The Vet's Secret Son

by Annie O'Neil

  He felt Ellie’s eye boring into him throughout the short interlude.

  When he looked up at her, she was shaking her head, No, no, no—don’t you dare tell him.

  So what was he meant to do? Leave?

  Not a chance.

  Emotions assaulted him like knife wounds. Elation. Pride. Loss at having missed so many precious moments. His birth. His first word. His first tooth. Disbelief that Ellie had kept Maverick a secret all these years.

  He knew things hadn’t ended with any sort of grace between them but hiding a child? His child? What the hell had she been thinking? This little boy...this gorgeous little boy was his flesh and blood. More than any of their shared hopes and dreams, Ellie knew he’d wanted a family of his own. With her! But life had ripped that possibility away from him.

  And now, thanks to her, he’d missed the first five years of his son’s life.

  He forced his raging thoughts into a cage as he reminded himself, thanks to Ellie, he had a son. A beautiful, healthy, happy little boy. But at this moment? The gratitude ended there. She should have told him.

  He rose and looked her straight in the eye. ‘You and I need to talk.’

  Fifteen minutes later, after a delighted Maverick had been assured he would be able to introduce Lucas to the puppies he and Torky were currently playing with and Mrs Cartwright was assured, once again, that her beautiful Siamese, Tabatha, was in fine fettle, Ellie shakily handed Lucas a mug of hot tea in the small kitchen that stood at the heart of the immaculate surgical ward.

  ‘Two sugars with milk,’ she said before he could ask and then, ‘So...’

  ‘Yeah.’ He scrubbed a hand through his hair, noticing Ellie’s pupils were dilated and her eyes had gone that green-grey colour they’d used to turn when her emotions had been running riot. ‘So...’

  ‘Mav’s...’ she began, her voice catching in her throat. ‘Maverick’s yours. In case you were wondering.’

  ‘Oh, I figured that out.’ Maverick, now that he’d spent a few more minutes with him, was a little carbon copy of him. ‘I just—Ells—’

  ‘Don’t call me that,’ she interrupted. Her eyes were darting everywhere but at him.

  ‘What? Do you want me to call you Miss Stone?’ He glanced at her hands. ‘Or is it Mrs now?’

  ‘No,’ she snapped. ‘I’m a single mum.’

  A complex fury that she’d gone through this all of this on her own swept through him. ‘You didn’t have to be.’

  She rolled her eyes at him. ‘Oh, really? Because I thought when you told me the engagement was off, that meant you didn’t want to marry me.’

  She opened her mouth to continue then clamped it shut. There was clearly a lot more on her mind, but she wasn’t going to make this easy on him. In some ways? Deservedly so. But keeping the fact he had a son from him? It was an unforgivable omission.

  ‘So... I’m guessing you decided not to tell me because of the split?’ Not the best of conversation starters, but...he wasn’t going to let her clam up.

  Her eyes widened. ‘Seriously? Lucas, there were a thousand reasons why I didn’t tell you.’

  His anger was simmering so close to the surface he forced himself to take a drink of the sweet tea rather than lash out and make it incredibly clear that nothing in the world was more important than family. And this little boy... Maverick...was his son.

  The few seconds of silence afforded him a vital reminder that he’d been in a desperate place and, he supposed, she must’ve been, too. Even so... He levelled his voice. ‘How about giving me one of them?’

  She scrunched her eyes tight and pressed her thumbs to the bridge of her nose. When she opened her eyes again, instead of seeing the guilt and fear he’d seen before he saw strength. The fierce love of a mother determined to protect her son. ‘I didn’t think you were in a place to handle a son as well as your other “more relevant” responsibilities.’

  He flinched at the turn of phrase. His own. Back then he’d been less experienced at juggling his family problems with his romantic life. He’d grown up a lot since then and had definitely learned to choose his words more carefully, but this...this was whiplashing him straight back to a time and place he’d hoped to never revisit.

  ‘It was a complicated time.’

  ‘Complicated?’ Ellie’s laugh was utterly bereft of humour. ‘It seemed pretty straightforward to me. You dumped me to “help your family”, then swanned off to become a media darling without me.’

