A Baby to Care for (Mills & Boon Medical) (12 page)

‘But…you just can’t…’ He stopped and glared at Joss. ‘You know the relationship I have with my parents. You can’t expect me just to call them up out of the blue and ask if a colleague can crash at their place whilst she wrestles with some major life-changing decisions.’

Joss shook his head. ‘I never expected you to do that. I was going to call them and ask, and it wouldn’t be out of the blue.’

Dex’s tone dropped, his words very quiet. ‘What is that supposed to mean? Have you been in contact with my parents?’

‘Yes.’

‘For how long?’

‘Ever since you arrived here.’ Joss met his friend’s gaze fair and square. Iris felt as though she should jump between them to stop them from coming to blows with each other but right now she honestly didn’t think she’d be all that effective. ‘They’re your parents, Dex. They love you. They always have.’

‘They lied to me.’ They’d taken his happy, carefree childhood and smashed it into a million pieces. He hadn’t been able to cope, hadn’t been able to believe his entire life had been one huge lie. It had made him realise that if he couldn’t cope
with his own life being shattered, he never wanted to put himself in such a vulnerable position as marriage in case he ended up being tested once again.

‘A mistake they’ve regretted more than once.’

Melissa was the first one to move. She walked over to Dex’s side and placed her hand on his arm. ‘It’s time, Dex. Time to forgive, to forget.’ Iris watched as Melissa soothed Dex instantly and realised that whilst Dex might not think there was a very strong bond between them, he was obviously wrong. His sister knew him far better than he perhaps realised. ‘Let go of the pain and move forward. You know that your parents can help Iris and you’re the type of man who likes to help others. It’s in you. I’ve seen it time and time again.’

‘This is a conspiracy,’ he said, but his words were nowhere near as vehement as before.

‘That’s one way to look at it.’ Joss nodded at his friend. ‘Lis is right. You know it. I know it. It’s time to go home, Dex.’

‘Take Iris. Support her. Be there for her.’

Iris was about to protest but found she couldn’t. What she was facing was more than she’d bargained for and if she was going to be honest, she’d admit that she was in way over her head.

‘I never thought they’d die. I never thought, when I agreed to be Anya’s guardian, that this would happen.’ The words were spoken softly as she looked at Dex. ‘When Tim died, I realised so much of the silly things in life we stress and fret over don’t really mean anything. Perspectives shift and that phone call has shifted mine. I do need help and that isn’t an easy thing for me to admit. If you’re offering your support, Dex, I accept.’

Dex looked around the room at the people he called friends, family and colleagues. He wanted to help Iris. More than anything. He wanted to support her as she hadn’t really allowed him to support her the other night. Sure, things had got out of hand but he was positive he now had himself under control where the attraction between them was concerned.

Still, in supporting Iris, did that mean he had to see his parents? Could he do it? Melissa and Joss were right saying that his parents, the two people who had been through the adoption process, would be able to help Iris with the enormous decision facing her.

If he was honest with himself, he’d admit that he’d known this time would come, that he had felt it drawing closer. Hadn’t he been thinking about Mason and Xandi more often lately? Hadn’t he even toyed with the idea of perhaps contacting his siblings to see how they were? And now Joss was telling him that the door between himself and his family wasn’t completely shut—it had been kept ajar.

He was filled with dread mixed with excitement. Apprehension mixed with fear. Stubbornness mixed with hope.

Dex sucked in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Perspectives shifted. When he’d come to Didja, his perspective had been very inward looking. Two years later and he was facing strong emotional feelings for a woman he was determined to resist. However, being around Iris, realising the trauma she’d been through, the nightmares that still plagued her…it had made his own problems seem minute in comparison. Now that strong, independent woman was asking for his help but she wanted him to offer it willingly. He looked directly at Iris and nodded slowly.

‘I’m definitely offering.’

T
HEY
stood outside the front door of the house, Iris looking up at the impressive large wooden carved door, Dex looking down at his feet.

