The Baby of Their Dreams (Contemporary Medical Romance)

by Carol Marinelli

  She carried on reading and looking at photos of his eccentric parents and terribly beautiful sister and then there she was.

  Heather.

  She knew it was her from the photo she had glimpsed in the hotel.

  Now she felt as if she was snooping, so she went back to Dominic and saw a picture of him all wet and gorgeous coming out of a swimming pool. At thirty weeks pregnant and not wanting to be, she was terribly, terribly turned on.

  ‘So not happening,’ she said, and turned off her phone.

  His body was still there, goading her to have another glimpse, at six the next morning when she drank her tea and switched her phone back on.

  But then she smiled when she saw what he had changed his relationship status to.

  It’s complicated.

  It most certainly was but, the funniest thing was that as she dressed for work and headed out to face the day, even if they weren’t together, they were on the same side—her baby had a father and that sat right with Cat.

  She didn’t feel quite so alone.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  DOMINIC’S PARENTS WERE, though initially surprised, completely delighted with the news.

  There was too much wine drunk and they spoke late into the night, and they kept making the most ridiculous suggestions.

  ‘Why don’t you bring her here so we can get to know her and she can have a little holiday?’

  ‘She’s thirty weeks pregnant,’ Dominic said, and looked over at Kelly for some help.

  ‘Mum, they’re not a couple,’ his sister said.

  ‘Perhaps, but I’d still like to meet her. We could come over.’ His mother, Anna, was warming to the idea. ‘We could fly over for the birth. I’d love to see my granddaughter being born.’

  Dominic swore under his breath before answering. ‘I don’t even know if I’m going to be present at the birth...’

  ‘You could film it,’ Anna said. ‘Live-stream it.’

  ‘And then you could set it to music and forward it to your hippy friends...’ Dominic sarcastically responded, and when his father nodded this time Dominic swore out loud. ‘You weren’t even there when we...’ he gestured to Kelly ‘...were born.’

  ‘And I regret it to this day,’ James said. ‘That’s the beauty of being a grandparent, you get to do things right the second time around.’

  What planet were they from? Dominic wondered.

  Even if they made him laugh, they drove him mad at times, and this was one of those times. He could only imagine how well that suggestion would go down with the cool and rather distant Cat.

  Yes, they made him laugh, because he was doing that now as he pictured her shocked expression as he told her he wanted to film the birth.

  ‘Cat and I are going to sort things out between us.’ Dominic told his parents how it would be. ‘Preferably without lawyers. You guys need to stay back.’

  ‘From our grandchild?’

  He closed his eyes for a brief moment. He’d never considered having a baby but now that he was he wanted his parents in his child’s life, so he thought long and hard before answering.

  ‘From Cat and me,’ he said. ‘We’ve got two months to work things out. You’re to stay out of things.’

  Anna didn’t answer. In fact, Dominic was sure she shook her head.

  After his parents had gone to bed, he sat, listening to the trickle from the pool filter and enjoying sitting with his sister outside. It was cool and they had the gas heaters on but after a cold Scottish winter it was blissful.

  ‘I love it here,’ Dominic said.

  ‘Would Cat?’

  ‘Oh, we are so far from that, Kelly,’ he said. ‘It was a one-night stand, a weekend conference...’

  ‘That’s completely changed your life,’ Kelly said. ‘You were all set to move here.’

  ‘I was almost all set,’ he said.

  ‘Almost?’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

  He didn’t.

  He didn’t want to tell his sister that, despite the seriousness of his plans, since August they had started to change. Unable to get that night out of his mind, and furious at how the weekend had ended, he had considered calling Cat to explain things. And if he was thinking about calling her, it had seemed a bit nonsensical to be considering moving further away than he was already.

  Yes, he hadn’t been idly flicking through jobs in London.

  He’d been wondering how he could ask her to give them a chance.

  ‘Is there any hope for the two of you?’ Kelly asked. ‘You obviously fancied each other and you said things went well when you saw her again...’

  ‘Kelly, the stakes are a lot higher now. Surely we should be concentrating on how we’re best going to be as parents rather than trying to establish a relationship.’

  ‘I guess.’

  ‘What if it doesn’t work? What if we give it a go and one of us wants to end it? God, we don’t need hurt feelings and resentment added to the mix. I hardly know anything about her.’

  ‘Does she know about Heather?’

  ‘I told her tonight that I was a widower.’

  ‘Tonight?’ Kelly checked.

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘So what were you two talking about that weekend?’

  Dominic rolled his eyes. ‘We weren’t really talking.’

  Except that wasn’t entirely true.

  They had talked, they had shared more than sex. That was the reason he had wanted to look her up.

  ‘I took her to Collserola Park,’ Dominic said. ‘We watched the sun come up. You know how Heather had a thing about sunrise?’ he asked, and Kelly nodded. ‘Not once, when I’ve been with someone, have I felt guilty. It’s always just been sex and I knew Heather would get that but that morning, sitting watching the sun come up with someone who wasn’t Heather, was the most unfaithful I’d ever felt.’

  ‘It sounds like you two have something to build on...’

  ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But it would be foolish at best to rush this. I’ve had one brilliant marriage, Kelly. I’m not downgrading for the second one. Right now Cat and I need to sort out how we’re going to be for the baby. The two of us as a couple will just have to wait. I’m not going to see her for another three weeks and that’s if I even get the job.’

  ‘Won’t she see to it that you do?’

  Dominic managed a wry laugh. ‘You have a far sweeter mind than I do, or Cat come to that. I’m quite sure she’ll be seeing to it that I don’t.’

  They said goodnight and as he lay in bed he took out his laptop and plugged in the recording and saw for the first time the life they had made.

  She was beautiful, so beautiful that it actually brought tears to his eyes.

  It should feel like a mistake—surely this was something he should have been doing with Heather—and yet, seeing his baby on the screen, thinking of Cat...

  It didn’t feel like a mistake.

  It felt right.

  Was there a chance for them?

  Could strangers who had shared just a night have got it so right that they could spend the rest of their lives together?

  Cautious with his emotions, it had taken years to get around to getting engaged to Heather.

  They had gone out for more than two years before they’d moved in together.

  Another three years before they’d got married.

  And they hadn’t been ready to even start trying for a baby before Heather had been taken ill.

  He flicked on his social media site and saw that Cat had accepted his friend request and it was Dominic who snooped.

  She had the most boring page ever.

  He found out nothing new about her, other than that her star sign was Virgo and that her
friends wrote on her wall more than she did.

  No mention of Spain, no lovers’ names.

  Nothing.

  He wanted to know more, though, and even if they needed to be concentrating on the baby, somehow they had to make time for them, and that was why he changed his status.

  Not single.

  Not in a relationship.

  It’s complicated sounded about right, so that, for now, would do.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘YOU SOUND OUT of breath,’ Dominic commented.

  It was Thursday night, a few days since they’d met, and Cat had only just arrived home when she answered her phone and it was him.

  ‘That’s because I just took my boots off.’ She sighed. ‘Which is no mean feat these days.’

  ‘I’m just calling to let you know what you probably do already—Andrew called this afternoon while I was flying back from Spain and left a cheery message, asking me to call him. So it sounds like I got the job.’

  ‘You did,’ Cat said, flicking on the kettle.

  ‘Do you have an issue with that?’

  ‘I did,’ she admitted, ‘but I don’t now.’

  ‘He’s also asked if I can start a couple of weeks before I officially take up your position. Do you have an issue with that?’

  ‘A bit,’ she admitted, ‘but I’ll get over it. How was Spain?’

  ‘Still beautiful.’

  ‘How were your parents with the news?’

  ‘Elated.’

  ‘Oh!’

  ‘Invasive.’

  ‘Okay.’ She let out a laugh. ‘It’s not just them. Honestly, people think they can ask me the most personal questions and as for touching my bump...’ She shuddered.

  ‘I promise not to touch your bump uninvited.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I’m coming down this weekend and I’ll be looking at houses. I’m just checking you’re not planning on moving in the near future...’

  Cat was silent. He really had meant it when he’d said he wanted to be around for his child.

  ‘No, I have no plans to move. Well, I might need a bigger house but I shan’t be leaving the area.’ She thought for a moment. ‘You’re not going to move too close, though? I mean...’

  ‘I don’t want to be your neighbour, Cat. Just close enough to make things easier on both of us. I was going to rent but I’ve been doing that for a couple of years. I want to give her a proper base.’

  ‘Sounds good. While I’ve got you on the phone I actually do have a couple of questions,’ she said.

  She had quite a list actually.

  ‘Can they keep till the weekend?’ he asked. ‘I’m a bit swamped right now.’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘We can go out for dinner and discuss things.’

  And if he could be so brusque and direct, without apology, then so too could she.

  ‘I don’t want to go out,’ she said, because she’d had to swap to get this weekend off and there was a lot to be done. By evening all she would be ready for was a night flopped on the sofa. ‘I don’t want to discuss my private life in a restaurant. You can come here.’

  ‘Okay, don’t worry about cooking, though.’

  ‘Oh, I shan’t.’

  ‘Saturday, about six?’ Dominic checked. ‘I’ll come when I’ve finished looking through houses.’

  ‘Whenever,’ Cat said.

  She heard a voice in the background.

  A female voice.

  ‘I have to go.’

  He was probably at work, she told herself as she ended the call.

  And even if he wasn’t, it was none of her business.

  Cat really didn’t have time to dwell on her feelings, if she even had feelings for Dominic. Aware she was only going to get bigger and that there weren’t too many days off between now and her maternity leave starting, when Saturday came she found herself back in the wallpaper shop. This time she had Gemma in tow and her brother’s offer to come and help this afternoon when the cot was being delivered.

  ‘We have the softest pink,’ Veronica said. ‘It actually feels like candy floss...’

  ‘The last time I ate candy floss I vomited,’ Cat said to Gemma.

  ‘It’s gorgeous,’ Gemma insisted as she ran her hands over it, but Cat shook her head as she opened up another sample book.

