Fairytale With The Single Dad. Alison Roberts

       CHAPTER ONE

      SYDNEY HARPER CONFIRMED her appointment details on the surgery’s check-in touchscreen and headed into the waiting room.

      It was full. Much too full. Eleven of the twelve available chairs were filled with faces she recognised. People she saw every day in the village. One or two of her own clients from the veterinary practice she ran. Were they all before her? Would she be sitting in this waiting room all morning to see Dr Preston? She had patients of her own waiting—it was a busy time of year. Close to Christmas. No doubt everyone was trying to see their doctor before the festive season.

      With a sigh at the thought of the inevitable wait she strode in, looking for the book she always kept in her bag for situations such as this.

      At the empty seat she sat down and opened the book, slipping her bookmark into her fingers. She tried to focus on the words upon the page, but her eyes were tired and she kept reading the same sentence over and over again. The words were refusing to go in and make sense.

      It was happening again. Every year when it started to get close to that date her body rebelled and she couldn’t sleep. The date would be hanging heavy in the near future, along with the dread of having to get through Christmas again, reliving what had happened before, every moment as clear as if it had just occurred. The shock. The fear. The guilt.

      The difficulty getting to sleep. Then the difficulty staying asleep. She’d keep waking, staring at the clock, staring at those bright red digits, watching them tick over, minute to minute, hour to hour. Feeling alone. So alone in the dark! With no one to talk to. No one to go to, to reassure herself that everyone was fine.

      That first year—the first anniversary of when it had happened—she’d got up and stood in the doorway of Olivia’s old room, staring at her daughter’s empty bed. She’d stood there almost all night. Trying to remember what it had looked like when it had been filled with life and laughter and joy.

      The second year after it had happened she’d got up again and, determined not to stand in the doorway for another night, gawking at nothing, she’d decided to make herself useful. She’d cleaned. Scrubbing the oven in the middle of the night until it shone like a new pin was perfect therapy as far as she was concerned. She could get angry with the burnt-on bits. Curse at them. Moan about the ache in her back from all the bending over. But it felt better to be focused on a real physical pain than a mental one.

      Last year, when the anniversary of Olivia’s death had come around, she’d decided to visit Dr Preston and he’d given her a prescription for some sleeping pills and told her to come and see him if it happened again.

      This year, though her oven could no doubt do with another clean, the idea of being up all night again—alone again—just wasn’t an option. She hated losing all this sleep. And it wasn’t just the one night any more. She was losing sleep earlier and earlier, up to a month or more before the anniversary.

      So here she was.

      All she needed was a quick prescription. She could be in and out in seconds. Get back to her