Fairytale With The Single Dad. Alison Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ coming out of the house. Helen was standing further back, her arms crossed.

      ‘Dr Jones! Good of you to call round! You’ve arrived just in time. Your wife was just about to leave.’

      He instantly looked at Sydney. My wife?

      Sydney blushed madly. ‘We’re not married!’

      Paul looked between the two of them. ‘Oh, but we thought… Partners, then?’

      ‘No. Just…friends. Associates. We just happened to be in the car together, that’s all…’ he explained, feeling his voice tail off when he glanced at Sydney’s hot face.

      ‘Really? You two look perfect for each other.’ Paul smiled.

      Nathan was a little embarrassed, but amused at the couple’s mistake. ‘Hello, Sydney. We seem to keep bumping into each other.’

      She shook his hand in greeting. ‘We do.’

      ‘Did you get to see Lucy?’

      ‘I did. The baby is gorgeous.’

      ‘He is.’ He was still holding her hand. Still looking at her. Someone seemed to have pressed ‘pause’, because for a moment he lost himself, staring into her grey eyes. It was as if the rest of the world had gone away.

      Paul and Helen looked at each other and cleared their throats and Nathan dropped Sydney’s hand.

      ‘You’re leaving?’

      ‘I just came to check on the horse. No after-effects from the accident.’

      ‘That’s good. How about you, Paul? Any headaches? Anything I should be worried about?’

      ‘No, Doc. All well and good, considering.’

      ‘How about you, Helen?’

      ‘I’m fine. Physically.’

      ‘That’s good.’

      Sydney pulled her car keys from her pocket. ‘Well, I must dash. Good to see you all so well. Paul. Helen.’ She looked over at Nathan, her gaze lingering longer than it should. ‘Dr Jones.’

      He watched her go. Watched as she started her engine, reversed, turned and drove out of the driveway. He even watched as her car disappeared out of sight, up the lane.

      Suddenly remembering that he was there to see Paul and Helen, he turned back to them, feeling embarrassed. ‘Shall we go in? Get those stitches seen to?’

      Paul nodded, draping his arm around Nathan’s shoulder conspiratorially. ‘Just friends, huh?’

      He felt his cheeks colour. They’d caught him watching her. Seen how distracted she made him.

      ‘Just friends.’

      Inside the house, Helen disappeared into the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

      ‘So, Paul… How are you?’ He noted the stitches in his scalp. He’d certainly got a nasty laceration there, but apart from that obvious injury he seemed quite well.

      ‘I’m good, Doc, thanks.’ Paul settled into the chair opposite.

      They had a lovely home. It was a real country cottage, with lots of character and tons of original features. There was a nice fire crackling away in the fireplace. It looked as if they were in the process of putting some Christmas decorations up.

      ‘So I need to remove your stitches. How many days have they been in?’

      ‘Too long! I’m really grateful for you coming out like this. I was going to make an appointment to come and say thanks to you. For saving me and Helen. And Brandon, too, of course.’

      ‘It wasn’t a problem. We were just in the right place at the right time.’

      ‘You were in the perfect place.’ He looked down at the floor and then got his next words out in a quiet rush, after he’d turned to check that Helen wasn’t listening. ‘Helen and I didn’t see that deer coming across the field because we were arguing.’

      ‘Oh?’ Nathan sensed a confession coming.

      ‘I…er…hadn’t reacted very well to the fact that…well…’ He looked uncomfortable. ‘Helen had had a miscarriage. Two weeks earlier. The hospital said they’d send you a letter… We hadn’t even known she was pregnant, but she had this bleed that wouldn’t stop, and we ended up at A&E one night, and they found out it was an incomplete miscarriage. She needed a D&C.’

      Nathan felt a lurch in his stomach. ‘I’m very sorry to hear that.’

      ‘Yeah, well…apparently I wasn’t sorry enough. Helen got mad with me because I wasn’t upset about losing the baby. But neither of us had even known about the pregnancy! How could I get upset over a baby I didn’t know about?’ Paul let out a heavy breath. ‘She thought I didn’t care. We were arguing about that. Yelling…screaming at each other—so much so that Brandon started too. We didn’t notice the deer because I wasn’t paying attention.’ He sounded guilty. ‘And now, because I didn’t notice the deer running in front of us, and because I didn’t notice my wife was pregnant, I’m the bad guy who nearly got us all killed.’

      How awful for them! To lose a baby like that and then to have a serious accident on top of it. They were both very lucky to have got out alive. Brandon, too. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.

      ‘Well, I can sort your stitches for you. And I’m not so sure I would want to stop Helen being mad. She’s had a terrible loss, Paul. You both have. And she needs to work through it.’

      ‘I know, but…’

      ‘There are support groups. Ones specifically for women who have suffered miscarriage. I can give you some information if you drop by the surgery. Or maybe I could ask Helen if she wants to come in and have a chat with me? You may not have known about the pregnancy, but she still lost a baby. A D&C can be a traumatic event in itself, when you think about what it is, and it can help some women to talk about things. She’s had a loss and she needs to work her way through it. And I’m sure, in time, so will you.’

      Paul rubbed at his bristly jaw. ‘But even she didn’t know.’

      ‘It doesn’t matter. It was still a baby, Paul. Still a loss. A terrible one. And she knows now. She probably feels a lot of guilt, and the easiest person to take that out on is you.’

      ‘Does she think I’ve not been hurt too? To not even know she was pregnant and then to see her so scared when she wouldn’t stop bleeding? And then to learn the reason why?’ He shook his head, tears welling in his eyes. ‘Why didn’t I know?’

      ‘You’re not to blame. It’s difficult in those early weeks.’

      ‘I keep thinking there must have something else I could have done for her. Something I could have said. To see that pain in her eyes… It broke my heart.’

      Nathan laid a hand on Paul’s shoulder.

      ‘It СКАЧАТЬ