A Family To Come Home To

She paused in the doorway, almost as if she was momentarily suspended between her roles of mother and GP. ‘We’ll talk about this when I’ve finished settling the boys down. There must be something…’

That little pleat was back between those silky eyebrows and he was struck by the sudden urge to smooth it away with a fingertip…or a kiss.

‘Enough!’ he growled to himself as soon as she was out of earshot. ‘You don’t need any complications in your life, especially ones that come with children, no matter how tempting their mother is.

‘And she doesn’t even realise just how…’ He was lost for words, searching for them inside a head that could only think about how much the light fragrance surrounding him suited her.

‘Is this some sort of reaction to the accident? Did they give me something in A and E that’s scrambled my brain?’

The only solution was, as ever, hard work that left him no time to think.

‘Time to unpack,’ he decided, gripping the wheel-rims of the chair and turning it laboriously around.

It didn’t take him long to discover that making the decision wasn’t the same as carrying it out. Even the smaller of his two suitcases was beyond him when he couldn’t use his lower body to help him lift it onto the bed, and that would be the only level at which he could reach into it.

He paused for a moment, slumped in the hated chair and muttering swearwords under his breath when he had the prickling sensation that someone was watching him.

A quick glance over his shoulder told him the worst and a wave of guilt swept over him that he’d been caught setting such a bad example.

‘Sorry about the bad language,’ he said flatly. There was a brief flash of surprise on the youngster’s face, as though he hadn’t expected an apology from him, but he could tell that their brief truce surrounding his injury was over.

Josh’s hackles were up again.

‘This was my dad’s room…and my mum’s,’ he announced truculently, letting Ben know in no uncertain terms that his presence wasn’t welcome on such hallowed ground. But Josh hadn’t finished. ‘My mum’s a widow but she still loves my dad,’ he added fiercely, and Ben wondered just how badly his usual control had slipped. Had his unexpected response to Kat been so obvious that even an eleven-year-old had noticed? It was time for some judicious damage control.

‘Good,’ he said with an approving nod. ‘That’s how it should be in a good marriage.’ Hah! The little voice inside his head commented. What would you know about it? You couldn’t even…

‘So, why has Mum put you in here?’ Josh demanded, childish frustration at the incomprehensibility of adult actions spilling over. ‘It’s her room now. And you’re supposed to be upstairs in the flat.’

‘And I would be if it weren’t for this.’ Ben knocked his knuckles on the cast draped in voluminous pale green cotton. ‘I can’t manage stairs with it yet, but in a couple of days…’ He shrugged, hoping it looked nonchalant enough to convince Josh’s protective instincts. Once more he reached for the suitcase and this time tried to swing it up onto the bed. Instead, he nearly toppled the wheelchair over and wrenched some of the more tender areas of his back.

He only just managed to hold in a curse but thought the effort well worthwhile when he caught a glimpse of sympathy replacing the animosity in Josh’s stance.

‘I could help you with that,’ he suggested suddenly, and Ben blinked in surprise. Unfortunately he was going to have to refuse.

‘I think it would be too heavy for you to lift. I’m afraid I usually pack too many books,’ he added hurriedly when Josh began to look affronted, obviously seeing his refusal as a slight.

‘Could we do it together?’ Josh offered, for the first time moving further into the room than his defensive position in the doorway.

Agreement was Ben’s only option. For Kat’s sake he had to get on with her sons if he could. He was already a major burden on her. A bad atmosphere in the house might be the final straw.

‘We could give it a go,’ Ben agreed, as he wheeled the chair back a little to allow him to take up position on the other side of the case. ‘How do you suggest we go about it?’

It was the work of mere seconds after that to decide on a likely method and to implement it.

‘That was completely painless,’ Ben said, as he reached forward to unzip the case and flip the lid back.

To his surprise, Josh burst into chuckles.

Ben couldn’t help an answering grin when he saw just how untidy it looked.

‘That’s what my suitcase looked like when I tried to pack it,’ Josh confided. ‘I had to get Mum to do it for me because I couldn’t fit everything in.’

‘Perhaps it’s a woman thing…being able to pack a case properly?’ Ben suggested, and had to stifle another smile when he saw Josh considering the idea so seriously.

