Healed by the Single Dad Doc

by Annie Claydon

  ‘She doesn’t have to be your girlfriend for us to give her flowers. It’s a way of saying thank you. Like when we give Grandma flowers.’

  ‘Is she going to kiss me?’ When Sam presented Ethan’s mother with flowers, there was always a protracted phase of hugging and kissing before the blooms were whisked off to the kitchen to be arranged.

  ‘I wouldn’t think so. Just give her the flowers and then she’ll show you the puppies.’

  ‘Oh.’ Sam thought about it for a moment and then picked up the posy. ‘Okay.’

  Ethan breathed a sigh of relief and climbed out of the car, opening the back door to release Sam from his car seat. His son scarpered up the front path, almost dropping the flowers as he stretched for the doorbell. Ethan lifted him up so he could reach, putting him back down on his feet before Sam could jab his finger on the bell a second time.

  Sam shuffled impatiently on the doorstep, looking as if he was about to kick the front door in an attempt to gain entry. Ethan laid his hand on his son’s shoulder and the door opened. And then he forgot that he’d told himself that this visit was all about Sam, as his whole world suddenly upended.

  Kate was wearing a thin, white cotton top with a green patterned border at the neck. It was practical and pretty, the kind of thing lots of women wore in the summer, but Kate made everything she wore seem special. Her hair curled around her shoulders, free of the pins and elastic bands that restrained it while she was at work. In the week since he’d seen her last, she seemed to have grown softer and prettier. Or maybe it was just that his memory wasn’t up to recreating her perfectly.

  Sam stepped forward, thrusting the flowers at her. ‘From Dad.’

  Thanks, mate. Kate flushed a little, the delicate red of her cheeks making Ethan wish for a moment that the arrangement of white roses and freesias were from him. She took the posy, reading the tag which dangled from the raffia binding.

  ‘It says here they’re from you, Sam. Did you write that?’

  ‘Yes. They’re from me.’ Sam seemed to think nothing of the abrupt volte face. ‘Where are the puppies?’

  ‘Come with me. They’re through here.’ Kate held out her hand and Sam took it, glancing back at Ethan as he followed them inside, closing the front door behind him.

  She led the way through a small kitchen, neat and gleaming, the astringent smell of cleaning fluid still in the air despite the open window. An open door at the far end was barred by a child gate, and beyond that was a bright, airy room, the walls painted cream and the floor covered with newspaper and dog toys. In the corner was a high-sided wooden box.

  Kate bent down to Sam. ‘We have to be very quiet and gentle with them. They’re only tiny and we don’t want to frighten them.’

  Sam nodded, leaning towards Kate to whisper to her. ‘Can we go inside?’

  ‘Yes, of course we can.’ She swung open the child gate and led Sam into the room.

  Ethan tried to ignore the four tiny forms curled up inside the box and lingered by the doorway, keeping his gaze on his son. Sam’s eyes were as wide as saucers, and he was tiptoeing up to the box, trying very hard to be quiet.

  ‘What do you think, Sam?’ Kate bent down next to him, one hand resting lightly on his back. Just the right amount of reassurance, yet still allowing Sam the space to explore this new experience.

  ‘They’re little...’ Sam was obviously considering the practicalities of taking one of the tiny creatures for a walk and playing ball with it.

  ‘Yes, they’re very small now, but they’re still growing. In a few weeks’ time they’ll be this big.’ She held her hands out.

  ‘That’s the right size.’

  ‘Yes, I think so too. Would you like to touch one of them?’

  Sam twisted round, looking questioningly at Ethan, and he nodded. ‘Yes, that’s all right. Gently, so you don’t hurt them.’

  Sam reached into the box, his fingertips touching the puppy closest to him. It roused from its sleep and gave a little whelping bark, and Sam snatched his hand away.

  ‘It’s all right. He’s just saying hello to you.’ Kate dangled her hand inside the box and the puppy responded, licking her fingers. Sam caught his breath, holding his hand out, and Kate moved her fingers next to his so that the puppy moved across to lick Sam’s hand.

