who only had enough love for herself.
In the weeks afterwards, when he’d spent hours walking his baby daughter up and down as he tried to get her off to sleep, he’d begun to see how one-sided their relationship had always been.
Gwyneth had always been about appearances. Worrying about whether her hair extensions were the best. Whether her nails needed redoing. How much weight she was carrying. Whether she was getting promoted above someone else. She’d been a social climber—a girl who had been given everything she’d ever wanted by her parents and had come to expect the same in adulthood.
He’d fallen for her glamorous looks and the fact that in the beginning she’d seemed really sweet. But it had all been a snare. A trap. And he’d only begun to see the real Gwyneth when he’d got his diagnosis. Multiple sclerosis had scared her. The idea that she might become nursemaid to a man who wasn’t strong, the way she’d pictured him, had terrified her.
When Nathan had discovered his illness, and Gwyneth had learned that their perfect life was not so perfect after all, her outlook had changed and she’d said some pretty harsh things. Things he’d taken to heart. That he’d believed.
He didn’t want to burden Sydney with any of that.
She’d looked after his daughter for a few hours, she’d looked after and cured their rabbit, she was kind and strong…
She’s the sort of woman I would go out with if I could…
But he couldn’t.
She’d lost her only daughter. And where was the child’s father? From what he’d heard around the village, the father had left them just a couple of months after Olivia had passed away. Shocking them all.
It seemed the whole village had thought the Harpers were strong enough to get through anything. But of course no one could know how such a tragic death would affect them.
Hadn’t Sydney been through enough? He had a positive mind-set—even if he did sometimes take the things that Gwyneth had yelled at him to heart. He tried to remain upbeat. But just sometimes his mind would play tricks with him and say, Yeah, but what if she was right?
Besides, he wasn’t sure he could trust his own judgement about those kinds of things any more. Affairs of the heart. He’d felt so sure about Gwyneth once! In the beginning, anyway. And he’d wanted to do everything for her and the baby. Had wanted the family life that had been right there in front of him. Ready and waiting.
How wrong could he have been?
He’d been floored when she’d left. She’d been high-maintenance, but not once had he suspected that she would react that way to his diagnosis. To having a baby, even. She’d been horrified at what her life had become and had been desperate to escape the drudgery she’d foreseen.
And Nathan had known Gwyneth. Or thought he had.
He didn’t know Sydney. As much as he’d like to.
And he sure as hell didn’t want his heart—or Anna’s—broken again.
Getting out of the car, he looked up and saw Paul, Helen and Sydney 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