Midwives On Call: From Babies To Bride. Kate Hardy
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was already pulling her clothes on by the time he shoved his phone back into his pocket.
‘Sorry about that.’
‘It’s not a problem.’ He could hear the note of determined cheerfulness in her voice as she echoed his own words. ‘We’ve had a lovely day. If there’s somewhere else you need to be now, it’s okay. I understand.’
She might understand but he could see the disappointment in her eyes and he felt like a jerk. He could say it wasn’t that important and the only place he needed to be for now was with her.
But Nate was disappointed too. He’d have that in the back of his mind all evening if he stayed with Sophia.
The feeling of being torn was unpleasant. The desire to tell Sophia he only wanted to be with her was strong enough to ring warning bells.
It wasn’t supposed to feel like this. It was supposed to be fun.
For both of them.
And it wasn’t any more, was it? How could being between a rock and a hard place ever be considered fun?
He pulled his clothes on, feeling the added unpleasantness of the sand in his shoes. He watched Sophia roll up her damp towel and shove it in her beach bag.
‘You dry enough? It’ll be cold on the bike, otherwise.’
‘I’m fine. I’ve got my coat.’
The coat wasn’t enough to make her feel fine.
Not at all.
Maybe it would have helped if they’d been able to talk but there was no way they could do that on a bike. Sophia held onto Aiden’s waist and kept her face hidden against his back. Damp tendrils of hair still flicked her face and her skin was cold enough to make them sting.
How had that happened?
One minute she’d been feeling more blissful than she could remember ever feeling and then it had all gone wrong, the atmosphere lost thanks to the intrusion of a phone call. He’d just been about to kiss her. To tell her the plans that meant the date wasn’t over yet.
Why hadn’t he just ignored the call? Why did he have a stupid siren call tone that made it impossible for anyone to ignore? Just as impossible as it was not to think it was probably another woman who’d been calling him. Was he already lining up the next contender in his three-dates game?
What was so fantastic about the news he’d received? Was whoever she was available? Tonight?
It wasn’t fair. Their first date hadn’t really counted and date number two had just been sabotaged.
So much for getting out there and having some fun.
This wasn’t fun at all any more.
Did she even want a third—and last—date?
There was plenty of time on that long, cold ride to turn that question over in her head. As she made her stiff limbs co-operate in climbing off the big, red bike in front of her house and her fingers work well enough to undo her helmet and hand it back, Sophia was sure that this was goodbye and she had decided that she was quite happy about that.
She was, in fact, more angry than disappointed now.
But then Aiden caught her gaze and held it.
‘I’m really sorry about this,’ he said. ‘If I could get out of it, I would.’
There was something in his gaze that told her he was being absolutely sincere. That he wanted to be with her—maybe even more than she’d wanted him to be. And that it was something really important that was dragging him away.
She wanted to tell him that it didn’t matter. That they still had one date left so everything would be okay. That it was no big deal.
But the words wouldn’t come out. She managed half a smile. A shrug that said, Yeah, it sucks but that’s life, isn’t it?
And then she turned away and went into her house without a backward glance, leaning her forehead against the closed door until she heard the sound of a motorbike’s engine being gunned and then fading into silence.
‘What are you doing here?’
Aiden held up the six-pack of beer. ‘I heard there was a bit of a celebration going on.’
Nate had been the one who’d come to open the door when Aiden had rung the bell. The wide hallway of the old house was empty behind him.
‘You ditched your date to come here?’
Aiden’s shrug said that it was no big deal but Nate shook his head and his huff of sound was disgusted. ‘Man, you’re an idiot. How d’you think that made Sophia feel?’
The cardboard handle of the beer pack was cutting into Aiden’s hand. He had been an idiot. He’d made Sophia feel bad only to find he wasn’t welcome here.
Something was going wrong in his life right now. The wheels were still turning but it felt like they weren’t quite on the tracks and he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out why. He looked away from Nate.
‘I thought this was more important.’ He cleared his throat. ‘And … I wanted to … I dunno … put things right, I guess. Wouldn’t want you to think I don’t support you in whatever you want to do.’
Nate gave an audible snort this time. ‘It’s only selection. Miss my first game next week and you’ll definitely be in trouble.’
The lightness in his tone didn’t match the expression on his face when Aiden turned back. Nate understood what he’d been too clumsy to articulate well and held up his hand, the fingers curled into a fist. ‘There’s nothing to put right, man. We’re brothers. Family.’
Aiden bumped the fist with his own. Nate shook his head but he was grinning as he swivelled the chair on the polished floor. ‘Seeing as you’re here, you might as well come in for a beer. Hey, what do you call a quadriplegic in a pile of leaves?’
There was relief to be found as he followed Nate towards the lounge. Enough to stop the automatic protest at a joke that would seem so distasteful to people outside this community.
‘I dunno. What?’
‘Russell.’
There was even more relief in the shared laughter but it still wasn’t quite enough to put the wheels completely back on track. Nate had said there was nothing to put right but that wasn’t entirely true, was it?
Things had gone unexpectedly wrong with someone else as well. A woman he’d had no desire at all to hurt. Quite the opposite, in fact.
How on earth was he going to put that right?
‘YOU OKAY?’
‘A bit nervous, I think. I watched a Caesarean before but I’ve never been actually involved.’
‘I won’t ask you to do anything you’re not ready to cope with, don’t worry.’
Flick nodded, pulling her theatre cap over her dark blonde hair. She looked a bit pale, Sophia thought, which was probably nerves on top of the weariness of a long day.
She was feeling weary herself. It didn’t help that she’d been feeling as flat as a pancake ever since that date with Aiden had ended on such an unsatisfactory note.
She hadn’t heard from him since and the mix of disappointment and—it had to be admitted—frustration had made her wonder if the downside of dating outweighed any of the potential benefits.
She’d brushed off Flick’s friendly query about how the date had gone and she’d tried really hard to focus on her work