‘Probably,’ Josh pronounced several seconds later with a decisive nod. ‘And they like everything else to be tidy, too, so you have to put your laundry in the basket and make your bed and put your toys away.’ He sighed heavily.

‘I can remember my mother making me do all that,’ Ben agreed, only too willing to foster the glimmer of a bond. He lifted his wash bag out of the suitcase, deposited it on his lap and started turning the wheelchair to take it to the bathroom.

‘I could take that through for you,’ Josh suggested diffidently. ‘I’ll put it beside the basin.’

Ben caught his eye and when he saw the answering gleam of mirth they added in unison, ‘Tidily!’

An hour later, Ben collapsed into bed completely exhausted. He would never have believed how much energy it took just to get himself undressed and washed. It had probably been a wise decision not to practise getting about on the crutches tonight. He’d probably have fallen flat on his face and broken something else.

The trouble was, even though he was physically tired, his brain was still wide awake, contemplating the consequences of his temporary disability.

Obviously, I won’t be able to drive anywhere for a while, he thought dryly, trying to imagine how far back he would have to push the seat to get the cast into the car. Would he even be able to reach the steering-wheel?

But if he wasn’t going to be able to do the home visits that Kat wanted her associate to take over for her, then, in all conscience, he should go so that she could find someone else who could.

Except…

Except he didn’t want to go, he admitted reluctantly and sighed.

For three years he’d had an absolute rule of non-involvement, but within hours of meeting Kat and her little family—and in spite of ending up with a broken leg—there was something about all three of them that made him reluctant to leave Kat to struggle on alone. So, he had a major problem. He didn’t want to leave, at least until she’d found someone suitable to take his place, but in his present state he was worse than useless. If only there was some way he could…

Kat had come to a decision while she’d been finishing off the evening’s list in the never-ending round of chores.

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t do anything to help her at the practice, it was her responsibility to take care of Ben until he was well enough to travel back to his home. And it was time she reassured him of that fact. After all, if she were in the same position, she would want to know exactly where she stood…or sat in his case, she tacked on with a wry smile.

‘Ben…’ she called softly, tapping on the door to what had been her sanctuary since Richard’s death.

‘Come in,’ the husky voice invited, but when she opened the door and saw him propped up in her bed, naked to the waist, she almost dropped the steaming mug in her other hand.

‘I…I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have disturbed you if I’d known that you were…I only wanted to…’ For heaven’s sake! What was the matter with her? She’d seen a semi-naked man in that bed every night of her married life.

But never one with such a broad muscular chest, decorated with a thick swathe of dark silky-looking hair from one dusky nipple to the other, countered that dratted voice in her head.

‘I heard you telling the boys that you still enjoyed a mug of hot chocolate,’ she said, hastily diverting her eyes from the stunning view in front of her to the prosaic white mug. ‘And I thought I ought to have a word with you…’

‘Come in and shut the door,’ he invited, and he must have seen her surprise at the unexpected request because he quickly added, ‘So that we don’t disturb Sam and Josh.’

Kat felt a swift rush of heat scorching her cheeks. As if she had to worry about her reputation with a man like him. If he was looking for a relationship, he certainly wouldn’t be interested in a permanently exhausted mother of two.

‘I was thinking…about you and the job,’ she began tentatively. ‘Of course, you’re welcome to stay here until you’re fit enough to go home, but—’

‘Kat, before you say any more, can I ask you a favour?’ he interrupted, just when she was getting into her stride. ‘You see, I haven’t got a home to go to at the moment.’

‘What?’ she exclaimed, unable to believe such an outlandish statement.

‘It’s true,’ he said with a tired smile. ‘It had been on the market for ages and suddenly I had a purchaser who was in a hurry to buy. So, rather than lose the sale, I packed everything up and moved it into storage just a couple of days ago, then was told about the vacancy here.’ He caught her eyes with his, their clear green almost seeming to envelop her in the calming hush of a leafy sunlit glade before he continued, ‘If you kick me out, I’ll have nowhere to go…at least, nowhere so suitable for life in a wheelchair or on crutches.’

‘But…the job,’ Kat said helplessly, even as a minor war was being fought inside her. She had a niggling feeling that she was being manipulated in some way but that was completely vanquished by the impossible elation caused by the fact that he might not be leaving after all.