  ‘Dad, look, he’s licking me.’ Sam’s face was shining with the kind of wonder that only a child had access to on a day-to-day basis.

  ‘Yes, that’s okay. Your dad can see.’

  Kate was giving him a little space, allowing him to stand back, but suddenly Ethan didn’t want to. If Jeff had been here, he probably would have ambled up to the puppies and tried to get into the box with them.

  Ethan stepped forward, catching the scent of flowers as he bent down next to Kate—bright and clean, with an undertone of something sensual, like a summer’s afternoon spent lying on a blanket in the middle of a meadow. And then she was gone, leaving him to talk to Sam and play with the puppies with him.

  * * *

  Kate had given the puppies a bowl of food so that Sam could watch them eat, then ushered Ethan and him out onto the back garden, installing Sam in a child’s garden chair next to the door which led from the utility room onto the patio.

  Ethan’s tall frame made the table and two chairs that sat on the paved area seem even smaller. He sat down, looking at the riot of spring colour that stretched twenty yards from the back of the cottage and spilled around each of its sides. Kate was pleased with the way her garden was coming along this year.

  ‘You’re a gardener, then.’ Ethan laughed when she shrugged. ‘It takes a lot of hard work to make a garden look this random and natural.’

  He’d noticed. Kate suppressed a smile and set about arranging the teacups on the table. ‘This is the second summer I’ve been here. I did a lot of planting last year, and I’m beginning to enjoy the results.’

  ‘It’s nice here. Quiet.’

  That was one of the things that had attracted Kate to this place, away from the hustle of London. Away from the memories and the fears. But now it brought new fears. She realised that she hadn’t sat out here in her garden for a few weeks, contenting herself with viewing it from behind the locked windows of the kitchen.

  ‘We don’t get a lot of through traffic.’

  He nodded, his gaze following the trajectory of the lane that passed in front of her cottage and continued straight for another hundred yards. It then curled in an arc and stopped short.

  ‘Where does the lane lead?’

  Kate smiled. It wasn’t the first time someone had asked the question. ‘This cottage used to be the second-to-last in the lane. There was another one further along, but I’m told it burned down about fifty years ago. You can still see the foundations if you walk down there.’

  ‘You have a great view.’ He nodded towards Summer Hill rising in the distance, and Kate remembered that he’d said it was his favourite place. ‘I miss living in the countryside. My parents have a couple of acres out by Hambleton and I was brought up there.’

  ‘I imagine living in the town’s more convenient. With Sam...’

  He shrugged. ‘It has its pros and cons. It’s further away from a community where everyone knows everyone else.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve been learning all about that. I’m still the new girl here, but there’s always something going on. I’ve managed to get on one of the teams for quiz night at the pub.’

  Ethan chuckled. ‘You’re well on your way to becoming a local, then. I hope you take it seriously.’

  ‘Very seriously. My grasp of anatomy came in useful last week.’

  ‘What made you move up here?’ He turned suddenly, as if this was a question that was more than just idle talk filling in the time while Sam stared at the puppies.

  ‘I just wanted to make a new start. Have my own garden and a bit of fresh air.
If this place was in London I wouldn’t be able to even think about affording it.’

  His gaze held hers for a moment, as if he knew that there was more to it than that. His dark-blue eyes were almost mesmerising, sucking her in and demanding the truth. And then he looked away.

  ‘I think he’s found a new friend.’ One of the puppies had finished eating and come to the doorway, pressing itself against the piece of wood that Kate had wedged across the threshold to stop the puppies from escaping.

  She craned round to look at Sam, who was stroking the puppy and talking to it quietly. ‘He doesn’t need to make a decision yet.’

  ‘I think I’ve made mine.’ Ethan caught his son’s attention. ‘Sam, would you like it if we took one of these puppies home when it’s a bit bigger?’

  ‘Can we have them all?’

  ‘I think one’s enough.’

  ‘Two?’ Sam was obviously open to a bit of bargaining.

  Kate giggled. ‘But where are you going to get the time to play with two of them?’

