The Baby of Their Dreams (Contemporary Medical Romance) by Carol Marinelli

laugh, because he was doing that now as he pictured her shocked expression as he told her he wanted to film the birth.
    ‘Cat and I are going to sort things out between us.’ Dominic told his parents how it would be. ‘Preferably without lawyers. You guys need to stay back.’
    ‘From our grandchild?’
    He closed his eyes for a brief moment. He’d never considered having a baby but now that he was he wanted his parents in his child’s life, so he thought long and hard before answering.
    ‘From Cat and me,’ he said. ‘We’ve got two months to work things out. You’re to stay out of things.’
    Anna didn’t answer. In fact, Dominic was sure she shook her head.
    After his parents had gone to bed, he sat, listening to the trickle from the pool filter and enjoying sitting with his sister outside. It was cool and they had the gas heaters on but after a cold Scottish winter it was blissful.
    ‘I love it here,’ Dominic said.
    ‘Would Cat?’
    ‘Oh, we are so far from that, Kelly,’ he said. ‘It was a one-night stand, a weekend conference...’
    ‘That’s completely changed your life,’ Kelly said. ‘You were all set to move here.’
    ‘I was
almost
all set,’ he said.
    ‘Almost?’
    ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
    He didn’t.
    He didn’t want to tell his sister that, despite the seriousness of his plans, since August they had started to change. Unable to get that night out of his mind, and furious at how the weekend had ended, he had considered calling Cat to explain things. And if he was thinking about calling her, it had seemed a bit nonsensical to be considering moving further away than he was already.
    Yes, he hadn’t been idly flicking through jobs in London.
    He’d been wondering how he could ask her to give them a chance.
    ‘Is there any hope for the two of you?’ Kelly asked. ‘You obviously fancied each other and you said things went well when you saw her again...’
    ‘Kelly, the stakes are a lot higher now. Surely we should be concentrating on how we’re best going to be as parents rather than trying to establish a relationship.’
    ‘I guess.’
    ‘What if it doesn’t work? What if we give it a go and one of us wants to end it? God, we don’t need hurt feelings and resentment added to the mix. I hardly know anything about her.’
    ‘Does she know about Heather?’
    ‘I told her tonight that I was a widower.’
    ‘Tonight?’ Kelly checked.
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘So what were you two talking about that weekend?’
    Dominic rolled his eyes. ‘We weren’t really talking.’
    Except that wasn’t entirely true.
    They had talked, they had shared more than sex. That was the reason he had wanted to look her up.
    ‘I took her to Collserola Park,’ Dominic said. ‘We watched the sun come up. You know how Heather had a thing about sunrise?’ he asked, and Kelly nodded. ‘Not once, when I’ve been with someone, have I felt guilty. It’s always just been sex and I knew Heather would get that but that morning, sitting watching the sun come up with someone who wasn’t Heather, was the most unfaithful I’d ever felt.’
    ‘It sounds like you two have something to build on...’
    ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But it would be foolish at best to rush this. I’ve had one brilliant marriage, Kelly. I’m not downgrading for the second one. Right now Cat and I need to sort out how we’re going to be for the baby. The two of us as a couple will just have to wait. I’m not going to see her for another three weeks and that’s if I even get the job.’
    ‘Won’t she see to it that you do?’
    Dominic managed a wry laugh. ‘You have a far sweeter mind than I do, or Cat come to that. I’m quite sure she’ll be seeing to it that I don’t.’
    They said goodnight and as he lay in bed he took out his laptop and plugged in the recording and saw for the first time the life they had made.
    She was beautiful, so beautiful that it actually brought tears to his eyes.
    It should feel like a