‘Your home is enormous.’ She couldn’t help the words that came from her mouth unbidden. Dex glanced at her, about to tell her that this wasn’t his home, that it was simply a place owned by his adoptive parents, but the words died on his lips.

It was his home. It was the place he’d called home for over thirty years. It was the place that held so many memories, some good, some bad. He remembered falling off his tricycle just over to the left near the hedge. He remembered climbing out the back second-storey bedroom window onto the bough of a tree when he was a teenager. He remembered walking out the very door they now stood in front of, vowing never to return.

‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ The words were barely a whisper and Iris did the only thing she could do to help him, to reassure him, to show him that just as he’d offered to be there to support her in her time of need, she would be there to support him.

She reached out and took his hand in hers.

Dex was surprised at the action yet incredibly pleased at the same time. For a woman who didn’t like to be touched, who shied away from physical contact, it was definitely a
milestone and one she’d chosen to share with him. The fact that he’d held her in his arms on several occasions, the fact that he’d pressed his mouth to hers in the most electrifying kisses he’d ever experienced, the fact that she’d let him press kisses to her delectable body didn’t mean the same as the simple gesture she offered now.

Reaching out and holding his hand was Iris’s way of letting him know how much she really cared about him. This moment wasn’t about sexual attraction, this moment was about support. He’d known throughout his relationship with Catherine that he’d been the giver and she’d been the taker. She had never supported him. She’d never encouraged him and she’d certainly never asked for his help.

Iris had done all those things and Dex looked at her, his fear lifting when he saw that she truly believed he was strong enough to go through with this reconciliation. She was an amazing woman.

‘You can do this, Dex.’ Her words were sure and firm. ‘I’m right here for whatever you need.’

A rakish grin immediately lit his features and he waggled his eyebrows up and down. ‘Whatever I need?’

Instead of getting angry, instead of pulling away from him, Iris smiled shyly. ‘You know what I mean.’

She realised his teasing was also a cover-up for his true feelings and she wondered how many other times he’d employed such a tactic. At any rate, she’d come to the conclusion during the drive from Didja to Kalgoorlie and then on the plane from Kalgoorlie to Perth that trying to fight her increasing attraction to Dex as well as accepting the enormous events that were presently happening in her life was just too much to handle. She liked Dex. She liked the way he teased her and she liked the way he made her feel when he looked at her the way he was now.

She liked him. She really liked him and that in itself was
a miracle. After Tim’s death, she’d vowed never to fall in love again, never to give her heart to a man, never to trust her emotions to one single person. Yet four years later here she was. Standing next to a man who had come to mean a great deal to her. Holding his hand. Helping him just as he was helping her.

Although admitting to herself that she liked Dex didn’t necessarily mean she wanted to get serious about the emotions he could stir up simply with one of his sexy looks but accepting there might be something a little more than friendship between them was the easier option to take at the moment.

‘Yeah.’ He leaned a little closer. ‘I know what you mean.’ Before she could blink, he stole a quick kiss from her lips. The brief butterfly touch created more havoc with her system. The man was so addictive.

‘Dex!’ she whispered.

‘What?’

‘You have to stop doing that.’ She raised her free hand to her lips and was surprised to find the exceedingly brief touch had left her trembling.

‘Why? You have the most gorgeous mouth, Iris. So sweet, so full, so tempting.’

‘Oh. Well…uh…then…
try
to resist.’ As she spoke, she leaned forward and rang the doorbell. At least the banter, the teasing, the sneaking of kisses had helped to soothe him a little. The tension in his fingers, which were laced with hers, was less intense than before.

‘I don’t know. I’ve been resisting you for a while now, Iris. I’d even managed to convince myself that it would only be friendship between us. However, seeing this more…personal side of you is doing strange things to me.’ Although there was a teasing glint in those big brown eyes of his, there was also an underlying hint of seriousness. He grinned as he spoke yet his body language said he was more serious than he was revealing. Unfortunately,
she found it difficult to believe he was one hundred per cent serious. Still, those eyes of his were…And the way his mouth curved upwards made her want to…

Iris shook her head slowly as her smile increased. ‘You’re incorrigible, Dexter Crawford.’