  Sam thought about it for a moment and nodded sagely. ‘All right. Just one.’

  Ethan’s blue eyes were all she could see as he looked back at her. ‘How old are they—six weeks?’

  ‘Five and a half. As I said, they’ve no pedigree certificates, but they all come with a clean bill of health, and Sue’s done a great job with socialising them. We’re hoping to find homes for them to go to at eight weeks, but I can take the one you choose after that. Until you’re ready.’

  ‘Two and a half weeks will be fine.’ Ethan nodded towards Sam, who had gone back to stroking the puppy. ‘That’s a very long time when you’re five.’

  ‘And when you’re a bit older than five?’ Kate didn’t want to push Ethan.

  ‘It’s quite long enough to deal with a five-year-old who can’t wait.’ Ethan turned to Sam, catching his attention again. ‘Is that the one, Sam?’

  Sam turned his shining face up to him and nodded.

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Yes, Dad.’

  Ethan chuckled. ‘Good choice. We’d like to take that one, please, Kate.’

  Suddenly her cottage became a home again. One where she might just think about opening the windows and allowing the perfumed breeze in, instead of locking it up like a fortress.

  ‘He’s yours.’

  ‘Thank you. How much...?’ Ethan reached into his jacket for his wallet.

  ‘It’ll cost you a good home and a lot of love. Nothing more.’

  He nodded. ‘Fair enough. Pick a charity, then.’

  Kate thought about telling him no, but he obviously wanted to give something. ‘The local mountain rescue? I’m a member. I help with the dog training exercises and give them their health checks. They’re based over in Highbridge’

  ‘I know it. That would be a pleasure.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Kate rose from her chair, trying to shake off the feeling that she wanted to reach across the table and touch Ethan’s hand. When she picked up the puppy, Sam jumped to his feet, following her back to his father’s side.

  She caught a brief hint of Ethan’s scent as she bent to deliver the puppy into his arms. Not enough to savour properly, but more than enough to want more. Kate straightened, turning to Sam.

  ‘I’ll let you and your Dad hold him for a while. So he can get to know you.’

  ‘Yessss!’ Sam looked as if he was about to burst from excitement, responding to Ethan’s, ‘What do you say?’ with a hurried ‘Thank you.’

  Kate left them to it. Ethan’s gentle hands and smouldering eyes. A little boy and his first puppy. Watching all that was more than she could bear, when there was no chance that she could have any of it. And she’d noticed a few weeds amongst the flowers which suddenly needed her urgent attention.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ETHAN STARED AT his phone. His head told him that there was nothing wrong with the text. But his gut told him that everything was wrong with it.

  Car broken down, on way back from Hallowes Common. Waiting for pick-up. Will be about half an hour late tonight, but will call when I am on my way. Sorry.

  It all seemed perfectly straightforward. Kate was going to examine all the puppies at the surgery this evening, and she’d told Ethan that he could bring Sam over if he wanted. She was going to be half an hour late, that was all.

  But he knew Kate better than that. Talking allowed more give and take than texting, and it conveyed more warmth. If Kate’s first instinct was to text, then he’d be willing to bet that there was something wrong. He could feel a prickling sensation crawling along the back of his neck.

  He was making something out of nothing. He was about to leave work, and it would take twenty minutes to get from the hospital to his parents’ house, to pick up Sam. He’d stay there, until Kate phoned to say that she was ready.

  Or... Hallowes Common was twenty minutes in the other direction.

  * * *

  Kate was breathing so fast that her head was swimming. The hollow feeling in her chest felt as if it was about to swallow her. She put the paper bag over her mouth again, watching it inflate and deflate.

  This wasn’t happening. Okay, so it was happening, but she could deal with it. Her car had broken down, that was all. People’s cars broke down all the time.

  Squinting through her tears, she could see a car coming, appearing and disappearing as it negotiated the curves in the road ahead. Perhaps she should hide her keys. The chasm in her chest suddenly opened further and she let out a little cry of frustration at her own inability to cope.

