A Surgeon for the Single Mom

by Charlotte Hawkes

  And then another thought struck him. One which he knew instantly wasn’t true, even though he couldn’t have said how he knew that. But he couldn’t stop himself from voicing it all the same.

  ‘Or perhaps that was what you wanted me to think?’

  She stopped. Blinked at him. Leaving Tak with the oddest sensation that he was skating over the thinnest sliver of sparkling blue ice: ice that could crack at any second, letting him plunge into dark, fatal, sub-zero depths.

  ‘Say that again?’ Even her voice crackled icily.

  ‘Is that what you want me to think, Effie? That my money repels you? You must know how many women are attracted to the lifestyle I could offer them. Just as you’ve probably heard how little women like that appeal to me. Did you think you could reel me in if you pretended to abhor the material side of things?’

  ‘What? No!’ She managed to look angry, insulted and hurt all at once. ‘Is that what you truly believe?’

  No. ‘It’s possible.’

  ‘It’s ludicrous.’ She sniffed, somewhat inelegantly. ‘Do I need to remind you that this whole thing was your idea. Not mine.’

  ‘Hetti’s.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘It was Hetti’s idea,’ he repeated coolly, calmly, though he had no idea how he managed to be either. ‘Maybe you just saw a way to get to my money.’

  It wasn’t supposed to be going this way. He wasn’t meant to be this affected by Effie. He felt like the kind of floundering, out-of-his-depth adolescent he’d never actually been. It was ludicrous.

  Effie, meanwhile, sucked in a breath, her face pinched and white. Yet, to her credit, she held herself straight and tall. The epitome of dignity.

  ‘Whilst that may be true, I could also point out that you may be making your own money now, but much of what you have comes from having a famous gynaecologist for a father and the infamous Basu wealth.’

  Anger bubbled through him, and even that, too, was welcoming in its own way. He’d learned to contain his emotions from such a young age, trying to keep his sisters and brother in check and getting along, that he found it hard to do anything else as he grew up, bottling things up too often.

  What was it about Effie that got under his skin in a way that no one and nothing else had been able to do for so many years?

  He opened his mouth to respond, but Effie beat him to it.

  ‘And, for the record, I didn’t want to do this but you pursued me.’

  ‘I was under the illusion that you were shy, retiring and aloof—not some kind of siren capable of charming every man she meets,’ he bit out.

  Hell’s teeth, what was that? He sounded almost...possessive. Jealous.

  He was only grateful that Effie was barrelling on, clearly oblivious.

  ‘Well, then, may I say that I was equally duped. The man your sister described to me was a focussed genius doctor and a kind and dedicated brother. You, however, are acting like a spoilt brat.’

  God, but she was truly stunning. Flame-haired and flame-tongued, her arctic blue gaze as lethal as a pick-axe stabbing shards of ice off a gloriously frozen waterfall.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  The apology came out of nowhere. Apparently to both of them. But suddenly it actually mattered to him how this evening went.

  She eyed him warily. ‘You’re sorry?’

  ‘I was baiting you,’ he conceded flatly. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Why? Why were you baiting me, I mean?’

  There was no reason at all for him to want to be honest with her. But... ‘It was beginning to feel a little too much like a proper date.’ He shrugged. ‘I didn’t want there to be...mixed signals. Ridiculous, I know.’

  She hesitated before muttering a reply. ‘Not entirely ridiculous.’

  He liked the flush which crept up her neck. Perhaps a little bit too much. And then, as though he couldn’t help himself, he thought of the fact that she had been eighteen when she had a baby. That she had somehow put herself through medical school. It was impossible not to admire the woman.

  ‘I also could have been a little more thoughtful with regard to money. A little more sensitive. It can’t have been easy to raise your daughter alone, at that age, and still work towards becoming a doctor.’

  He didn’t remember moving towards her but suddenly she was right there, and his hand was covering hers, stilling her movements and stopping her from worrying at that loose thread any further.

  ‘Well,’ she whispered softly, ‘that’s my issue to deal with, not yours. And not anyone else’s.’

  There was something so...lost in her expression that he didn’t even think about it—didn’t even consider how much of his own private past he might be giving away—he simply said the one thing that he wished someone had said to him when he’d been eighteen and trying to deal with a bull-headed thirteen-year-old Hetti. Despite everything else, Tak found himself reaching for that connection between them.

  ‘You’ve done well, Effie. Give yourself a break.’

  ‘I do,’ she lied.

  His gaze said everything. ‘Not enough. I saw how agitated you were when I picked you up from your building. I... I have sisters. I know how hard it is to keep a wilful teenage girl from going off the rails, and I can only imagine what grief your daughter gave you tonight for coming out with me. But that’s just part of growing up. And so what if you don’t have a lot of money? You’ve obviously given your daughter love and guidance—and, frankly, one hell of a role model. She’ll come back to you at some point.’

  Then, because her eyes looked glassy and she seemed as though she was desperately fighting to hold it together, and he knew if he hugged her it might look too obvious that he was comforting her, Tak ushered her quickly back into the main hall and swung her out onto the dance floor before she had time to pull away.

