to charming. ‘Sorry about that, I’m working with clumsy imbeciles this morning.’
He had thought about it for a long time and examined it from many angles and, in this instance, Dominic did know what to say.
‘Well—’ Dominic’s voice was curt ‘—that might have something to do with the fact that they’re working alongside an arrogant git. So,’ he asked, and adopted a more professional tone, ‘how can I help you?’
He saw the nurse turn with eyes wide as he heard the professor splutter into the phone.
‘What did you just say?’ Professor Christie demanded.
‘Do you want me to repeat it?’ Dominic calmly replied. ‘Or would you like me to come over now and say it to your face?’
‘Now, listen here—’
‘I do listen,’ Dominic said. ‘I listen very carefully and I also think before I speak.’
His voice held a warning and there was silence on the other end of the line.
‘Now,’ Dominic said, ‘what did you want to know about the patient?’
VICTORIA SAT IN the waiting room of the Imaging Department.
There was a television up high on the wall but Victoria was too busy replying to some emails about the next Save Paddington’s meeting to watch it.
Then her phone rang and Victoria grimaced when she saw that it was her father who was calling her.
He rarely called. In fact, it was always Victoria who called him.
Perhaps there had been a change of heart, Victoria thought.
‘Hi, Dad,’ she said.
‘Who’s the father of the baby?’
‘Why?’ Victoria asked.
‘Just tell me.’
Victoria sat there.
Her father had shown absolutely no interest in this baby and from his very brusque tone she didn’t think he sounded particularly interested now.
In fact, he sounded furious as he spoke on. ‘You said that he was in Scotland...’
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Well, I’ve just had some upstart insult me. Dominic MacBride...’
Her heart was bumping against the wall of her chest.
‘What did he say?’
She closed her eyes as her father repeated it.
What the hell was Dominic thinking to speak to her father like that? Dominic, who insisted his responses were measured, clearly hadn’t thought this one through.
For it made a future impossible.
Any get-togethers would be fraught and tense.
And in that moment she felt as if she were about to cry, for she was mentally waving goodbye to Christmases and Easters and family celebrations and she had been trying so hard not to think of them.
‘Well?’ Professor Christie demanded. ‘Is he the father?’
‘Yes,’ Victoria answered. She was cross with Dominic, even if she privately agreed with what had been said, but she did not tell her father that. Instead she told him a truth. ‘And I’m very glad that he is.’
Dominic would be a wonderful father, she absolutely knew.
She was glimpsing Christmases and birthdays again, and even if she might not be in the picture, her baby would be taken care of during celebrations whenever it was in his care.
He deserved to be here.
She simply ended the call because there was another major incident occurring, but this time it was with her heart.
It wasn’t just that he deserved to be there.
He would be the one she would call on if anything was wrong.
It would be Dominic’s voice she would need if their baby was ill, or hot, or fussing.
Glen seemed to think it was possible but she didn’t know how to let him into the baby’s life without revealing how she really felt.
Yet, he did deserve to be there.
And so, before she could talk herself out of it she sent a hurried text.
Can you come to the ultrasound?
She hit Send and then panicked because that sounded too needy, and then started to write another.
You can come to the ultrasound if you still want to.
But that didn’t read right and so she didn’t hit Send but then she thought of him waking to the first, as he was probably asleep and would read it and think there was something wrong.
What if there was something wrong?
She needed him here.
And then suddenly he was there.
She knew, as she always did, whenever Dominic was close. He stood over her as she stared down at her phone and then she looked up. ‘You got here fast.’
‘I thought I’d hang around in case you changed your mind,’ Dominic said as he took a seat by her side.
He would not rush in and scare her with his feelings. That text, asking him to be here, was enough for now.
‘Have you been speaking to my father?’ she accused.
‘Aye.’
‘What did you say?’ she asked, wondering if he would be vague but Dominic told her exactly.
‘He was talking down to a member of his staff and one of ours. I just said he was an arrogant git. That’s all.’
‘So how is it going to be when you see him?’ She would not admit to the family get-togethers that she dreamed might happen one day. ‘At the hospital and things.’
‘I’ll be civil.’ He looked over to her angered face. ‘Victoria, do you really think there are going to be many cosy get-togethers with me, him and the baby?’
‘No,’ she said, and she was struggling to keep her feelings in, because what he had said didn’t bode well for any chance for them.
‘But if they do happen,’ Dominic said, ‘then I will play the part and do the right thing, but he has to know that I know what he’s like. I will not let him inflict