  Fixing her gaze on the steering wheel, she breathed into the bag. One... Two... Concentrate... She felt her heartbeat slow a little. And then the car that she’d seen in the distance rounded the corner.

  Ethan. No. Not here. Not now.

  She threw the paper bag into the footwell, trying to slow her breathing. Not daring to look him in the face as he walked towards her, she fixed her gaze on his left shoulder.

  He reached the driver’s door, squatting down next to it. He must have come straight from work. She hadn’t seen Ethan in a white shirt and tie before. Even though the tie had been loosened and the shirt was open at the neck, he looked quite devastatingly reliable.

  The ‘R’ word again. Don’t even think it. Don’t think the ‘H’ word, either. It was difficult not to, because she didn’t actually need to look at him to know he was handsome, she remembered all too well what he looked like.

  Slowly, he raised his arm, circling his hand in an indication that she should put the window down. Kate complied with the instruction in a haze of misery.

  ‘Hey, there.’ He reached in, tipping her face gently towards him. ‘Car’s broken down, eh?’

  ‘Yes.’ Maybe he hadn’t noticed the state she’d got herself into.

  ‘Okay.’ He lifted the tab on the inside of the door, and she heard the central locking disengage. Then he opened the door, bending down again next to her.

  ‘Here.’ He managed to retrieve the paper bag from the footwell without touching her. ‘Just breathe.’

  She couldn’t resist his quiet, authoritative tone. It felt that, if she just did what Ethan said, everything would be all right.

  ‘Better?’

  She nodded wordlessly.

  ‘All right. Keep going.’

  She started to count again in her head, and then realised she was going too fast. Ethan was counting slower. When she followed his lead, the panic that was reverberating in her chest began to recede a little.

  It seemed like an age but finally he stopped counting and her own rhythm took over. She felt surer now and stronger. She crumpled the paper bag in her lap, and Ethan nodded.

  ‘Give me your keys. I’ll go and get your bag from the back of your car and we’ll go and sit in mine. Then we’ll phone and find out where the tow truck
is.’

  He knew exactly what to do. Kate handed him her keys, feeling the car rock slightly as he opened the boot. Then the sound of him unlocking the boot safe. He reappeared, carrying her veterinary bag in one hand and the smaller drugs bag in the other.

  ‘Are you going to look at the engine?’ That was what any self-respecting hero would do. He’d look under the bonnet and tell her to try the ignition. The engine would then choke reluctantly back to life.

  Ethan raised one eyebrow. ‘No. I’m a doctor, not a car mechanic. We’ll wait for the tow truck.’

  ‘Oh. Good.’ The thought that Ethan had at least one chink in his armour was oddly reassuring. Kate got out of the car and followed him over to his, watching as he stowed her bags under the back seat and opened the passenger door for her.

  ‘Are you on any medication?’ When Kate got into the car, he bent down beside her again.

  ‘No!’

  He grinned suddenly. ‘Fair enough. Have you changed the oil in your car recently?’

  ‘So you are a mechanic, then.’

  ‘No. I just thought you might like that line of questioning a little better. How quickly did you stop?’

  ‘Slowly. I didn’t need the brakes, but as far as I know they’re okay as well.’

  ‘Good to know. Look at my finger.’ He held one finger up, moving it from side to side.

  He could be forgiven for thinking she’d hit something, or bumped her head, after all the fuss she’d made. ‘The engine just cut out and the car stopped. It’s an old car and I’ve been thinking I should get a new one. I just...panicked a bit. Stupid.’ She was feeling better now. Stronger. As if a smile wasn’t totally out of the question.

  ‘All right. Have you got the number of the garage? I’ll give them a call and see where they are.’

  * * *

  A little of the colour had returned to her cheeks. Ethan swallowed the temptation to ask Kate why on earth she hadn’t called and asked him to pick her up, and concentrated on the practicalities. Getting her out of the car and making sure she was all right.

  The tow truck was out on another call, and he’d agreed that they’d leave the car and drop the keys in at the garage. Kate sat silently as he drove back into town and delivered her car keys to the mechanic.