  ‘That,’ Cat said, ‘is what I call gorgeous.’

  ‘It’s blue!’

  It was so blue, the paper was every shade of night and brushed with dandelions that looked as if they could blow away in the night wind.

  And so Cat found herself up a ladder as her brother, Greg, hovered nervously. He had no idea how to hang wallpaper so he held the ladder instead and handed her the glued sheets to put up.

  ‘It’s very dark,’ Greg offered, when she was done.

  ‘It’s supposed to be for sleeping,’ Cat said. ‘You don’t like it?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Greg admitted. ‘Maybe when the cot’s in and you’ve got the right furniture and light fittings...’

  ‘You have no imagination, Greg.’

  ‘I’m an accountant,’ Greg said. ‘What time’s the cot arriving?’

  ‘It’s a p.m. delivery, that’s all they’d say.’ A knock at the door had Cat smiling. ‘You can help set it up while I go and get changed.’

  ‘Help?’

  Cat laughed as Greg went down to get the door and then she looked around the bedroom. ‘A brave choice’ had been Veronica’s words when she had made her selection. Gemma had looked worried and Greg was sitting on the fence...

  ‘Cat!’ Greg called. ‘The cot’s here and so is the reason for its purchase.’

  Dominic gave a wry grin as Cat’s brother announced his early arrival.

  He had surprised himself with his own reaction when he had seen a man waiting for the delivery of the cot.

  A good-looking man around Cat’s age.

  It had taken only a moment to work out it was probably her brother, and as he introduced himself the same green eyes had confirmed that fact.

  Dominic, though, was unsettled by his brief two-bulls-in-one-paddock moment.

  Another thing that needed to be discussed, he thought.

  No, he wasn’t particularly looking forward to tonight.

  Then he changed his mind because, wearing khaki trousers and with a vest top on, Cat came down the stairs and he noticed that between now and earlier this week her belly button had poked out.

  ‘Dominic.’ Cat gave a wary smile at the strange air of hostility in her hallway. ‘This is my brother, Greg.’

  ‘We’ve already introduced ourselves,’ Greg said as the delivery man dragged cardboard boxes up her stairs. ‘Right, I’m off.’ Greg gave his sister a brief kiss on the cheek.

  ‘I thought you were going to stay and help with the cot.’

  ‘Er... Cat,’ Greg said, ‘I’m sure Dominic can manage that much at least...so long as it’s not too much responsibility for him...’

  Oh, no!

  She groaned inwardly as Greg got all big brother and angry and tried to somehow equate putting up a cot with men who impregnated helpless virgins and left them heavy with child.

  ‘I’ve got this, thanks, Greg,’ she said, but only as her brother shot Dominic a filthy look and then stalked off did it dawn on her what the problem was.

  ‘Oh, God,’ she said to Dominic. ‘I forgot to tell him you weren’t married.’

  ‘Remind me never to take over a multi-trauma patient from you,’ he said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Well, you’re not very good at passing on pertinent information.’ He smiled. ‘Anyway, the mood he’s in, it wouldn’t have made a difference. I’m still the one-night s
tand who left his precious little sister pregnant.’

  ‘He hasn’t been like that...’ she was about to say, since she’d broken down on Greg about Mike, but now wasn’t the time and anyway she had to sign for the delivery, so she finished with a lame ‘...in ages.’

  He waited till she’d signed for the cot and the door was closed before he continued speaking.

  ‘Well, next time you’re talking, if you could slip into the conversation that I’m not cheating on my wife, it would be appreciated.’

  ‘I shall.’

  Dominic doubted it.

  He assumed he was way down on her list of topics of conversation.

  He assumed rightly.

  But he was up at the top of her thoughts.

  Inappropriate thoughts for a heavily pregnant woman about a man she didn’t particularly like.

  ‘Lovely hallway,’ he said.

  ‘Come through.’ She opened the door to the lounge and Dominic stood there for a moment.

  ‘This is such a sight for sore eyes after some of the dumps I’ve seen today.’

  ‘Did you find anything you liked?’

  ‘One that I liked.’ He told her the address and it was close but not too close. ‘It needs far too much work, though.’

  ‘Ooh,’ Cat said. ‘Tell me.’

  And so he told her about the dodgy plumbing, the ancient kitchen, fireplaces, cornices and the disgusting bathroom with green carpet and a study that was completely covered in cork tiles.

  ‘That sounds like my idea of heaven,’ Cat said, and she went to her perfect mantelpiece and took down a photo. ‘This was what this room looked like when I bought the place.’

  ‘Oh, my God, it’s worse than the one I saw today.’

  ‘We can do a tour if you like,’ she said. ‘I love showing off my handiwork.’

  ‘You renovated it?’

  ‘Every last bit of it.’

  ‘Oh, my...’ he said as they walked down her hallway and to the kitchen. ‘We could swap houses,’ he said. ‘You could renovate mine while you’re on maternity leave...’

  ‘I might be a bit busy, Dominic,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sure you could fit it in,’ he teased, and yet it made Cat smile because everyone else told her how zoned out and incapable she was going to be once the baby was here.