mine,’ she said with a laugh, turning back to him. He was studying the fridge, plastered with Oscar’s little doodles and scrawlings, Maisie’s almost recognisable pictures of a house and a bunch of flowers, and in the middle Evie’s small messy handprints in pink and green and orange. He reached out a finger and traced a little handprint, and there was a wistful smile on his face that touched her heart.

Why doesn’t he have children?

‘How do you take your tea?’

He turned back to her, the smile becoming suddenly more generic as he hid whatever feelings they’d been that she’d had that little glimpse of. ‘Oh, white, no sugar, as it comes.’ He glanced around, frowning slightly. ‘So how do you get to the garden? I take it there is a garden?’

‘Oh, yes, it’s a nice garden once you get to it, but you have to go through the sitting room—or out of the front and round the side.’

His eyebrow twitched. ‘That’s handy for the bin.’

She laughed again, this time with real irony. ‘You don’t say. The layout’s ridiculous. Someone blocked up the kitchen door that led to the garden, and yes, it’s handy to have more cupboard and worktop space, but a back door would be handy, too. If you can stand the mess, I’ll give you a guided tour while the kettle boils.’

He chuckled again. ‘I can stand the mess,’ he said, and followed her, eyeing the house curiously as she pointed out the interesting features, like where the back door should have been, the lack of a utility room, the dining room with the wasted sea view, the three cramped bedrooms and tiny bathroom.

‘It’s not what I expected.’

‘What did you expect? Pristine tidiness?’

He laughed and looked down at her, his eyes gentle. ‘No, I didn’t mean that at all. This is just normal family mess. I wasn’t expecting a sea view. You were lucky to get it. They’re always at a premium.’

‘Absolutely. That’s why we bought it. David never did anything by accident—well, not a lot,’ she added economically, and headed down the stairs. ‘And the sea view would be fine if I ever had time to look at it, but even if I did, you can hardly see it because of the stupid layout. The house isn’t big enough for three children, but I can’t afford to extend it or move house, and David’s attitude is if I want to do things to it, or move to something better, then all I have to do is have him back.’

‘I take it that’s not an option,’ he ventured cautiously.

She laughed at that, a brittle little tinkle of sound, and led him back to the kitchen. ‘I don’t think it’s a serious suggestion anyway, so even if I thought it was a good idea, which I definitely don’t, I’m still stuck here.’

‘So what were you planning to do?’

‘Move the sitting room to the front and the dining room to the back because it’s as far from the kitchen as you can get at the moment, and extend it out into the garden to make a family area and put another bedroom and bathroom on. That way at least there would be a sea view from a room that would be used, rather than just the dining room, which I hardly use, and my bedroom, where I sleep with the curtains shut. As I said, wasted.’

‘That’s not wasted! You could lie in bed with a cup of tea in the mornings and look at the sea. Bliss.’

‘With three small children crawling all over me? That’s not bliss, that’s asking for trouble.’

His face softened into a wry grin. ‘Yeah, maybe. But the downstairs layout is crazy, I’ll give you that. I’d probably just open it all up if you didn’t want to spend a lot.’

‘But then there’d be nowhere where I could just retreat and know it’s going to be tidy and not covered in toys. Here, your tea,’ she said, handing it to him, and led him back into the sitting room, sweeping little wooden blocks out of the way with her feet, and behind him she heard that chuckle again.

‘You need a fairy, Ellie. Someone to come in while everyone’s sleeping and tidy it all up.’

She rolled her eyes and curled up on the sofa. ‘Er—that would be me? Nice idea, though. I wonder if the tooth fairy has a cousin who’s looking for work?’ she added with a grin, and he gave a soft huff of laughter and sat down opposite her, stretching his legs out with that little wince she’d noticed earlier.

‘Are you OK?’ she asked, and he tilted his head slightly.

‘OK?’

‘You winced.’

‘Oh, that. No, it’s an old fracture. It plays up a bit if I’ve overdone it. It’s nothing.’

‘Overdone it? You sat in the staff room or the office for a lot of the day, and you’ve been sitting down at dinner.’

‘That’s today. Yesterday I moved all my stuff up here into my new house. There was a lot of lifting and lugging.’

‘Didn’t you have a removal company?’

He smiled. ‘Yes. There’s still a lot of lugging around to be done. My fault. I should have been more specific about where I wanted things. Anyway, it’s all in the right place now, more or less. All I have to do is unpack.’

She wondered where the house was, but it seemed rude to ask—except he’d seen every inch of her chaotic and overcrowded little house, so the location of his could hardly be a state secret. Even if it was none of her business...

‘Where is it?’ she asked, finally giving in to her curiosity.

‘Just round the corner, on a little private road with half a dozen or so houses on it near the steps to the beach.’

‘Jacob’s Lane. Wow. I know it well. There are some lovely houses there. Which one is it?’ she asked, totally forgetting that she wasn’t supposed to be being nosy.

‘Split-level timber thing on the right, built in the seventies, with a weird mono-pitch roof?’

