by Annie O'Neil
His father had helped with what he could but, in the end, his Parkinson’s had got the better of him and soon even going through case files had been too exhausting. His death, whilst gut-wrenching, had meant he had no longer been in pain. His brother had resurfaced periodically, but after his father’s death, a stint in rehab had been the only solution for his addiction. An expensive rehab clinic that had meant renewing the Uber-Vet contract again and chaining himself to a lifestyle in which he’d never felt entirely at home.
It had been worth it, though. His brother had found a small horse-centric clinic out in the countryside to practise in, joining Lucas and his mum for Sunday lunches to hash over difficult cases. Those meals had brought his family some much-needed peace. Enough for Lucas to finally say it was enough. It was time for him to live his own life now. So when his contract had come up for renewal? That was precisely what he’d done.
‘Ellie.’ Lucas shifted round on the log so that he was facing her. ‘I know you think I’m different now, but for the most part I’m still the Lucas you met in vet school.’ He held up a hand. ‘I know you don’t believe it and there are things I wish I could explain better than I did at the time.’ He looked at Ellie, only to receive an eye-roll and a flick of the hand. She didn’t want to hear it. Fine. It was painful terrain to hash over again and, just as he’d done all those years ago, he put the blinkers on again. But this time for his son. ‘Are you happy for Maverick to know I’m his father?’
Ellie peered at him though her fingers. ‘God, that’s weird.’
‘What?’
‘Hearing you say Maverick’s name. Seeing you take ownership of him as his father.’
Another well-aimed kick in the gut. She didn’t trust him. Fair enough. He’d have to earn that too. And he would.
‘I want to be his father, Ellie. I know there is no way I can make up for the years I’ve lost—but I can swear to you right now that I am going to do my damnedest trying.’
She gave him a look that echoed the mix of emotions he was experiencing. A mix of hope and fear. But mostly, How can I believe you after you left me when it mattered most?
He’d known the boy a matter of minutes, but primal instinct had lit a white-hot coil of connection in him. He’d sacrifice for Maverick. Protect. Honour. Cherish. Love. He was a father. He was Maverick’s father and he’d do everything he could to ensure his little boy knew he was loved by both of his parents.
His own father had been a complicated man. Scientific. Dedicated to the animals he’d cared for. Close to his sons when he’d needed something. Like sacrifice. Distant when he hadn’t. It had been the pain most likely. And pride. He had been a highly respected vet until Parkinson’s had robbed him of his ability to perform surgery. Hobbled by his own body’s frailty. It must’ve been a devastating blow to his pride.
Ellie stretched her legs out, her foot tracing an infinity pattern in the sand. It was the same pattern he’d had designed in diamonds for her engagement ring. The one she’d thrown at him when he’d told her he’d made a terrible mistake. ‘I don’t want him to hear a single lie.’
‘No. Absolutely not,’ he agreed.
‘I don’t want you making promises you can’t keep.’
‘I would never do that.’
She pursed her lips at him. He could almost feel the diamond ring bouncing off his chest as she whirled on one trendy trainered foot and out of his life. ‘We’ll see about that.’
Oh, she would. She’d see his commitment in spades.
They spoke about the logistics. Mav had surf school and science camp and also helped out at the vet’s petting zoo, showing the other children that goats were fun to pet, and cows had scratchy tongues and no upper teeth. He liked to spend time with Torky, Tegan’s twin, in the whelping unit during the socialisation hours and—she softened at this bit—nap time. School began again in September. He loved books so there would be lots of story-reading duties.
The list went on. Completely unlike the lists of duties that went with being the Uber-Vet, Lucas was loving each and every detail. His respect for Ellie also went up a significant notch. ‘How do you do all of it? Motherhood and running the clinic.’
She shrugged. ‘It’s hard, but Mum and Dad are amazing. Drew’s a brilliant uncle and, well, pretty much the whole village has helped because they all want their animals looked after and the only way that happened in the early years was if Mav came along.’
‘You took him with you?’
‘I didn’t have much choice, did I?’ Their eyes clashed and held.
Choice.
What a loaded word.