  ‘I don’t dance,’ she said, panicked.

  ‘All you have to do is follow my lead. Come here.’ He cut her off gruffly, drawing her to him and letting her body settle against his, feeling her stiffen, and resist, and then ultimately crumple slightly against him as she realised there would be no release.

  He didn’t want to analyse what it was that had made him do it. What compunction had caused him to pull her onto the dance floor just so that he could hold her body to his. Where he’d imagined her being all evening.

  And, as she pressed her head so tightly against his chest that he wondered if she could hear his heart thumping, Tak couldn’t help feeling that this fleeting lowering of her defences was something of a bittersweet victory.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  EFFIE WAS STARTLED, but then a sense of calm seemed to flow into her. She lifted her gaze to meet his. Those rich mahogany eyes saw so deeply into her she was half afraid he might be able to read her entire past.

  First he’d baited her, then he’d argued. And she’d been only too happy to play along, because she’d felt, and resented, the connection that they had. The electric spark. He wasn’t the only one to think it felt more like a real date than a fake one. Worse, she couldn’t bring herself to lament the fact. As though she wanted something...more with him.

  ‘How?’ she whispered, barely even hearing her own voice. ‘How would you know she’ll come back to me?’

  ‘Hetti wasn’t the easiest thirteen-year-old. Or fourteen or fifteen-year-old, for that matter. I remember my grandmother used to say, Oh, to love a child and yet simultaneously want to strangle them.’

  Effie shook her head, not wanting to read too much into this magical insight into the infamously private Tak Basu’s life ‘You have a whole family. It isn’t the same.’

  ‘My father was working...’ Something flashed across his face too fast for her to identify it. ‘Mama was...going through her own thing. So I stepped up.’

  Why couldn’t she shake the impression that there was more to it? Then again, di
d it matter? Maybe it was the wine making her feel tired, or maybe it was Tak’s demeanour, so capable, so authoritative, so there, which made her want to stop having to be the strong one—if only for a night—and let someone else bear the weight.

  ‘Nell shoplifted today,’ she announced, before she could think better of it.

  Because he had been right when he’d said he thought she had no one to talk to, and because he was offering to be that someone, and because it wasn’t a real date so why not take him up on it? Not because there was something about him which made her feel some kind of bond. That would be nonsensical.

  ‘You know this how...?’

  ‘She told me. Just before I walked out to come and meet you.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘Maybe I should have stayed.’ She lifted her shoulders, exhaling deeply. ‘Another night I probably would have done. But I just felt so drained, and so angry I was afraid of losing my temper, and I figured the space might do us both good.’

  ‘Wise choice,’ he muttered, his gaze never leaving hers, his fingers stroking her hand. As if he might actually...care.

  It was laughable, of course. He barely knew her, let alone cared about her. Yet it was the closest thing she’d had to caring in a long, long time and, as exhausted as she was, the idea of someone else sharing the burden—if only for a few hours—was altogether too tempting.

  ‘But you know it’s a good thing that she told you, don’t you? She clearly isn’t happy about it, and she knows it’s wrong.’

  ‘Of course she knows it’s wrong,’ Effie spluttered. ‘I haven’t brought her up to think it’s acceptable.’

  ‘Relax. No one is questioning your parenting skills. I’m just saying she wanted to tell you, so she wants your help. Even if she doesn’t know how to ask for it directly.’

  ‘She knows she can come to me any time.’ Effie shook her head. ‘With anything.’

  ‘She always has in the past?’

  Snapping her head up with a glower, Effie raked her gaze over his face, expecting sarcasm. But she didn’t find it. Only empathy.

  ‘Yes.’ She couldn’t eliminate that last trace of defiance. ‘She always has in the past.’

  ‘Because you’re friends as well as mother and daughter? And because that was when she was twelve and now she’s thirteen? And because that was before you dragged her to a new town and a new school and no doubt ruined her life?’

  Despite herself, Effie couldn’t help a wry smile. ‘All of the above. How did you know?’

  ‘I told you, Hetti wasn’t always the super-doc you see now, with her sunny disposition.’

  And then he laughed. And everything...shifted.

  It poured through her like the warm heat of the sun on her skin, permeating right through to her very bones. Making her head spin. She held on tight as he kept dancing, just so that she could keep her balance. But that only pulled her closer to Tak, making things worse.

  Or better.

  Certainly not clearer. Though she wasn’t sure she wanted it to be.

  ‘What did she take?’ he asked at length.

  ‘A lipstick.’

  ‘Just the one?’

  ‘That isn’t enough?’ she breathed. Yet she couldn’t help being taken aback by his understanding demeanour.

  ‘You do see that your daughter is still coming to you now, don’t you?’ he murmured.

  It took a moment for her to focus. ‘After the fact,’ she managed.

  ‘Which is better than not at all.’

  ‘Not doing it in the first place would be best.’

  His wry smile did things to her.

  ‘Is this going to be a productive conversation or just one in which we list comparatives and superlatives?’

  ‘I don’t know—do you have any ideas of how to make it more productive?’

  ‘Interesting that you have such a dry sense of humour. You use it to defuse your anxiety.’