‘Yes. The job.’ He paused for a moment in thought, looking up at her from under those thick dark lashes. ‘I’ve been thinking about that, and I wondered…Well, I know it’s going to take me a few days before I’m really competent on the crutches, but once I am, I should easily be able to get from here to the practice. And if you’re happy to do the leg-work…the home visits and so on…I would still be pulling my weight.’

How could she refuse? she asked herself even as she admitted that she really didn’t want to refuse. To put it bluntly, she needed his help. And it was all very well rationalising that it was her duty to accommodate him because it was her fault that he’d been injured, but the plain fact of the matter was that there was something about the man that called to her…that made her feel things that she’d believed were gone for ever.

‘It’s pointless thinking about him that way,’ she whispered into the darkness, once she’d silently made her way up the spiral staircase and slipped into the bed that should have been his. ‘He’s a drifter, so he’s the last person I could ever get involved with, no matter if he does set my hormones buzzing.’

The boys wouldn’t understand, and would be hurt if she had a relationship with the man, only to have him leave at the end of his contract. They’d been devastated when Richard had died. Heaven only knew what sort of psychological damage it would do to them if they grew close to another man, only to have him leave.

CHAPTER THREE

‘HOW soon will it be before Dr Leeman finishes surgery?’ enquired a male voice, just as Ben was preparing to leave the room Kat had allocated to him.

‘Oh, hello, Mr Sadowski,’ Rose said cheerfully. ‘Did you want an appointment?’

‘Not this time,’ he said, and something about his tone of voice set every one of the hairs up on the back of Ben’s neck.

Depositing the pile of patient notes in their tray, ready for Rose to collect, he reached for his crutches.

He arrived in the reception area just as Rose put the call through to Kat’s room.

‘Dr Leeman, there’s a gentleman here to see you,’ she said formally. ‘It’s Mr Sadowski, from the chemist,’ she added. She waited a moment for Kat to speak then said, ‘I’ll tell him,’ and put the phone down. ‘She’ll be out in a minute,’ she told the newcomer. ‘If you’d like to take a seat while you’re waiting?’

Ben took the last few hobbling steps to the counter, envying the other man the easy way he sauntered across the room. It felt like years since he’d been able to do that when, in fact, it had only been a little over a week. At least most of that time had been spent in a modern lightweight fibreglass cast rather than the heavy temporary plaster of Paris one.

‘I’ve left the files on the desk, Rose,’ he murmured to the bustling receptionist. ‘I’m sorry it’s giving you extra work to fetch them, but I just can’t manage to carry the basket through with these wretched things.’ He waved a battered crutch.

‘Don’t you worry about that, Dr Ben,’ Rose said with a fond smile, using the more formal form of address in front of the other man. When it was only the practice staff on the premises, they all went by first names. ‘You’ve taken such a load off Dr Leeman just by being here that I’d gladly fetch and carry all day.’

‘Hmm! Perhaps you shouldn’t have told me that,’ he teased, liking the down-to-earth little woman more and more the longer he knew her, not least for the way she clucked over Kat and her boys. ‘I might be tempted to take advantage of you.’

It sounded almost as if the man waiting impatiently by the pile of magazines and children’s books muttered something like, ‘As if you aren’t already,’ but the words were half-buried under Rose’s laughter.

And then Kat came out with her own basket of patient notes and when Ben saw the avid expression on the other man’s face he suddenly understood only too well what was going on.

‘Mr Sadowski?’ she said politely when she recognised him, and the sharp claws of jealousy loosened their grip a little.

‘Greg,’ he said with a smile, but Ben could see from the tension around the man’s eyes that he was not happy to be having this meeting in front of so many witnesses.

He had no intention of leaving.

‘Ah, Rose said you weren’t here for an appointment?’ The raised tone at the end of the sentence made it into a question.

‘No. Um, actually, I was here to, um, well…to ask if you’d thought any more about that invitation?’

‘Invitation?’ Her forehead pleated in puzzlement and Ben nearly chuckled aloud. Kat really had no idea what the man had in mind, which meant that there was almost no chance that she was attracted to him. Although why that should matter to him was something he would have to think about later.

For now, he was enjoying watching the man sweat a little while he tried to make-believe he was a smooth man of the world, when in actual fact he obviously came nowhere near deserving a woman like Kat.

‘Um, the dinner-dance? This Saturday?’