She’d not given him a choice. Not even a chance to offer help. Then again, he’d not given her a choice either. Not much of a leg to stand on in the self-righteous department. So he stayed quiet, his frustration humming through him in sharp bursts filled with static.
‘Here’s how I see it playing out,’ Ellie continued officiously. ‘If, and only if, Maverick takes the news well, you can stay the eight weeks the clinic needs you. After that?’ She gave her head a little shake. ‘We’ll see.’ She flicked her thumb over her shoulder towards the flat she and Mav shared. ‘Tonight you’re staying at the Pelican. I’m sure my mother has a million more questions for you. After that, whilst I’m not entirely thrilled about this, it makes more sense for you to move into the staff flat. I’ve been doing most of the night duty calls.’
He looked at her through fresh, professional eyes. She looked tired. The strain, no doubt, of taking up the slack whilst her partner recovered from his accident. Something tugged at his heart that he’d tamped down in order to get through his own trials. Compassion. Empathy.
‘That’s a lot of work for one person, Ellie.’
She scrubbed a hand over her face. ‘Yup. Well. We’re a young business trying to make a big mark. I normally take Mav to my mum, but it’d be nicer for him not to be woken up, so I’ll wake you up instead. Welcome to parenthood!’ She briskly began to rattle off more details—Mav’s favourite pyjamas, how he liked his pillows, which were his favourite cuddly toys. ‘He doesn’t like marshmallows in his hot chocolate and is scared of the dark, so don’t ever, ever turn off the small lamp on top of his chest of drawers.’ She rubbed the heel of her hand against her bare knee, the edges of her A-line skirt fluttering in the light sea breeze. ‘And he likes your show.’ She threw him a soft smile.
‘Why, Ellie Stone. Is that a compliment?’
‘No.’ She pushed herself up to stand to avoid his gaze. ‘Just a fact.’
Speaking of facts... ‘What did you tell him about his father? About me?’
She shrugged. ‘Nothing much. Just that I loved him and not everyone had a daddy on the scene—a bit like the animal kingdom. You know, daddy lions don’t hang around to teach baby lions how the world works because they have prey to stalk. Territory to protect.’
He snorted. Trust Ellie to use lions to explain why mummies hung around and daddies didn’t. Then again, it was a fairly apt analogy. Ellie had created an amazing ‘den’ here. A place to care, protect and feed her son. And all the while Lucas had been protecting her. Not that she saw it that way, but...one day. Maybe one day. Miracles did happen. Like this one. He had a son. A beautiful boy by an equally beautiful mother who, one day, might forgive him for having turned his back on her when he’d thought he’d had no other choice.
She clapped her hands together. ‘So! Let’s go and rip the plaster off, shall we? Then you can hoof it back to Mum and Dad. Mav’ll have a lot of questions and we both have a long day tomorrow.’
Walking behind her as she briskly made her way up to the clinic, Lucas realised he was smiling. An entirely new life was about to begin for him and, unlike the time he’d shut himself off from his own ambitions, this time he couldn’t wait to start. Bring it on. Bring it all on.
CHAPTER FOUR
MAVERICK STARED AT Ellie
then Lucas then back at Ellie. ‘For real?’
Ellie nodded, still a bit shell-shocked herself. She’d just told her son who his father was.
Maverick crossed his legs underneath his endangered animals duvet cover, briefly making the tiger’s head look as if it were surging forward to take a bite out of someone. Lucas, preferably. Her son turned his blue-eyed gaze on her. ‘I thought you said my daddy was a pirate.’
Ellie’s cheeks burnt at the memory. She’d said it on a whim once, never for a second thinking he’d believe her, but...it was how she thought of Lucas sometimes. A swashbuckling love thief. Stick with the facts, Ellie! ‘Nope. ’Fraid not, love. He’s a vet.’
‘The Uber-Vet,’ Maverick said in a reverent tone, his gaze swinging back to Lucas. ‘It’s like...it’s like... I am made of vets!’
Lucas grinned from the foot of the bed where Ellie had made him sit amongst the jumble of cuddly toys. As annoying as it was to have her son all googly-eyed over the fact his father was the Uber-Vet, it was nice to see Mav take the news on board as easily as he accepted being pulled out of bed and slipped into her mother’s spare room while she went off to check on a colicky horse or attend a late-night calving. Would that she had taken the news her engagement would only last twenty-four hours with such ease.
