fit for his family, with her down-to-earth personality, quick wit and sense of fun. He was also very aware that those same traits combined with her beauty were making her far too desirable to him. And he didn’t like it.
She could leave at any minute, and that wouldn’t be fair to Oscar. He didn’t want him to grow close to a person who would walk away. He needed to protect his son from that pain. And, more than that, he didn’t want their life to change.
‘I will see you in the morning,’ he called out before he drove away, with his father and Phoebe in the car.
The sun was setting as the three of them drove through the city to Phoebe’s home. Each one was thinking about the same thing. How quickly and naturally Phoebe was seeming to fit into their lives. Ken was thrilled; Phoebe was surprised—Heath was more worried than he had been in a very long time …
HEATH WOKE AT four and lay staring out his window to the dark sky that was softly lit by a haze-covered moon. He knew the warm air outside would be heavy and still. He rolled onto his back and lifted his arms above his head and thought back over the previous two days, since Phoebe had fallen into his arms.
He didn’t want to be thinking about her—and especially not at four in the morning, lying in bed—but her face wouldn’t leave his mind. When Phoebe had been close to him—close enough for him to smell the scent that rested delicately on her skin and close enough to see the sparkle in her beautiful green eyes—he had struggled to remember why he didn’t want a woman in his life on any permanent basis.
But that was something he had to remember. Particularly now.
His life had begun to change since he’d arrived back in Adelaide.
He had worried for a little while that the life he had built with his son, just the two of them, might not be enough for Oscar one day. And he feared now that that day was almost upon him. But he didn’t want to lose control. Once before he had lost control of a situation—lost his wife and almost lost his mind. He wouldn’t let it happen again. He needed to remain in control and not blindly accept change.
And he couldn’t accept Phoebe as the catalyst for that change.
He was more than concerned after seeing how comfortable the family had been with her. It was moving too fast for him. He had to put the brakes on the level of intimacy he thought they were all building with her. It needed to stop immediately. The air-conditioning repairman had notified him that the work was completed at the practice and while there were no patients booked in until the next day, he would send Phoebe a message just after nine and ask her to call into the practice to go over the patient notes. That would serve his purpose.
He needed to remind her why she was there—and it wasn’t to grow close to any member of his family, and particularly not his son. It was a relationship he didn’t want to see develop and risk it being torn apart when they headed back to Sydney and Phoebe headed back to her home country.
Phoebe woke early, picked up the paper and was halfway through the crossword when she got the call just after eight.
‘Hi, Phoebe—it’s Tilly. Would you like to jump in a cab and have breakfast by the pool with us? I’d pick you up, but by the time I load the diaper gang you could already be here.’
‘I’m not sure …’ She hesitated to accept the invitation. ‘This is your time with Oscar. I don’t want to infringe on that.’
‘Nonsense. I would love to chat to another adult. Away from the surgery my days are filled with nursery rhymes and potty-training, and Oscar could do with another set of eyes on him while he’s in the pool. It is hard with three of them, and my stomach is in a knot trying to keep a watch over them all. At their age it’s a bit like herding cats.’
‘Well, if you’re sure I can help, I’d love to.’
‘It’s settled, then,’ Tilly said. “See you soon—and don’t forget your swimsuit.’
Half an hour later Phoebe was alighting from a cab at Tilly’s home and a very happy little boy was opening the front door before she’d even reached the doorbell. He was wearing his swimsuit, dry flippers and goggles on the top of his head.
‘Hi, Phoebe! Have you got your bathers?’
‘Bathers?’ she asked as she walked up the paved entrance towards him.
‘He means swimsuit,’ Tilly said as she invited Phoebe inside. ‘In Australia we call a swimsuit bathers. You’ll get used to our funny expressions soon enough.’
Phoebe smiled at her hostess, then turned her attention to Oscar, ‘Yes, I have my bathers—so I hope you’re wanting to swim, because in this weather I do!’
Phoebe didn’t hear the three text messages from Heath because she was splashing in the pool with his son, and Melissa and Jasmine were excitedly screaming from the sidelines behind the child-safe fence, blocking out all other sounds. Oscar’s floating armbands were in place but Phoebe didn’t let him go for even a second. They’d had a lovely morning, stopping only for some juice and freshly cut fruit, after which Oscar walked Phoebe around the garden, collecting insects in his bug catcher.
‘I only keep them for a few hours, then I let them go back to their daddies … and their mummies. I think some of them have mummies too.’
‘I’m sure some of them have both, and some just have a mummy or a daddy,’ Phoebe said, then fell silent as he continued walking, collecting and talking.
Oscar suddenly seemed very deep in thought for a five-year-old, and it worried Phoebe a little.
‘My mummy died when I was very little.’
Phoebe felt herself stiffen as he delivered this news. ‘I’m sorry to hear that, Oscar.’ She paused to gain some composure as her heart went out to the little boy. ‘I’m sure she’s looking over you every day.’
Phoebe had not considered the prospect that Heath might be a widower. She wasn’t sure why it hadn’t occurred to her, but now she knew it did go part way to explaining why he was such a serious man, who appeared only to lighten up around his son. Losing his wife and the mother of his child would have been a life-altering tragedy.
‘I was very little. I couldn’t talk or walk and I don’t remember her. But I know her name was—’
‘Hello, you two.’
Heath’s deep voice suddenly called from the back door, interrupting their conversation and making them both turn abruptly.
Phoebe felt her stomach drop. Then it lifted, and then spun as her heart fluttered nervously. She’d thought she had her reactions to Heath under control, but suddenly she discovered she didn’t.
But she had to.
Somehow.
‘Hello, Daddy!’
‘Hi, Heath.’
Heath quickly crossed to them and dropped to his knees. ‘I’m sorry, Oscar, but I’m going to have to take Phoebe to work with me.’
‘But we’re having fun, Daddy, and I want her to stay. She showed me how to swim like a bug and …’
‘Swim like a bug?’ Heath asked, turning to Phoebe with a curious look on his face.
‘The butterfly stroke,’ Phoebe said as she looked at this man whom she now knew had suffered the tragedy of losing his wife. It did put a different filter on the way she saw him, but she didn’t want him to know that. He seemed too stoic to want pity—in fact she suspected pity would drive him into a darker place.
Despite what she now knew she didn’t want it to colour her feelings towards him. She wasn’t looking for love and he was obviously still grieving. Although she was