‘I’m inclined to agree with you, dear.’

Both of them snapped their heads to look at the woman who had spoken, the woman who stood before them, framed in the doorway.

‘Mum!’ The word was torn from him before he could think.

‘Dex.’ Mrs Crawford stood her ground, not moving, not wanting to push things too far too fast, but Iris could clearly see the emotions bubbling just beneath the surface. She looked at Dex and saw that he, too, was working hard at controlling himself.

‘You look…’ He stopped and dragged in a shaky breath. She looked older, more fragile, more worried than she had a right to. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple moving up and down. Iris gave his hand a little squeeze of encouragement then let go. An instant later Dex had enveloped his mother in an enormous hug, the tears Mrs Crawford had been working hard at controlling bursting forth as she embraced her son for the first time in over two years.

Iris raised a hand to her mouth, trying to control her own emotions due to the privilege of witnessing such an intense, private moment between Dex and his mother.

‘I only dreamed this day would come,’ she whispered into his chest as he held her. ‘I love you so much, Dexter. I always have. I’m so sorry, darling. I’m so sorry we hurt you.’

Dex didn’t say anything for a moment and Iris could sense he was as choked up as his mother, but being a brave, strong man, he pulled himself together and broke the embrace, smiling down at his mother as he wiped her tears away. ‘Shh. It’s all good, Mum.’ And it was, he realised. The moment he’d
been dreading for so long had come and gone and he had to say he felt much freer than he had in years.

It was Mrs Crawford who looked past Dex and smiled through her tears. ‘And this must be Iris. Oh, my dear, welcome, welcome.’ She held out her free hand to Iris, the other one holding her son’s as though she’d never let him go again.

‘Thank you,’ Iris murmured, and shook Mrs Crawford’s hand.

‘Look at us standing in the doorway like this. So silly. Come on in. Both of you.’ Mrs Crawford tugged them forward. Iris’s shoulder bag fell to her arm and she quickly righted it. Dex reached back for his own bag on the ground but his mother wasn’t having any of it.

‘Don’t worry about your bag. We can get it later or your father can get that. Dwayne!’ she hollered, still holding firmly onto Dex. ‘Put your bag down there Iris. We’ll show you to your room later on. Dwayne!’ Mrs Crawford called again, and this time received a muffled reply. ‘He’s been out in his workshop, hammering and banging.’ She looked pointedly at Iris. ‘Never marry an inventor, dear. It doesn’t matter how old they get, they never stop inventing. Anyway, he knew you were arriving around this time so he should— Ah, here he is.’

Father and son shook hands warmly and only when Dwayne pulled Dex forward into a big, manly hug did Mrs Crawford let go of her son’s hand. It was a little odd but Iris found herself looking for similarities between the two men and whilst they were about the same height, nothing physical about them matched at all. However, as they stood in the entrance way, talking for a few moments, she noted that both men had the same mannerisms. The way they put their hands in their pockets or gestured with their eyebrows as they spoke. It was quite uncanny.

‘Come in, Iris,’ Mrs Crawford urged. ‘Sit down. You must be exhausted after all that travelling. Joss said you were
driving from Didja to Kalgoorlie and then catching the plane from there to Perth and then, of course, you had to get a taxi from the airport to here so all in all a rather long day, I’d say.’

‘It’s all been quite comfortable,’ Iris managed as she sat on the comfortable sofa. ‘I don’t think I would have managed on my own. My mind would have been playing through every scenario I could think of, but thankfully I had Dex not only to amuse me but distract my thoughts as well.’

‘Ah…’ She smiled at her son. ‘I see he hasn’t lost his touch for putting people at ease.’

Iris smiled brightly. ‘Oh, he still has that. In abundance.’

‘Good to hear. Now, dear, you must tell us all about yourself.’

‘Mum,’ Dex protested as he and his father came into the room. ‘Don’t badger her.’ He sat down next to Iris on the sofa, both of them sitting on the edge, both of them a little uncomfortable but for very different reasons.