Mav popped his elbow onto his knee and his chin into his hand as he stared at Lucas for a moment. ‘I suppose we do have the same earlobes.’
Ellie couldn’t help herself. She cracked up. Earlobes! They had a lot more than that in common. Eyes. Hair. Dry wit—yes, even at five. And a brain that never stopped whirring with curiosity.
‘Are you going to move in with us?’ Mav asked Lucas.
Gulp. Case in point.
‘Oh, now... I think your daddy...’ Crikey, that had felt strange. Saying ‘daddy’ with Maverick’s actual daddy sitting there. Did he even want to be called Daddy? ‘Lucas will staying at the Hungry Pelican tonight.’
‘But I’ll be moving in next door tomorrow,’ Lucas said reassuringly to Mav, and then, conciliatory to Ellie, ‘To make things easier for Mummy when she’s on night calls.’
Mummy.
Oh, jeepers. Who knew hearing that out of Lucas’s mouth would give her butterflies? To ignore them she countered with a cheery, ‘Unless, of course, Mummy decides to send Daddy on the night call.’
Ellie and Lucas shared a little tug-of-war smile. It reminded her of when they’d gone out on an internship at a huge clinic up north together when, in the dead of winter, they’d used to play rock, paper scissors to decide who went out to do a midnight calving or a pre-dawn set of lamb triplets where the farmer would, inevitably, surprise the vet with a series of ‘While I have you here...’ cases in their huge, unheated barns. The butterflies took flight again.
‘So...’ Maverick gave his curly mop a scratch. ‘Will I stay in my bed?’
‘Absolutely.’ Ellie sent a pointed look in Lucas’s direction but refused to meet his eyes. How did a man who’d crushed her heart to bits manage to warm the cockles of that very same heart with one cheeky grin? She took Maverick’s hands in hers and began to play pat-a-cake with them. ‘I will be in my bed. And your daddy will stay in his bed. Next door.’
‘But...don’t daddies live with mummies?’ Maverick asked.
Ellie could feel Lucas’s eyes on her. The butterflies hummed with excitement. Would she like Daddy to live with Mummy? Her body obviously would, but her brain was shouting out the reminder that daddies didn’t get to just pop up after six years of absence and pretend they hadn’t kicked Mummy to the kerb right after they’d proposed to her. She blew out a little breath before she answered. ‘Daddies and mummies who haven’t seen each other in a while sometimes have different ways of living.’
‘You mean like Rockford and Esmerelda?’
‘Who’re they?’ Lucas asked.
‘The stud dog and Mum’s golden retriever.’
‘Ah,’ said Lucas, glints of humour sparking in his eyes and then quickly going out as he put two and two together.
Ellie bit the inside of her lip. Lucas had given her Esmerelda along with a promise to love her until the day she died.
Lucas gave his stubbly chin a rub then said to Mav, ‘Yes. I suppose you could compare our situation to that.’
‘But Rockford has lots of lady friends.’ Maverick began listing them off. It was one of his hobbies. Keeping track of all of the ‘lady friends’ Rockford had. Perhaps this hadn’t been the best of analogies.
Ellie turned to Lucas, interested to see how he handled this one. Definitely a daddy question.
He spluttered for a moment then said, ‘True, true. But he also has all sorts of puppies he never gets to spend time with. Or read stories to. I’d like to be able to do that, so I guess I am a bit different from Rockford...’ He looked up and met Ellie’s eyes. ‘I’m a one-woman kind of stud dog.’
Oh, boy. There was so much to unpack from that. So she looked at the clock and announced, ‘Bedtime! Unless you have any more questions?’
‘No,’ Maverick said, snuggling down under his light summer duvet. ‘Since I have eight weeks to ask questions, I can put them in my book. Next to your autograph. That way I will always have a record that you were real.’
Tears instantly sprang to Ellie’s eyes. He’d already prepared for Lucas to leave. When she heard Lucas clear his throat, she knew her son’s statement had hit him right in the solar plexus as well.