  She wasn’t sure what galled her more: the fact that he could read her so easily, or the fact that she was like this in front of him. Usually she was too closed-off for strangers even to begin to understand her humour. And all this while he hadn’t released her, hadn’t slowed as they danced around the floor.

  ‘Shall we just forget this conversation,’ she asked cheerfully, ‘and get on with the night?’

  ‘Why? Am I getting too close for your liking?’

  Yes. ‘No.’

  ‘I think I am,’ he said softly.

  She made herself raise her eyebrows at him, as though she was merely amused. As though her heart wasn’t lodged somewhere in the vicinity of her throat. ‘You think altogether too much.’

  ‘And you deflect.’

  ‘Tak...’

  Without warning he spun them around, and all she could do was hold on, following his lead the way he’d instructed her to do, praying she didn’t trip over her own feet and slowly realising that she was holding her own. Under Tak’s unspoken guidance.

  The last vestiges of her reticence seemed to melt away. And Tak gauged just the right moment to speak.

  ‘Nell is acting out because she’s a thirteen-year-old girl and that’s what they do—to a greater or lesser degree. You’ve just moved home, area, left her friends, and she’s feeling like she has no control. The shoplifting was probably a result of peer pressure and bad influence, and she went along with it—even though you’ve taught her better—because she’s trying to exert some kind of dominance but doesn’t quite know how. I suspect you already know all of this, because you’re clearly a good mother who cares about your daughter.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘The way you’ve talked about her. The fact that I deal with people day in and day out. I have to operate on them, on their brains—often when they’re awake. It pays to be able to read people so you can try to alleviate their deepest fears.’

  A myriad of thoughts raced through her head, every one of them too fast for her to catch hold of. ‘Yes, I suppose that would pay.’

  He ignored her, though not unkindly. ‘I also suspect you know that what your daughter needs is for you to try talking to her rather than simply punishing her.’

  ‘She can’t just get away with it,’ Effie objected, refusing to acknowledge that she’d thought pretty much the same thing.

  ‘I didn’t say that. Obviously you’re going to want to show her that there are consequences—I can see that’s who you are, and I don’t disagree. I’m just saying don’t second-guess your instinct to talk to her rather than at her. Trust yourself. You’re not being a weak mum.’

  It was as if he could see right into her thoughts. ‘And these consequences?’

  He fixed her with an unwavering look. ‘That’s down to you. You might want to take her back to the shop and face up to them. Pay for the goods.’

  ‘I thought of that, but then I worried that they might prosecute her.’

  ‘It’s a possibility, but in my experience they won’t. First-time offence...and a teenager taking one lipstick? Most likely the staff will appreciate that she’s taking responsibility for her mistake and accept her apology and the fact that she’s willing to pay for the item.’

  It sounded like the ideal solution. However, fear still gnawed at Effie. ‘But you can’t guarantee that?’

  ‘No, I can’t.’

  She chewed her lip. ‘It might be scary but it’s the adult thing to do...’

  ‘And she knows that, or else she wouldn’t have told you,’ Tak offered. ‘She came to you because she isn’t happy about it. She wants your help and she needs your understanding.’

  ‘I know that.’

  Yet hearing it from him somehow helped her to believe it. He made her feel stronger. This night was turning out to be so very different from anything she might have expected. Tak was so very different.

 
It was a very dangerous realisation indeed.

  * * *

  All he had to do was walk her to her apartment door, then see her inside, and finally leave.

  Three steps. Easy.

  So why had he felt the need to repeat them to himself the entire car journey? As though it was the only way to distract his mind? His body? The way he’d had to do all night.

  The effect her proximity had on him had been impossible to ignore. Not least when he’d made the stupid mistake of luring her onto that dance floor in order to haul her into his arms.

  Only it hadn’t felt like a stupid mistake. It had felt like a fire raging so savagely that he hadn’t thought it could ever be smothered. Like a hunger so desperate it had eaten its way through him. Like nothing he’d ever felt before in his entire life.

  He’d wanted it never to end.

  Tak would never know how he had managed to hold it together on that dance floor, conversing calmly with her whilst his body had been talking itself up into a veritable showdown. He barely remembered much about the rest of the night, save for the fact that Effie had been at his side. Stoking that internal blaze without even realising it.

  If it had just been the physical reaction then he could have withstood it. Couldn’t he? But it had been more than that. It had been that inexplicable emotional connection, too. It had called out to something deep inside him. Reminded him of things he’d once thought best forgotten.

  Yet now, finally, the night was almost over and he would soon be released from this pretend date he had never wanted in the first place. However many times he told himself that was a good thing, his body seemed determined to protest, its fight only growing stronger.

  When the car stopped, he hurried around to let her out himself, and then walked her into the lobby.

  ‘Thank you.’ She stopped abruptly. ‘I’m fine from here.’

  He eyed her obliquely. ‘It’s late at night. I’ll walk you to your door.’

  ‘Really, I’m fine.’

  ‘This isn’t up for debate, Effie,’ he growled. ‘Now, do you want to lead the way or should I carry you?’