  ‘That wasn’t how it happened, Ellie.’ He’d been crushed between a rock and damn tight hard place. His options had been limited and by limited he meant he’d had one choice.

  Ellie put on a posh voice. ‘Swanning into the limelight and dazzling the UK’s female fans with your many talents.’ Her tone turned dark. ‘No wonder you sent me back to my poky village to get on with “a country girl’s hopes and dreams”.’ She crossed her arms defensively. ‘You told me I’d be better off without you. Admit it, Lucas. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to drag me down. It was that you wanted to push your own star higher.’

  The tang of bile rose in his throat.

  His father had been barely able to work because his Parkinson’s had become so bad. His mother had been exhausted from worry and being his full-time carer. His older brother, also a vet, had up and vanished. A string of debts Lucas had uncovered had explained the disappearance. So he’d been the only one left to try and keep the debt-ridden clinic afloat. There was no way he had wanted to subject Ellie to that. Crush her dreams. Sideline her while his focus had to be on his family.

  The show had come about through a completely chance encounter. One day, a couple of weeks into his gruelling schedule, a woman had come in with a dog she’d found that had been hit by a car. She’d stayed throughout the exam and had insisted he talk her through the operation when they’d discovered he had a broken pelvis. Lucas had organised for her to watch him operate on the poor little chap on a monitor they had in one of the private waiting rooms.

  When he’d come out of the operating theatre, she’d told him she was a TV producer and that watching him at work had given her an idea. The Uber-Vet. The money they had offered him had gone a long way to keeping the clinic open, getting his father proper medical care and his mother some much-needed rest. So Lucas had lunged at the offer and done what he could to make the show a success. A slick haircut and slightly whiter teeth hadn’t changed who he was inside!

  He’d wanted to tell Ellie when the offer had come in, but the producers had been very clear. They’d wanted him and only him. The idea of ringing her with yet another rejection had simply been out of the question. So he’d signed on the dotted line and got to work.

  He gave his jaw a scrub. Yeah. He’d made mistakes. But his choices about how to save his family from crippling debt weren’t up for discussion now. Why she had kept his son a secret was. ‘Pushing you away was not what I wanted. You know that, Ellie. I needed to help my family and, as I said, things were complicated.’

  Ellie’s green eyes met his in a blaze of indignation. ‘You’re right. What would a simple country girl like me know about all those big complicated city things?’

  ‘Ellie—stop it. Don’t put yourself down.’

  ‘It’s hard not to, sitting face to face with the one person who I stupidly thought would always put me first.’

  Her words landed in his gut like a boulder.

  Rock. Hard place.

  He was feeling the squeeze all over again. Only this time...this time the only person he had to look out for was himself. Complications with his father’s Parkinson’s had taken his life a couple of years back. He’d built up enough of a rainy-day fund to keep his mother busy with her charity lunches, and as for Jonty? He’d finally resurfaced. Was getting the help he needed for a gambling problem he’d hidden from them for far too long.

  Ellie clapped her
hands to her face, took in a couple of slow breaths then dropped them to the table with a slapping sound. They had to sting but maybe, like him, her body was buzzing with the type of adrenaline no one should experience. Fear of loss.

  She wove her fingers together then finally met his gaze. ‘I was going to call you when I found out I was pregnant.’

  ‘When was that?’ He was hungry for details.

  ‘About nine weeks after you chose fame and fortune over a humble life in the country.’ She took a pointed sip of her tea, her eyes glued to his. ‘And a new girlfriend.’

  Lucas felt as though a searing hot knife had been slipped between his ribs. ‘What? I didn’t have a new girlfriend!’

  ‘Katrina Shandwick would probably beg to differ,’ Ellie parried, then pushed herself up and away from the wooden table and began muttering something he couldn’t make out apart from the ‘Don’t let him see you cry’ part.

  Katrina Shandwick had been his producer. They’d gone to countless red-carpet events and she’d always insisted she be his plus one, but it had never been anything more than that—mostly because he’d had no idea how to talk to the press. Especially in the beginning.

  As Ellie noisily washed her mug at the sink, every part of him ached to go to her, hold her in his arms, but instinct told him to stay away. Especially if he wanted to be involved in his son’s life.