Lucas scooched round on the bed until he was sitting right behind Ellie—as if they were a happily married couple who always sat without as much as a hair’s breadth between them.
‘You’ll never have to worry about that, son. I’ll always be here for you. Whenever you need me.’
Ellie looked away, trying to make it look like the tears she was wiping away were actually some unfortunate specks of dust in her eyes.
‘You just keep the questions coming. Okay?’
Maverick squinted at Lucas for a moment and then asked, ‘Do you think our earlobes are the same?’
Lucas gave his hand a squeeze and tucked a stuffed polar bear, Maverick’s favourite, into the crook of his little boy’s arm. ‘Identical,’ he said, then leant down and gave his son a kiss on the forehead before getting up to leave. ‘I’ll let you and your mum have a bit of alone time, yeah?
‘Okay, Dad,’ Maverick said, as easily as if he’d been calling Lucas ‘Dad’ from the day he could speak. ‘And in the morning I’ll introduce you to Esmerelda. She’s got ten perfect pups! Mummy says it’s because she was a perfect match to Rockford.’
Lucas winked at Maverick then at Ellie. ‘Your mother always did have good taste in men.’ And just like that Ellie fell a little bit back in love with Lucas Williams who, despite everything she’d done to forget him, was still very, very real.
* * *
Lucas was a complicated mix of fidgety and delighted. He’d slept poorly, had gone for a run along the beach but had been expressly forbidden from turning up at the clinic until it opened so he’d filled in some more time by taking up Wyn’s offer of a hot breakfast.
At least he knew now that Ellie’s parents didn’t view him as the enemy. Quite the opposite, in fact. After being hammered with twenty questions about the show—it was rewarding to raise the profile of animal welfare—his future work plans—to stay here in Dolphin Cove until something new surfaced—his late father—missed, but at peace—his mother—reinventing herself as a charity event doyenne—and his brother—living a quiet life in the Cotswolds—Lucas pushed back his plate and gave Wyn a smile.
‘That was an incredible English breakfast.’
‘Cornish,’ she briskly corrected him. ‘You won’t be getting hog’s pudding or Cornish potato cakes up in London, I expect.’
‘No. Good point.’ He’d be drinking ginger and turmeric smoothies and whatever other ghastly things the craft servi
ces truck had supplied to keep him ‘camera-ready’. This, he realised, was one of the first proper meals he’d eaten sitting at a table that wasn’t a business meeting.
‘Neither do you get women the quality of my Ellie, I would think,’ Wyn said, eyes trained on him like a hawk’s. ‘Up there in London.’
Lucas smiled. Okay. So it was sort of a business meeting. ‘Very true. She is one of a kind.’
Wyn sat back in her chair, eyes still glued to him as she took a long draught of her tea. ‘Six long years,’ she said when she had finished. ‘I suppose you could’ve gone and got married yourself in that time.’
His jaw tightened. Nope. There’d just been the one proposal. He’d had a couple of girlfriends over the years, but after the debacle with Ellie he’d vowed never to propose to anyone again. Life threw too many curveballs to make that mistake twice. As such, girlfriends hadn’t lasted long. That and the sixteen-hour workdays.
‘Oh, no, Mrs. Stone. It’s been all work and no play for me, I’m afraid.’
‘Wyn,’ she corrected him, more gently, he supposed now that she knew he hadn’t run off and married someone else. She gave him a pat on the knee and picked up his plate, preparing to head back to the kitchen. He might not have retained number one almost-son-in-law status, but he’d always remembered her saying how important it was never to hold a grudge.
Too many to carry around, she said, by the time you hit fifty. Who needs extra weight when gravity is already against you?
‘Wyn,’ he repeated, grateful for the olive branch.
She narrowed her gaze at him. Here it was. The sting after the sweetening. ‘Tell me, Lucas. Why are you here?’
He trotted out his line, knowing it would never be enough. ‘Henry said Ellie needed help and I—’
Wyn cut him off. ‘Ellie and Drew have needed help ever since they started the clinic. It was meant to be a three-person surgery...’ She tapped the side of her nose. ‘If memory serves.’