The Baby of Their Dreams (Contemporary Medical Romance) (6 page)

‘Well, whether he’s married or not,’ Gemma said, and Cat knew that her friend’s doctor’s hat was firmly on now, ‘Dominic still has a responsibility towards the baby...’

Cat shook her head. ‘It might be a bit late to be thinking of it but I’m not tearing a family apart. I’m not going to contact him just yet. I don’t even know where he works, I don’t even know his surname...’

‘Come off it, Cat.’

‘Okay, I looked up the conference attendees and I do know his surname but I can manage—’

‘It’s actually not about you and whether or not you can manage,’ Gemma said. ‘And it’s not about his wife and how she’ll react. It’s about the baby, Cat.’ Gemma was as firm as Cat had known she would be. The very questions that she had been wrestling with for weeks were now being voiced by her friend. ‘It’s about your baby, who will grow up and will want to know, and has a right to know, who their father is. Whether or not you want him to be, Dominic has a right to be involved, or not, in his baby’s life.’

‘I know all of that,’ Cat said. ‘And I shall tell him, just not yet. Gemma, I’m eleven weeks pregnant. I’m doing my very best to simply get used to that fact. I’m not going to upend his life while I’m still in my first trimester...’

‘Oh, but you’ll upend yours. Why the hell should he get away with a few weeks of stress—’

‘I’m not stressed,’ Cat said. ‘I was at first but I’m not now. I want this baby and I’m going to do the very best that I can by it. I shall look up Dominic at some point but not now. Not now while I’m still trying to work things out. I need to find out the test results before I tell anyone. I need to know that it’s not going to be happening again...’

Cat knew she had Gemma’s support and, yes, she could tell her most things but there was something she couldn’t explain to her friend just yet because she didn’t actually understand it herself.

She missed Dominic.

Yes, it had been but one weekend and, yes, she was angry, not just with him but herself.

It was how she would react when she saw him that terrified Cat.

She knew that she wouldn’t cry and break down if he told her he wanted nothing to do with them—it would come as a relief, in fact.

And she didn’t want a penny from him either.

There were two things that terrified her—how he might react to the news if their baby was less than perfect, which was understandable given all that had gone on.

And how she might react if he took the news well.

Or, rather, how she might react when she saw him again.

What if that spark blew all her scruples away?

The mere thought of his kisses terrified her.

His smooth talk too.

She had this awful glimpse of life as a mistress.

Tucked away in England with her baby.

And she’d never be that.

If he was to be in their baby’s life, then it would be without lies.

Which meant someone was going to get hurt.

CHAPTER SIX

C
AT
DID
LOOK
him up.

At twenty weeks gestation, when her scan and amnio had come through as clear, Gemma told her that she had no excuse not to.

It really had been an excuse because whatever the outcome of the tests it wouldn’t have changed the course of the pregnancy for Cat.

But the results came in before Christmas and Cat had visions of Dominic and his fraught wife and the triplets she had now assigned to him, and decided she couldn’t ruin Christmas for them.

Or New Year.

Still, she had looked him up and it had taken about fifteen minutes to find out where he worked.

She recalled him saying that he liked the architecture in Edinburgh and after a few false starts she found someone who knew him and was told he was now working at a large teaching hospital in Glasgow.

Ah, that’s right, Cat remembered, he didn’t like to be tied to one place for too long.

Or one person.

And so Cat had sat on that knowledge for another month.

Her second pregnancy threw up so many memories of her first. There were so many thoughts and fears and she wanted to get past the milestone she had reached with Thomas.

Finally, though, she plucked up the courage to make the call.

‘You’re looking for Mr Edwards?’ A cheery female voice, with a heavy Glaswegian accent, checked.

‘Dominic Edwards—he’s an emergency consultant.’

‘Oh, you mean Dom!’ There was a long pause. ‘No, he was only here for a couple of months... Sorry, I’ve no idea where he is now.’

And that ended that.

Though, not quite, of course.

Now into February and thirty weeks pregnant Cat and Gemma caught up one Monday morning for breakfast in the canteen. They were interviewing for Cat’s maternity leave position and she didn’t want to be around for that.

Pregnancy suited her and she was enjoying this one. Colour had continued to come back into her life since that weekend and she was wearing the paisley dress that she had bought for the twins’ christening, along with chocolate-brown high-heeled boots. Her hair hadn’t been straightened since and hung over her shoulder in a thick, long ponytail.

‘I really don’t want to see who’s replacing me,’ she admitted as she peeled the lid of her yoghurt and, having licked it, added, ‘Temporarily, of course! I’ll be back.’

‘Full-time?’ Gemma checked.

‘That was the plan,’ Cat admitted, ‘and I’ve told Andrew that I shall be returning full-time but I’m starting to really wonder how on earth I’m going to manage it.’

‘Have they had many applicants for the role?’ Gemma asked.

‘There have been a few, but only two standouts—two women who are looking at job share,’ Cat said.

‘You could think about doing that,’ Gemma suggested.