  ‘Ells—Ellie,’ he corrected himself. ‘Did you really think I would’ve started dating someone so soon after we split? I’m not like that. And I would never suggest that you or your work were anything less than exemplary. C’mon. That’s not me. You knew me better than anyone.’

  ‘Precisely.’ Ellie whirled around. ‘I used to know you. This guy here?’ She circled her hand in the air between them. ‘I have no clue who he is. You changed overnight. And there was no way I was going to let you into my son’s life.’

  Our son, he said silently, and then, because he knew he had to fix this if he wanted any sort of relationship with Maverick, ‘Ellie, there have been some seriously crossed wires here. I don’t think you understand what—’

  Ellie cut him off quick smart. ‘You’re right! I don’t understand a thing! I don’t understand how, after six years of blanking me, you could just swan in—’

  ‘I hardly swanned in.’

  ‘Selfies in the exam room? Stealing my patients?’ She arched an imperious eyebrow. ‘Taking forever to diagnose Audrey?’ A shadow flickered across her features as an idea struck. ‘Oh, my God. You waited, didn’t you? You let me figure out what was wrong with her to cut me a break? In front of my own patient? Are you trying to do me favours? What the actual freaking heck, Lucas? I don’t need favours. Especially not from you.’

  Lucas looked over his shoulder as if an invisible crowd was giving Ellie hints—the role of the producers in his previous life. If three days ago could count as previous. ‘I did no such thing,’ he protested, nanoseconds too late. He had. It was her clinic. Her diagnosis to make. He’d done enough guest visits to know it rankled other vets that pet owners would hang on his every word rather than their loyal, committed, local vet. One of many downsides of being part of the fame game.

  Ellie dropped her head into her hands again, groaning with the injustice of it all.

  ‘Can’t you just go? Go and pretend none of this ever happened?’

  ‘Now that I know I have a son?’ He wasn’t going to broach the other part—the part about how his heart had stood still when he’d first laid eyes on her. ‘Not a chance.’

  ‘Fine,’ she eventually said. ‘But you’re not staying here.’

  ‘But Henry said you needed help—’

  Ellie cut him off. ‘Thanks to your offer to Henry, I have no choice but to accept your help in the clinic. But, believe me, if we didn’t have so many important surgeries coming up, you’d be in your car heading back to the bright lights of London right now.’ She huffed out a sigh. ‘What I meant was you’re not staying here here.’ She flashed him a look that spoke volumes. She still had feelings for him. Hurt ones definitely. But pain was a bedfellow of love and...damn, this was complicated. Did he still love her?

  ‘Not until I work out how we’re going to tell my son you’re his...’ She gave a little shudder, unable to actually say the words. She pointed up to the ceiling. ‘Mav and I live upstairs in a two-bedroomed flat, all the beds are taken. Henry’s in the guest flat next door. Ditto. You’ll stay...’ A slow satisfied smile crept onto her lips. A smile that unleashed another hammering of heartbeats against his bruised ribcage. ‘You’ll stay at the Hungry Pelican.’

  ‘What? With your parents?’

  Ellie’s expression went all doe-eyed. ‘You’re not frightened of seeing my parents, are you? After breaking their little girl’s heart, leaving her to raise your son on her own and crushing all her hopes and dreams about love?’

  A flicker of something he couldn’t quite identify darkened her eyes, though her smile remained bright. Guilt maybe? Had her parents encouraged her to tell him? If they had...excellent. Far be it from him to disagree.

  ‘Great.’ He clapped his hands together and gave them a rub. ‘If I remember correctly, they’re about a two-minute drive away?’

  ‘Or a ten-minute walk,’ she answered, and then, a bit superciliously, ‘The Dolphin Cove residents are trying to keep city slickers and their big fancy cars out of the town centre. You know, preserve that country feeling.’

  Lucas covered his mouth to mask a smile. Here was the Ellie he knew. The mischievous one who drew the best out of people whether they liked it or not. ‘Great. Say the word and I’m ready to go.’

  CHAPTER THREE

  ELLIE FLUNG THE pub door open and stomped inside.

