A Forever Family: Their Christmas Delivery. Kate Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ bought myself the one that came out last week as an early Christmas present. I know it’s not strictly a Christmas movie, but maybe we could watch it tonight.’

      ‘And we can pause it if Hope needs a nappy change or a feed. Great idea.’ He smiled at her. ‘So we like the same kind of films and music. How about TV?’

      ‘Cop dramas,’ she said. ‘That’s my guilty pleasure. All the Scandinavian noir stuff.’

      ‘Again, I have to watch them on catch-up half the time, but me too,’ he said.

      ‘Right. Crosswords or number puzzles?’

      He groaned. ‘Neither. I’m assuming that you’d go for the maths problems?’

      ‘Absolutely.’ She smiled. ‘Reading—fiction or non-fiction?’

      ‘Non-fiction,’ he said promptly, ‘and it’s usually medical journals. You?’

      ‘Crime fiction,’ she said. ‘I guess it’s because I like trying to solve the puzzles.’

      ‘Beach holiday or climbing a mountain?’ he asked.

      ‘Neither—city break or road trip for me,’ she said. ‘I like exploring new places and seeing the sights. You?’

      ‘I like the sound of the road trip,’ he said. ‘I’d love to see New England in the fall. And the hot springs and waterfalls at Yosemite.’

      ‘I’d guessed you’d be bored on a beach, but you strike me as a mountain-climbing type,’ she said.

      ‘Not so much mountains,’ he said, ‘but I did do the coast-to-coast walk for charity, one year, and I loved every second of it—even the blisters.’

      ‘I’m afraid the best I’ve done in the charity stakes is to make cakes and sponsor friends who do the ten-K runs,’ Amy said.

      ‘The main thing is that the money’s raised. It doesn’t matter who does what,’ he said.

      Just as Amy finished prepping dinner, Hope woke.

      ‘Well, hello, Munchkin,’ he said, and scooped the baby out of her Moses basket. ‘So it’s Uncle Joshy’s turn to feed you.’

      ‘I’ll bring the milk in,’ Amy said.

      When she took the warmed milk in, Josh was sitting on the sofa, talking to the baby in a low voice and letting her wrap her tiny fist round his little finger. The sight put a lump in her throat. Josh was so warm and kind. He’d make a fabulous father one day—but that made him off limits for her, so she’d have to ignore the attraction she felt towards him. If he wanted children, she couldn’t take his future away from him like that. And, given the way he was acting with the baby right now, she was pretty sure he’d want a family of his own one day.

      * * *

      Josh took the bottle of milk from Amy. ‘Thanks.’

      ‘No problem.’

      Hope closed her eyes in bliss as she drank the milk. And it was strange how natural this felt, having a warm little weight in the crook of his arm. In another life, this could’ve been his baby...

      He glanced at Amy. For all his scorn about the speed-dating questions, they had at least established that they had quite a few interests in common. And the more he got to know her, the more he liked her. It had been a while since he’d met someone he felt he could really be himself with.

      ‘Hey. Smile,’ she said, and held up her camera.

      ‘For Hope’s book?’

      ‘You bet.’

      ‘Then I ought to be sitting with the Christmas tree behind me.’ He stood up, without disturbing Hope or stopping her drinking her milk, and moved so Amy could take a more Christmassy photo of them together. ‘I’ll take one of you with her later, too.’

      ‘Thanks.’

      She laid the table while he fed the baby. ‘Sorry, it’s not going to be a proper Christmas dinner, and I don’t have any crackers or party hats—but I do have a Christmas scented candle.’

      ‘Sounds good. Anything I can do to help?’

      ‘You already are,’ she said. ‘And you’ve been at work all day. Just chill with the baby.’

      This really, really felt like being part of a new little family.

      Josh knew he was going to have to keep a tight grip on his imagination, because that so wasn’t happening. Yes, he found Amy attractive; but the last thing he wanted to do was to have a fling with her and then for it all to go wrong and make things awkward if he bumped into her in the lobby or the corridor. They needed to keep things strictly platonic, he reminded himself.

      And that was what stopped him going to chat to her in the kitchen again when the baby had finished her feed and he’d burped her.

      Though sitting there watching the baby fall asleep made his fingers itch to sketch her. When he wrote all the details of the feed down in Amy’s notebook, he couldn’t resist flicking to the very back of the book. It didn’t matter that the paper was lined and he was using a pen rather than a pencil; he gave into the urge and sketched the sleeping baby. And maybe this was something he could add to Hope’s book. Something personal.

      He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn’t notice Amy standing beside him, carrying a glass of wine.

      ‘That’s seriously good,’ she said. ‘Did you ever think about being an artist instead of a doctor?’

      His big dream. The one that had been squashed before it had had a chance to grow. For once he answered honestly. ‘Not in a family of high achievers,’ he said wryly. ‘Art wasn’t quite academic enough for them.’

      ‘Your parents didn’t support you?’ She sounded shocked. Clearly her family was the sort to encourage her to follow her dreams rather than insist that she trod the path they’d mapped out for her.

      ‘They didn’t like the idea of me going to art school,’ Josh admitted. ‘They said the world had changed a lot in the last generation and there weren’t that many jobs in art.’ At least not ones that paid well. Though he ought to be fair about it. ‘I guess they had a point.’

      ‘What made you choose medicine instead?’ she asked.

      ‘Studying biology meant I could still draw,’ he said. ‘Besides, art is something I can do for me.’

      ‘Do you do much?’

      That was the killer question. He smiled wryly. ‘It hasn’t quite worked out that way.’

      ‘Make the time, Josh,’ she said softly. ‘If drawing makes you happy, make the time for it.’

      Kelly had never suggested that to him.

      But then again, the real him hadn’t been enough for her, any more than it had been enough for his family—or Kelly would’ve had her baby with him instead СКАЧАТЬ