‘I don’t like sharing at the best of times and especially not my job,’ Cat said. ‘Still, I’m going to have to work something out. I can’t believe how quickly my due date is coming up.’

Cat had always heard women saying that their pregnancy seemed to drag on for ever, yet hers seemed to be galloping along at breakneck speed.

Work was as unrelenting as ever and she did her level best not to bring any aches and pains with her, but by the end of the day she was exhausted. The nursery hadn’t been sorted out; instead, her days off were spent looking at child-care centres. All to no avail. Even the crèche at the hospital wasn’t geared to a baby whose single parent worked such erratic hours.

‘If I’m going to work, then I’m going to have to get a nanny,’ Cat conceded as she added sugar to her tea. ‘But even that comes with its own set of problems.’

‘Such as?’

‘I have a two-bedroom home.’ She sighed. ‘A small two-bedroom home.’

‘And you don’t like sharing.’ Gemma smiled. ‘Can’t you get somewhere bigger?’

‘I’m going to have to at some stage but the thing is, I love my home. I’ve just got it exactly how I want it but, yes, I guess I’m going to have to look at moving. Not yet, though,’ she said. ‘I think I’ll stay put for now and once I’ve had the baby I’ll think about putting the house on the market. I’ll have six months to move...’

‘So you’re planning to have your house on the market, find another one
and
move, all with a new baby?’

‘It’s a baby,’ Cat said. ‘I’m not going to be working...’ She let out a sigh. ‘I haven’t got a clue, have I?’

‘Well, if anyone could do it all, then it would be you,’ Gemma said. ‘Though I just can’t imagine how I’d have managed when the twins were tiny. Just having people viewing the house when you’re trying to feed or you’ve just got...’ Gemma hesitated ‘...
it
off to sleep...’

‘You were about to say
him
.’ Cat smiled.

‘No, I wasn’t,’ Gemma refuted. ‘What I’m actually trying to say is that I wouldn’t count on getting too much done during those six months of maternity leave. It’s isn’t an extended holiday, Cat. If you are considering moving to somewhere bigger, it might be a good idea to start that ball rolling now...’

‘I guess.’ She sighed. ‘Even if the new place does need some work, I could do that while I’m...’ She stopped when she saw Gemma’s small eyebrow rise and then laughed. ‘Okay, I’m going to accept that I have no real idea as to the disruption this small person is going to make to my life when
he
arrives.’ Cat waited for Gemma to comment but she didn’t. ‘I want to find out what I’m having.’

‘Well, then, it’s good that you’ve got an appointment to see me this evening.’

‘Gemma!’ Cat protested, because now that she had made up her mind, she wanted to know straight away. ‘Tell me.’

‘No, I won’t tell you here and I’m serious about that. We agreed that catch-ups were for friend talk and my office was for official baby talk...’

‘Fair enough,’ she grumbled.

‘And speaking as a friend and not a doctor, have you—’

‘I need to get back,’ Cat interrupted. She didn’t want to get into that conversation with Gemma
again
, and explain that she still hadn’t spoken with Dominic.

She knew, though, that she needed to contact him.

Tonight, she decided, she’d deal with it tonight but almost immediately she changed her mind.

It was surely better to ring around hospitals during the day. It would sound far more professional to any of his colleagues than calling at night, and she certainly didn’t want to create gossip for him.

Gemma started to head to Outpatients, where she was holding antenatal clinics all day, and Cat would be her last patient. ‘I’ll see you at five. Hopefully I shan’t be running late. Come and have dinner after,’ she suggested. ‘We might even make it in time to see the twins before they go down for the night.’

‘I’d love that. I honestly don’t know how you do it,’ Cat admitted. ‘Do you feel like you’re missing out?’

‘Sometimes.’ Gemma nodded. ‘I worry more, though, that they’re missing out on me and so I completely overcompensate when I do see them and rot up all of Nigel’s routines. I know I’m lucky, though. I don’t have to worry about them while I’m here and I can concentrate on work, knowing that they’re at home with their dad.’ She gave her friend a smile. ‘You need your own Nigel.’

Cat smiled back but the thing was, she didn’t want her own Nigel.

She wanted...Cat halted her thoughts right there. Dominic wasn’t the man she thought she had met. And even if he was, it was supposed to have been a one-night stand. He had said to her face that he didn’t want to be tied to any one person or place. She couldn’t really imagine his reaction when he found out that she was having his baby.

She didn’t want his reaction.

Cat slowed down her walking. There was a flutter of panic in her chest as she remembered her last pregnancy and the disappointment of Thomas’s father, the silent suggestion of blame for daring to mess up his perfect life.

She didn’t want that for herself again and she couldn’t stand it for her baby.

Yet she had to.

She was tired of the guilt that came with putting it off and she decided that, bar an emergency coming into the department, she wasn’t leaving her office until she had found out where he was working and had contacted him.

Did she tell him outright? Cat wondered.

Suggest that they meet?

So deep in her thoughts was she that at first she didn’t notice the tall suited man walking alongside Andrew.

He noticed her, though.

In fact, at first sight she barely looked pregnant.

