even said hello to each other. We had words the other day.’
‘About the baby?’
‘Sort of.’ She gave an uncomfortable shrug.
‘I’ve spoken with your father on occasion,’ Dominic told her, and he watched as her eyelids briefly fluttered as he said without words that he got what an awful man he was. When she said nothing he moved the conversation on.
‘And your mother?’
‘She’s not on the scene. I’ve already told you that.’ Victoria took a long drink of her water but then chose to continue. ‘That was what my father and I had words about.’
His patience was pleasant; he waited as her eyes scanned his and she wrestled with how much to say. ‘He suggested that I think very carefully whether to go ahead with the pregnancy, and that he knew firsthand how difficult it was being a single parent.’ Her lips were pale and they clamped for a moment and his eyes still waited. ‘He didn’t really parent though,’ Victoria said.
‘Did you say that?’
‘No.’
‘So what did you say?’
Victoria flicked her eyes away and she gave a tight shrug. ‘Nothing.’
And at one-fifteen, in a busy hospital canteen, Dominic knew for certain that he was about to become a father. He knew that because Victoria had just lied.
Something far more had gone on when she’d had words with her father.
And if he could tell when she lied, then the rest was the truth.
‘I think,’ Victoria said, ‘that I’d better get used to the idea that the only person with any enthusiasm for this baby is me.’
And she looked over to him with an angry gaze while her heart waited for him to refute, to say, No, no, I’m thrilled, Victoria, but he just looked back at her with an expression that she could not read.
And then she amended that request from her heart for Dominic to placate her because she wouldn’t believe him anyway.
How could he be thrilled to find out that his one-night stand was expecting a baby?
Yet that was what he did—he thrilled.
There was such a pleasure to be had simply sitting here with him. There was such patience in his posture and a measured maturity to him.
Oh, what did he do to her? Victoria wondered, because she had forgotten to look away and still met his eyes.
There was an attraction between them that was so intense it was as if the rest of the people in the canteen had simply faded away.
‘Would you like to go out for dinner tonight?’ Dominic asked.
‘Dinner?’ She frowned. She had just stated that no one was very enthusiastic about the baby and he was asking her to bloody dinner. ‘What sort of a response is that?’
‘A very sensible one,’ Dominic said.
He would not lie; he would not feign delight just to appease. ‘A date,’ Dominic said.
‘No!’
‘Just dinner,’ he added, as if she hadn’t turned him down. ‘No talk of babies or DNA tests. We can see if we get on, see if we fancy each other.’
And she laughed.
It was such a moot point.
‘That’s the only thing we’ve got going for us,’ Victoria said.
He liked her assertion.
‘I think that’s quite a lot to be going on with,’ Dominic said. ‘For a first date at least.’
IT WAS QUITE a lot to be going on with!
Victoria had never had this feeling while getting ready for a date.
As soon as her shift was over she raced out of the station and was then chased out by Glen because she’d forgotten to take her flowers.
From there Victoria made a mad dash to the shops where, shame on her, she bought some fresh linen for the bed.
In her defence, Victoria reasoned, she had been meaning to buy some for ages and it was on sale.
Yet, she was pushing it for time and there was one reason only that she was making sure that her bedroom was looking its best!
Yes, she hadn’t felt like this in for ever. In fact, it was the first time she had been truly excited to welcome someone into her home.
There was anticipation and a flutter of lovely nerves as she made up the bed, put her flowers into a vase and carried them through to the lounge. She put them on the window ledge and then headed back to the bedroom to choose what to wear. She chose her underwear carefully and then made a dash for the shower.
Dominic pulled up at the flat and, when he buzzed and was let in, she was still in her dressing gown with wet hair.
‘Sorry, we got another call-out just as we were heading back to the station...’
Which was true, but she omitted to mention the mad dash to pretty up her flat.
‘It’s fine.’
‘I shan’t be long,’ Victoria said.
Her flat was tiny and really very lovely despite its very good view of trains.
It was, Dominic decided as he stood in the lounge, far more straightforward and homelier looking than its owner. There was a two-seater couch and a large chair, which was clearly her favourite, because there was a large ottoman and a pile of magazines beside it; the small shelf was crammed with paramedic procedure manuals.
It was neat but not as fastidiously so as he might have expected; it was very much a working girl’s flat.
There was a gorgeous arrangement of flowers in the window and Victoria smiled to herself when she returned to the lounge to find him surreptitiously trying to read the card.
‘They’re from Lewis’s parents,’ she told him. ‘The neck injury from Westbourne Grove.’
‘Good.’
‘I don’t have a secret admirer.’
‘No, you have a blatant one,’ he said. ‘You look beautiful.’
He made her feel just that.
Whether in boots and baggy green overalls with a messy bun, or dressed up, which tonight she was, he had always made her feel beautiful. This evening she had on a velvety, aubergine-coloured dress and black heels, and her hair was worn loose and down.
‘Where are we going?’ Victoria asked.
Bed, he wanted to say.
Bed, she hoped he would say.
Yet, there was so much that needed to be sorted first and it would possibly be easier to do that with a table between them.
‘There’s a nice French restaurant that I’ve heard about but have never been inclined to try,’ Dominic said.
‘That sounds lovely.’
Everything sounded lovely with his rich accent. He could have said they were going out for fish and chips and she’d have smiled.
She was putting in her diamond studs and she smiled as she saw him watching.
‘They got us into this mess.’
‘It’s not a mess, Victoria. It’s a baby and it will sort.’
But it still felt like a mess to her as she was so jumbled in her head. She wanted his kiss and his touch and to be just