A Mother For His Child

‘I was pretty well situated myself,’ Will drawled. ‘We were about to buy a house. Alison wanted to continue with the purchase. I thought we needed to take some time, plot some scenarios.’

‘Such as?’

‘What would it be like for a kid growing up in a climate where he could barely go outside for most of the year? No team sports, no picnics. Even playing in the sandbox at preschool would be risky. Alison suggested that it was about my ego. I’d been a star athlete at school, and so I didn’t want to end up with a weedy kid who couldn’t do sports.’

He laughed, and continued, ‘She’s right about that! But it’s not ego. It’s about not wanting him to miss out, not wanting this thing to define his personality and narrow his choices from day one. And it’s about finding a lifestyle where there’s space to consider his needs and give him some time. Hell, Alison only saw him awake at weekends!’

The last words came out as a growl and he closed his eyes again, as if already deeply regretting that he’d said as much as he had. Maggie’s heart gave a sympathetic lurch. She’d never heard him speak in this way before, and he obviously hated it.

‘Why here, though, Will?’ she asked carefully. ‘Sure, the pace of life is slower than in the city, and the climate is cooler than out west. He can spend more time outdoors. But sport is still a risk, isn’t it?’

‘Not all sports. When I saw that string of houses spread out along the lakefront, with your practice right there, it was something straight from my wish-list, just the way it had sounded from your description. I wanted something in the mountains and close to water. He can go swimming and boating, winter sports, maybe, and I’ll have time to teach him about his limitations myself instead of farming that task out to a trained nurse, as Alison talked about.’

‘Did she contest custody?’

He shook his head, muttered something that Maggie didn’t catch and she heard an old thought whisper traitorously inside her head.

Yeah, Will, even when the going gets tough, the chips basically fall your way.

Alison probably wouldn’t have dared to contest custody when it would have involved pitting herself against the juggernaut of Will Braggett’s habitual success.

Unfair to think of it that way. Maggie had no doubt that he’d been through a lot. It was written in the new lines on his face, the new sensitivity to his mouth, the new depth to his black eyes. He and Alison had been together for a long time, a golden, successful couple envied by all who’d known them. Some relationships, like some plants, only flourished in full sun. Their break-up must have felt like a failure, and Daniel’s rare genetic problem must have been frightening.

The waiter appeared with more coffee, but Maggie shook her head.

‘I should get back,’ she said.

She looked at Will, forced herself to see beyond the foolish, draining desire that had been with her so long it seemed like a part of her bones. He was a doctor and she was certain that he was right in his arrogant claim that he was a very good one.

Out of the blue, remembered images came to her mind. She thought back on the serious, absorbed way Will used to bend over the dissecting table in anatomy class. Those macabre, ridiculous jokes he’d made had only been a front. She hadn’t been able to see it, then.

Lord, she’d been so humourless where he was concerned! She had ignored the absorption and focused on the smart mouth. Making rounds, too, as students on their first visit to a genuine hospital unit, he had always asked the right questions, and had always found time to smile at the patients.

While I was usually too terrified about making a mistake to think of making a connection like that…

Did he belong in her practice? She owed it to both of them, perhaps, and to little Daniel as well, to explore the issue more deeply.

‘I want you and Daniel to come over and talk tomorrow, Will,’ she told him seriously. ‘I do need to take on a new partner, and I don’t doubt that you’d be an asset to the practice. But there are…other factors to consider. We both need to think about whether this can possibly work. I’m sorry I gave you such a knee-jerk reaction at first.’

‘Apology accepted. And I know the fault wasn’t all on your side. Will you go to the hospital to see Matthew in the morning?’

‘Well, there’s no need…’

‘A statement which doesn’t answer my question.’

‘Yes, I’ll probably go,’ she admitted. ‘For Kathy’s sake. I—I just hate to think how she’d deal with it if he doesn’t pull through this.’

She shook her head. In certain circumstances, meningitis could result in amputation, brain damage or death. Kathy already had enough to deal with.

‘Let me check on Daniel, then I’ll walk you out to your car,’ Will said quietly.

A quick signature charged their meal to his room account and they left, choosing the stairs to reach his second-floor room. Maggie waited outside, listening to the murmur of voices within. All seemed quiet. She held the flowers Will had given her, which the restaurant staff had placed in water for her during their meal.

Will closed the door of the hotel room silently behind him a few moments later.

‘Hasn’t stirred,’ he reported. ‘The babysitter was almost asleep.’ They headed for the stairs once more. ‘How do you want to do this tomorrow?’

‘Well, I’m on call all weekend, so I was only planning to hang around the house in any case.’

‘How do you arrange cover when you need time off?’

‘I work out a roster with a couple of other local doctors.’

‘The ones your office manager recommended when she told me you weren’t taking new patients?’

‘Yes, that’s right. Anyhow, if you and Daniel just come over in the morning…’ After everything Will had said about his son, she was curious to see the little boy—Alison’s son, flawed in a way that apparently Alison hadn’t been able to deal with. ‘For breakfast, if you like,’ she added.

‘Are you still a morning person?’

‘I’ve never been a morning person.’

‘You used to get up at six every morning to study.’

‘That doesn’t mean I’m a morning person, it just means I’m disciplined. Sorry,’ she added at once. ‘That wasn’t an attempt to score points. I was just—’

‘Stating a fact,’ he cut in. ‘I can see that. I’m starting to wonder if a lot of what I used to think was point-scoring was actually stating facts. Back then, I was used to girls who swooned, not girls who fought back.’

‘And back then, I was point-scoring.’

‘Never tempted to swoon?’ He grinned, and she didn’t credit him with an ounce of serious intent behind the question.

‘No!’

‘I can see you wouldn’t want to risk tactful wording obscuring the clarity of your reply!’ Something flickered in the back of his eyes, but she couldn’t read it.

She sighed. ‘We’re still point-scoring, aren’t we?’

‘But this time it’s fun,’ he answered. ‘Isn’t it? I’m trying for that.’

‘Mmm…’

‘Maybe we were both too…too raw back then, too brash and clumsy and young, to enjoy it the way we should have done,’ he suggested.

I’m too raw now, Maggie thought.

Not brash and young any more, but still, where Will was concerned, far, far too raw.