She was wearing a tight dress and high boots and looked somehow sexy and elegant but then she turned to speak with one of the nurses and he saw the tight, round swell of her stomach and, attempting a detached professional guess, he would put her at...

Yes, there was something that they needed to discuss. That was why he was here after all.

He watched as she turned from the conversation she was having and startled as she glanced towards him, but then she gave a small shake of her head and strode on.

Then she looked over towards him again and he watched as not only did her face pale but she stood frozen to the spot.

Frozen.

For a foolish moment Cat considered darting into a cubicle—it would be a futile game of hide-and-seek, though, because it would appear that she’d already been found.

And so, as Andrew called her over, somehow she did her best to pretend that the walls of the emergency department weren’t shaking and that the ground wasn’t opening up between her feet.

She walked towards him.

Dominic.

Her one-night stand.

The father of her child.

‘Cat.’ Andrew beamed. ‘Did you have nice days off?’

‘I did.’

‘Excellent! I tried not to worry you, but on Friday one of the job share applicants pulled out and the other wasn’t interested in pursuing the position if she couldn’t be guaranteed regular part-time hours.’

‘I see,’ Cat said, even though she didn’t.

‘I’ve still got two more interviews to complete,’ Andrew went on, although Cat knew those two were really more of a formality and would be a rather poor choice. ‘However,’ Andrew said, ‘we had a late applicant. Cat, this is Dominic Edwards. He’s been working in Scotland for the last two years but we’re hoping to lure him back south of the border.’

For now, Cat knew, she would simply have to go along with the polite small talk. Whatever the reason Dominic was here, whatever the outcome when she told him her news, at the first opportunity she would have a quiet word with Andrew. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to reveal to her colleague that Dominic was her baby’s father, but if she had to, then she would. There was no way this could happen.

No way!

Thankfully there was a call for help from one of the cubicles and Cat was just about to flee in relief and go and assist when Andrew halted her. ‘I’ll go,’ he said. ‘If you could carry on showing Dominic around.’

‘I can deal with the patient,’ Cat said. ‘You’re in the middle of conducting an interview.’

‘I know, but the patient happens to be my mother-in-law.’ Andrew rolled his eyes. ‘The interview has already been interrupted twice. My apologies again, Dominic...’

‘It’s no problem at all,’ Dominic said. ‘Take your time.’

As Andrew walked off Cat stood there and she truly didn’t know what to say.

She kept praying that the alarm clock would buzz, or that there would be a knock on the door to the on-call room and she’d find out she was having a bad dream.

A vaguely sexy bad dream, though, because rather inappropriately, given the circumstances, she couldn’t help but notice how amazing he looked.

When in Spain, the times that he’d had clothes on, Dominic had dressed smartly, though somewhat more casually than he was now. Today, on a Monday morning, he seemed too beautiful for the rather scruffy emergency department. Dressed in a dark grey suit and tie, his hair was shorter than she remembered but it still had enough length that it fell forward. Clean shaven, he smelt as he had the last time she had seen him, the moment he had stepped out of the shower.

The moment she had walked away and he hadn’t stopped her—in fact, he had held the door open.

And, just like that day, she could feel his contained anger.

‘Has the cat got your tongue, Cat?’ he asked as she stood in silence.

It would seem that it had because still she said nothing.

‘Well, I’ll make this very simple for you, then,’ he pushed on. ‘A, B or C?’

Cat could feel her eyelashes blink rapidly as he sped through the multi-choice he had created just for her.

‘A—mine, B—not mine, or C—not sure.’

‘Dominic...’ she said, and how strange it felt to be saying his name while looking at him again. How odd it felt that he was here, terribly beautiful, terribly cross. ‘It’s not that simple...’ Cat attempted. But it was to him.

‘A, B or C, Cat?’

She couldn’t meet his eyes as she delivered the answer. ‘A.’

‘Mine.’

Yours.

His.

Dominic said nothing at first. He tried to stare her down but she refused to look at him as she now attempted to speak.

‘I was going to try to find out where you were working. Today, in fact,’ Cat said.

‘I don’t believe you for a moment.’

She couldn’t blame him for that.

‘What time to do you finish work?’ Dominic asked.

‘I’ve got plans tonight,’ Cat said to his shoulder, because she still couldn’t meet his eyes.

‘Tough,’ he said. ‘Cancel them.’

‘I’ve actually got a doctor’s appointment.’

He hesitated but he refused to be fobbed off. ‘What time is your appointment?’

‘Five,’ Cat said. ‘But my obstetrician is a friend of mine and I’m going there for dinner afterwards...’ She was floundering for excuses. She would far prefer to have had this conversation over the phone or via email. There at least she could have hidden from his angry gaze.

And, yes, he was angry—even if she was doing her best not to see it, she could feel it from his stance and she could hear it in his terse voice.

‘I’m quite sure that your obstetrician friend will understand that you can’t make dinner because you’re going to be having a long overdue conversation with your baby’s...’ He halted and glanced over her shoulder, and Cat guessed that Andrew was making his way back.