This was almost painful, but Ben didn’t want to miss a delicious moment of it, especially as Kat was apparently oblivious to the fact the man was almost hyperventilating, waiting for her answer.

‘Oh, Mr…Greg, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t possibly. I’m on call all this weekend.’ And the sooner Ben was able to take that chore from her, the better, he thought darkly, hating the idea that he wasn’t pulling his weight on such an exhausting part of the workload.

Ben saw the man throw a glare in his direction and, guessing what was coming, leant back against the reception counter and deliberately crossed his broken leg in front of the good one.

‘Oh, but surely that’s why you employed…’ Too late he realised his mistake.

‘Sorry, old man, but I can’t even get behind the wheel at the moment, let alone drive out to do a house call,’ Ben said smugly, knowing he was putting an end to the man’s dreams. ‘And, anyway, if I was called out, who would look after Josh and Sam if Kat was out with you? I certainly couldn’t take them with me and they’re too young to be left alone.’

‘But…’ Ben had to give him his due—the man didn’t want to admit defeat—but this time it was Kat who interrupted.

‘I’m sorry…Greg. It was good of you to think of me but, as you can see, my life is a bit complicated at the moment. Perhaps another time…?’

It was beautifully done, with regret for turning him down sweetened with the possibility of another chance at some unspecified time in the future, but Greg definitely wasn’t happy about it. Man to man, he probably knew that Ben would be gloating over seeing him turned down because he would have in the same situation.

‘Dr Leeman?’ Rose interrupted the charged silence. ‘You haven’t forgotten that the boys need collecting from sports club tonight?’

‘Tonight?’ Kat whirled to face Rose and Ben nearly chortled aloud at the faces Rose was pulling to stop Kat pointing out that it had been sports club night yesterday. ‘Ah, yes. Thank you for reminding me, Rose. I’d better go and get my keys now, or I’ll be late.’ She turned back to the chemist briefly. ‘I’m sorry to have to dash off, but thank you for your invitation,’ she said like a well brought-up child then walked briskly out of the room.

‘Well, that’s my cue to get the meal on the table,’ Ben said casually, as he adjusted his grip on the crutches and straightened up to his full height, stupidly pleased to note that he topped the other man by nearly half a head. ‘The boys like it to be ready when they get home so they have time to do their homework before bedtime.’ And if that didn’t sound cosily domestic, nothing did, he thought as he turned his back on the man, only to catch Rose trying to wipe a grin from her face.

‘And it’s time I finished putting these files away and locked up,’ she volunteered briskly, picking up the basket Kat had brought through. ‘Tomorrow will be here soon enough. Goodnight, Dr Ben. Say goodnight to Dr Leeman for me, will you?’

‘Oh, I will, Rose. I will,’ Ben called over his shoulder, as he left the building and made his way as swiftly as he could safely manage round the corner of the practice in case the disappointed suitor should see him laughing.

‘Rose, could you ask Mrs Couling to come through, please?’

Kat paused just long enough for the receptionist’s murmured reply before putting the receiver down, then blew out a steady stream of air through pursed lips and marvelled that the embarrassment was still there, just as fiercely, several days later.

She’d never been a social butterfly, even as a teenager. She’d been far too focused on her goal of becoming a doctor for anything but the most cursory of dates until she’d met Richard part way through her training.

‘I just hadn’t realised how clueless I was,’ she muttered, and the heat surged into her cheeks all over again when she remembered looking out of the window to see when her unexpected visitor left, and had caught sight of Ben laughing himself silly.

That had been when the penny had dropped.

Until that moment, she honestly hadn’t realised that the pharmacist had any sort of intentions towards her. Perhaps the fact that it had now been more than a year since Richard had died should have reminded her of the strange conversation she’d had with him some weeks ago. À propos of absolutely nothing, he’d started talking about the fact that he was a very traditional sort of man who liked the ‘old ways’. Looking back on it, had that been his way of telling her that he was waiting until the old-fashioned ‘year of mourning’ was over before he felt free to ask her out?

Ben had certainly understood what had been going on and had been highly amused, but had it been necessary for him to laugh like that? At least he’d spared Mr…something…George? No, Greg…Greg Sadowski. At least he’d been spared the humiliation of knowing that he was the butt of the joke.

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