Resisting The Single Dad: Resisting the Single Dad / Reunited by Their Secret Son. Scarlet Wilson

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      Rory nodded and climbed off her lap and settled himself back under her arm. She didn’t even want to acknowledge how that made her feel. The way that a tiny part of her that been tightly coiled up in her stomach for so long was slowly starting to unravel.

      Or the fact that it made her realise just how much she was missing.

      * * *

      Gene wandered out of the shower and into an empty room. For a second his heart stopped.

      He started to walk out into the corridor and stopped. He was naked. And he was a guest in someone else’s house. He roughly towelled himself off and yanked on his jeans. The water was still running down his chest as he walked to the door and started to towel-dry his hair. ‘Rory?’

      The corridor was empty.

      His heart rate quickened. He opened his mouth to shout again and then he stopped. And listened.

      He could hear murmuring voices. There was only one other person in this house apart from Rory. Cordelia.

      His curiosity was piqued. He took a few steps towards the door to Cordelia’s room. It was ajar and he could see Rory sitting up on the bed next to Cordelia, drinking a glass of milk.

      He put his hand on the door to push through and apologise but the words stopped him dead.

      ‘My mom’s up there.’

      Gene winced as his stomach clenched.

      The one thing he couldn’t control. Just how much his son missed his mother.

      It was normal. It was natural. Rory had attended a few nurseries and seen lots of other kids being picked up by their mommies. Gene always kept a photograph of Mindy around. He told Rory that was his mom and that she’d loved him very much.

      Rory asked questions sometimes, but not often. Maybe he hadn’t spoken about Mindy enough? The trouble was, there was no one else to tell Rory about Mindy, and what Gene knew wasn’t really that much. He wasn’t really into embellishments. But that looked like the only solution he had left.

      His son had just told a perfect stranger that he wanted to be an astronaut because his mom was up in the stars. It was a story that families the world over told little kids. That someone they missed or loved who had died was up in the stars, watching over them.

      Rory had long held a fascination with the planets and stars. But he’d never mentioned his mother. Gene had no idea that was the way he’d been thinking.

      He was frozen. His feet rooted to the floor. But the woman who’d been prickly at their first meeting seemed to be managing around Rory.

      In normal circumstances he would walk in and take over. But was that really best for Rory right now?

      Rory had just told Cordelia Greenway something he hadn’t shared with his dad. That made Gene’s skin prickle. Was he failing his child? Wasn’t he being the best dad that he could be?

      His mouth felt dry.

      He kept listening, watching through the gap in the door.

      It felt like prowling. And he certainly wasn’t doing that. Rory was safe.

      And right now he was seeing a side of Cordelia he hadn’t noticed before.

      He could see she was dedicated to her work. The staff at the institute appeared to both like and respect her.

      It almost made him want to push what had happened the other day out of his head. But he couldn’t. It sat there, churning away in his mind, making him wonder what he was missing.

      He could hear Cordelia still talking softly to Rory. Occasionally there was a little tremor in her voice. But she also sounded reassuring.

      He closed his eyes for a second. Could he imagine Karen ever doing something like this? The truth was, no. He’d been hurt when she’d walked away. She’d been clear that she couldn’t see herself taking on someone else’s child. And that had hurt. Because Rory had been like a bolt out of the blue to him too. But he couldn’t walk away. He would never have dreamed of it.

      But here was sometimes prickly Cordelia being sweet to his son in a way he would never have expected.

      When Rory asked about getting a new mommy and if she would love him, Gene’s stomach clenched so hard it felt like it was made of lead.

      Cordelia’s answer seemed so simple. And completely and utterly true. He would never be with someone who couldn’t love his son as much as he did. They were a package deal.

      His heart squeezed in his chest. The woman he’d been angry with a few days ago got that. She had got that about him straight away. And as he watched she settled Rory under her arm and started reading him his favourite story book.

      Now his heart gave an unsteady flutter. Rory looked so comfortable there. His little body had adopted the slumped position it normally did just before he fell asleep. Sure enough, like clockwork, only a few pages into the book Rory’s eyelids started to droop.

      Gene took a deep breath and collected himself, willing that he’d look as if he’d just appeared this second.

      He stuck his head around the door and whispered, ‘Cordelia?’

      She looked up and stopped reading. Her eyes widened as he realised he still hadn’t put a shirt on.

      He almost hesitated, then dismissed it. She was a doctor, she’d seen more than enough naked torsos in her line of work. He walked over to the bed. ‘Apologies,’ he whispered. ‘I was in the shower. Rory hasn’t really grasped the concept of patience.’

      She looked down at the mop of blond hair and ruffled it with her fingers. His head was completely sagging now. He was fast asleep.

      ‘I’m not too good at the whole patience thing myself.’ She looked up and met his gaze. The sincerity in her green eyes made him catch his breath.

      ‘I’m sorry. I was in the shower,’ he repeated. Crazy. He’d already said that. What was wrong with him?

      ‘So I can see.’ A smile danced across her lips as her eyes fixed on his bare chest.

      He held out his hands and smiled back. ‘What can I say? I didn’t have time to put all my clothes on. I came out of the shower and realised I was missing a child.’

      She shook her head. ‘Poor excuse. You never got paged when you were in the shower when you were working as a resident?’

      The hours and workload of resident doctors were notorious. By the time every doctor had finished training they had dozens of stories to tell.

      She tutted and shook her head. ‘I can’t believe you don’t know how to do the ten-second soaked-to-fully-clothed dance.’

      There was a gleam in her eyes. She was teasing. Of course she was.

      He shook his head and slid his arms under Rory’s body. ‘I can assure you I’m a professional.’ He winked. ‘I can do it in eight. Give me a sec, let me put Rory to bed.’

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