It Started with a Pregnancy. Scarlet Wilson
heard her let out a huge sigh of relief. ‘Thank you, Cooper,’ she whispered. She saw the hurt expression on his face and gave her shoulders a little shrug. ‘I don’t know you, Cooper, I mean really know you. I had to ask.’ She leaned forward, picking up some of the red asphalt from the running track and letting it run through her fingers. ‘So what happens now?’
He turned to face her. Confusion spread across his face. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Cooper, you came halfway across town to come and speak to me.’ She put her red-tinged fingers on his arm. ‘What is it you want to say?’
Her heart was thumping in her chest. She knew what she wanted him to say, but from the expression on his face she knew he would never say it.
He bit his lip. He hated this. He wasn’t even sure how to say it. Maybe if he’d been here a few months and had met her at work, maybe if he’d been six months down the line and had met her in the pub, it would be different, but right now it just didn’t feel right and he had to tell her. ‘I’m not looking for a relationship right now.’
The words came out rapidly and for some horrible reason it had an effect on her that she hadn’t expected. It hurt. She’d been taught a valuable lesson years ago when her father had left her mother for another woman, and she’d spent months watching her mother break down. With that and David, she’d learnt never to depend on a man, only on herself. And she shouldn’t forget it. ‘I didn’t ask you for a relationship, Cooper.’
‘I know that but we’ve got to work together and—’
Melissa stood up, she didn’t need to hear any more. She patted him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, Coop, we can work together.’
She picked up her rucksack and shrugged her shoulders into it, before glancing at her watch and starting to jog back along the track. She had to move quickly, before the tears that were filling her eyes threatened to spill down her cheeks. Some nights were best just forgotten.
CHAPTER THREE
COOPER glanced at his watch. It was after five o’clock and his antenatal clinic had just finished. One of his overdue patients had already been in labour when she’d come to her appointment. She hadn’t even realised it and had been shocked when Cooper had sent her along to the labour ward. It had been four hours and he wanted to go and check how she was doing. But going to the labour ward meant there was a good chance that he would run into Missy.
He’d spent the best part of the last ten days avoiding the labour ward as much as possible. It wasn’t as difficult as it sounded as he had patients to see in the antenatal clinics in the hospital and the community, and he had patients to see in the wards after they had delivered. He really only got called to the labour suite if there was an immediate problem and his registrar wasn’t available to deal with it. The joys of being a consultant.
On the few occasions he’d attended an emergency in the labour suite, he’d managed to avoid Missy altogether. She wasn’t always on duty, or was sometimes attending to another patient. But today was different. His patient would be in the medical side of the labour suite, where Missy worked. And he had already seen her in one of the corridors a few hours ago when she’d come along to the clinic to pick up some notes for a patient. He was bound to meet her today.
This was ridiculous. He couldn’t let a one-night stand affect his working practice, he was far too professional for that. He stood up from his chair and strode across the room, collecting his white coat from behind the door.
His heart stopped. Just for a second. A woman, sitting in a chair, was bent over, pulling something from her bag. Her blonde hair had fallen across her face and as she sat up, she put her hands to her back and arched backwards. She was obviously pregnant, six or seven months, but that wasn’t the problem.
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