‘I know the one, it’s been empty for a while. I really like it.’

‘Yeah, me, too. It’s nothing from the front but it’s quite interesting inside, and it’s got a lovely courtyard style walled garden—and all the rooms open onto it. The only thing lacking is the sea view, but I’ve got legs and it’s hardly far away.’

That quirky grin again, which seemed to have some magic power over her.

Why? Why him, her new colleague? Although he seemed to have forgiven her for her tirade this morning, so she should be grateful for that, and she could live with a bit of unrequited lust in the interests of a peaceful and amicable working relationship.

‘So does it need a lot of work?’

‘Not really. Just an injection of my taste and a bit of tweaking.’

‘Not a project like this was meant to be, then?’

He gave a soft laugh and shook his head. ‘No. I didn’t want that, not now, not at this point in my life. I’ve had enough challenges. I’m ready for a quiet life.’

She chuckled softly. ‘Me, too, but there’s not much chance of that with three small people. Frankly I’d settle for six hours’ sleep a night. That would help.’

Just the thought made her want to cry with longing, and she was running out of steam. She stifled a little yawn, and apologised, but he gave her a wry smile.

‘I need to go. You’ve had a long day and I’m keeping you up, so I’ll leave you to what’s left of that early night you wanted. Maybe you’ll get more than six hours.’

‘Oh, bliss. I might even take a cup of tea up in the morning and look at my sea view. That would be a novelty.’

He chuckled and got to his feet—that wince, again—and headed into the kitchen with his mug, setting it down on the worktop before he walked to the front door. Then he turned and smiled down at her, his eyes gentle, and her stomach flipped over.

‘Thanks for the tea and the guided tour, and for filling me in on the practice.’

‘You’re welcome. Thank you for walking me home, even if it wasn’t strictly necessary. I’ll see you on Monday.’

‘I’ll look forward to it.’

He hesitated for a moment, then cupped her shoulders in his hands and touched a kiss to her cheek, then dropped his hands, turned away and headed off in the direction of his house.

She watched him go from the open doorway, her fingers tracing the tingle on her cheek. She’d felt the slight graze of stubble on her skin as he’d kissed her, breathed in the scent of his skin against hers, and her breath caught.

Crazy. Her mind was scrambled by a mixture of tiredness, the two glasses of wine she’d had with dinner, and her unexpected reaction to a man she’d been convinced she’d dislike.

And she didn’t dislike him at all, she realised. She liked him. Liked him a lot, and wanted to know more—such as why he didn’t have children, why his marriage had gone wrong, and why he’d moved here on what seemed like a whim. For the quiet life he’d talked about?

Too many questions, and none of those things were anything to do with her. Just a colleague. Nothing more.

‘Get a grip, Ellie,’ she told herself, and closed the door firmly.

Damn.

Why was she so nice?

Stupid, really, but he hadn’t wanted her to be. Not a woman with three children. A woman with three children definitely wasn’t on his agenda, and there was no way on earth he was going there.

So what was with the pang of regret?

He missed his footing slightly in the dark, and his ankle wrenched a little, taking his mind off her.

Not before time. They had to work together, and the last thing he needed in a new job that he hoped would be a long-term, settled future for him was an inappropriate reaction to an inappropriate woman.

He crunched over the gravel drive, slid his key into the lock and closed the front door behind him with a sigh. Boxes everywhere, stacked up in every room. Boxes containing his life—and some of Samuel’s. Not that he was ready to unpack those yet. Might never be.

Navigating his way to the kitchen, he put the kettle on, made himself a cup of chamomile tea and turned up the heating. Not that it was particularly cold, but the house had been empty for months, and it needed warmth and life injected back into it.

A fridge smothered in multicoloured handprints and colourful scrawls? Blocks and cars and jigsaw pieces all over the floor?

Hardly. He’d leave that to Ellie.

Not that he had a choice. His own stupidity had taken care of that, but at least his sisters had provided their parents with grandchildren, so that box was ticked. One small thing that he didn’t have to feel guilty about.

He went up the few steps to the sitting room, dropped onto the sofa, went to reach for the TV remote and changed his mind. Instead he leant back with a sigh, cradling his tea and letting his mind run back over the evening and all he’d learnt.

Brian was a widower, working part-time but for how long Ellie didn’t seem to know, and as for the others, they were a cheerful, friendly bunch of people he’d be happy to work with. It would be nice to be part of a team again, after four years of patchy locum work as his brother had grown steadily more dependent. He’d taken time out to help his parents, but he’d missed it, missed the camaraderie, the belonging.

He wanted to belong again, and from what he’d seen so far, he’d be welcomed with open arms by the other practice members.

And then there was Ellie.

Ellie, with her long dark hair, grey-green eyes that showed every emotion, and that wickedly dry sense of humour. Not to mention a curvy, womanly body that made him ache to wrap her up in his arms and kiss her senseless.

No, that would be him who’d be senseless, because it wasn’t just her eyes and her wit and her lush, beautiful body. It was her three very small children, all part of the same package, and he wanted nothing to do with it.