‘It’s all right, Dex,’ Iris remarked as both his parents looked at her expectantly. ‘First, Mr and Mrs Crawford, I’d like to thank you both for allowing me to stay with you whilst I’m in Perth.’

‘Call me Ruth,’ his mother protested.

‘And I’m Dwayne.’ He held out his hand to her and shook it almost as warmly as he had his son’s.

‘We don’t stand on ceremony here. Besides, you’re family. Anyone who works with Dex and Joss is automatically a part of us.’

‘Well…thank you, Ruth.’ Iris was touched. Never before, even with Tim’s parents, had she felt so instantly at home. She eased back a little on the sofa as they started to chat. For the next hour, as they shared afternoon tea, Iris was acutely aware of Dex sitting incredibly close to her. The warmth of his arm brushing hers now and then. The pressure of his firm thigh against her own. That earthy, heady scent he wore almost drugging her senses it was so good.

By the time his siblings returned from university, Iris was
more than ready to put some much-needed distance between herself and Dex. Ruth showed her to her room on the upper floor and when the door was closed, Iris sank gratefully down onto the comfortable bed.

She lay there for quite some time, her mind still whirring with everything that had happened during the past few days. She still hadn’t managed to cry for Francie and Nigel, their loss still not seeming real.

It was an odd feeling, literally being left holding the baby. She knew Francie and Nigel had been wealthy and Anya would one day inherit everything so there was no need to worry about providing for the little one. She could also make sure Anya was raised with a firm understanding about wealth. Money could be a powerful motivator. It had certainly motivated Tim.

Iris hadn’t thought it a problem at the beginning of their marriage because, of course, everyone wanted to have a nice place to live and a flashy car to drive. They’d both been earning good incomes and so Tim had argued that they should get the things they’d always dreamed of having whilst they were young and fit enough to enjoy them.

And it hadn’t been a problem—until he’d lost his life trying to save their perishable possessions. Had he loved money more than her? Had he truly been motivated by it? Iris sighed, not that sure anymore. Tim was in her past and whilst she would always love him, she’d changed a lot in the last four years.

In fact, she’d changed a lot in the past five weeks. Didja, the people, the way they lived their lives, her colleagues…everything. Everything about the community had changed her. Yes, the pace of living was slower but wasn’t that a good thing? Since she’d been cleared from her burns specialist to return to work, she’d been going non-stop…and slowly wasting away inside.

She could admit that now. She could see how empty her life had been and how things were subtly changing. Dex was obviously a big part of that. He’d held her when she’d cried.
He’d picked up the pieces of the vase she’d smashed and seen her at her lowest. He’d kissed her. She closed her eyes at the memory of their shared kisses and just how he’d made her feel. She knew he felt something for her as well but lately she was getting mixed signals from him. Not that she blamed him. They’d both been running hot and cold, unsure of exactly where they stood. That was until she’d needed him and Dex had been there. Sure and strong.

When she had just started dating Tim, she’d asked her mother that all-important question…how do I know if I’m really in love? If he’s truly the man for me? Her mother had replied in her matter-of-fact tone, ‘You know he’ll be yours for ever if you can imagine him changing your catheter bag when you’re old and grey.’

She’d laughed at her mother’s words but hadn’t taken them seriously. She knew it wasn’t that much of a challenge for doctors as they came into contact with things like catheter bags every day, but now her mother’s words started to make more sense. Support was what her mother had really been talking about. Someone to support you through the darkest times of life.

Since she’d heard she was Anya’s guardian, Dex had been nothing but supportive. She’d been jittery when they’d initially set out but he hadn’t pressured her on anything but supported her in everything. As they’d disembarked from the plane and taken a taxi to his parents’ house, it had been her turn to be there to support him.

Dex hadn’t spoken much, not until they’d been standing outside the front door. She’d known all along how difficult it was for him to face his past, to see his parents and siblings again, and he’d stood strong and firm next to her, making her laugh, stealing kisses, but he’d still gone through with it. He hadn’t backed down. Once he’d made and accepted the decision to come home, he’d followed through, which showed he had immense courage.