  ‘Hello, darling!’ her mother trilled from her usual post in the kitchen pass, where she slid gorgeously delicious plates of food through to the serving staff. ‘I wasn’t expecting you tonight.’

  ‘I’ve brought you a guest,’ Ellie said tightly. ‘A paying guest.’

  ‘Actually,’ Lucas firmly corrected in a low voice, ‘I think you’ll find I’m family.’ He raised his voice again. ‘But I’m more than happy to pay.’ A steely determination added a timbre to his voice Ellie hadn’t remembered hearing before and that six-year-old thread of guilt cinched just the tiniest bit tighter round her heart. Tighter still when her mother appeared in front of them.

  Lucas stepped out from behind her and towards her mum. ‘Hello, Mrs Stone. It’s been a long time...’

  Her mum held up a hand, her expression impossible to read. ‘Stop right there.’ Wyn disappeared from sight and reappeared moments later with Ellie’s father Gordon—Gordo to friends. He normally looked like a cross between Santa Claus and your typical jolly old sailor type. Right now, he looked like a very protective father.

  ‘Lucas,’ he said tightly.

  ‘Lucas,’ Ellie’s mum said, with a bit more warmth than Ellie was comfortable with. ‘What can I get you to drink?’

  Ellie glared at her. Weren’t they all meant to be being mean to Lucas? Her mother glared back. One of those multi-faceted glares that said, This is the father of your child, child. And, This is long overdue, young woman.

  Humph.

  She was thirty-five years old, not a stroppy teen!

  Well. Perhaps she felt a little bit stroppy. Okay, very stroppy, but this was one of the moments she’d been avoiding for five years. The bigger one—the one where she explained to her son that he did have a father...

  Sudden rushes of hot and cold swept through her. Five precious years she’d cared for and protected her boy, ensuring that, above all, he knew he was loved. Valued. Her parents adored him. Surprise, surprise. He was and would remain their only grandchild. His ‘cool Uncle Drew’ had been an awesome dad stand-in. Not on the romantic front because—ew!—she’d grown up with Drew and the idea of even— Ew! Not because he was icky looking. Qu
ite the opposite, in fact, but...no. Her heart had always belonged to one man and one man only. Anyway, the point was that she had never wanted, for one solitary second, Maverick to think he was unwanted—like some people had made her feel. And now, with Lucas here, her son could very well turn the same accusatory look on her that Lucas had given her when he’d found he’d been denied five years of loving the world’s most perfect little boy.

  ‘A soft drink will be fine,’ Lucas finally said.

  Gordon gave a tight nod and went back behind the bar. ‘I’ll take it you’ll have a wine, Ellie?’

  She nodded and mouthed, ‘Large, please.’ She didn’t normally drink on a ‘school night’ but...extenuating circumstances.

  ‘Where’s—?’ Wyn began to ask, and then clapped her hands over her mouth.

  ‘Don’t worry, Mum. He knows.’ Ellie flicked a look at Lucas who, to his credit, didn’t launch into a high and mighty speech about Ellie’s failure to tell him about Maverick.

  Neither did he start telling her mum how she’d made him hide in the operating clinic while she’d extracted Maverick from the kennels without the promised show-and-tell session with the Uber-Vet. Or how he hadn’t insisted on coming along when she’d escorted a very grumpy Maverick up to Henry’s flat for an evening of spaghetti Bolognese and yet another showing of his favourite animated movie about pets.

  He hadn’t even brought up the topic of how she was going to run the clinic single-handedly when Henry left in the morning for London and she would, inevitably, try to make him leave again. Even the walk to the pub had been low maintenance. He’d pointed out a few things he thought had changed since he’d been down last—seven Christmases ago. He’d complimented her on the clinic—as well he should—and asked how they’d managed to create such an impressive facility on ten acres of prime real estate—with a lot of blue-sky thinking, some lottery funding, some private donations and the inclusion of a community petting zoo.

  In all honesty, he’d been exactly like the Lucas she’d known six years ago minus the part about how they used to know everything about one another. Everything and then some. Her insides had been tingling from the moment she’d laid eyes on him. Still were.