Second Chance with the Single Dad Read online

  She followed Wil down the pathway. Immediately the sister, Sharyn, opened the door. Georgia saw the resemblance to Angie. The older sister’s eyes were red-rimmed, her expression truculent as she glared first at Wil and then at her. The middle-aged social worker hovered nearby.

  ‘I’m so sorry for your loss,’ Georgia murmured to Sharyn. ‘I knew Angie.’ It wasn’t simply the polite thing to say, she meant every word. The shocking loss of a young woman, a mother, was genuine cause for sorrow and grief, no matter how she’d felt about her.

  ‘Another loss to come,’ Sharyn muttered, still glaring at Wil, who was scrupulously polite in the face of such obvious hostility.

  The social worker, Maree, defused the situation and Georgia followed Wil into the house. Small shoes lined up in the entranceway, a stroller leaned against the wall, parked so they had to walk around it, tiny raincoats slung over a rack. A multi-child household. Georgia recognised the signs from her sisters’ houses.

  The social worker ushered her and Wil into a family room, clean and tidy save for the toys scattered on the floor. A large playpen, of the old-fashioned wooden kind, was set up in the middle of the room.

  ‘Sharyn tells me little Nina just woke up from her nap, and is playing with her cousins,’ the social worker said, indicating the playpen.

  Georgia’s gaze was drawn to the baby with a shock of dark hair and wearing a pink cotton romper suit. She sat on her bottom on a rug, opposite a little boy of about six who waved a fluffy toy rabbit in front of her. Another younger boy stood outside the playpen hanging on to the railing, calling encouragement. The baby laughed, an infectious gurgling kind of laugh that showed four tiny teeth, two top and two bottom. She waved her little arms around in delight as she made a lunge for the toy. Georgia smiled, a smile that came all the way from her heart.

  Wil’s daughter. Angie’s child too. Little Nina had the best of both of them. Wil’s dark hair and eyes; Angie’s petite nose and heart-shaped face. Georgia’s heart spasmed. Poor little thing to have lost her mother. Poor Angie, to have lived long enough after the accident to know she wouldn’t survive to see her baby grow up. But Nina had a good man for a father. She’d won the genetic lottery there.

  ‘She’s adorable,’ Georgia murmured as she looked up to Wil, standing beside her.

  At first, she didn’t know if he actually heard her. He was staring, transfixed, at his daughter. Emotions rippled across his face. Trepidation. Awe. A warmth that looked very much like pride. A Wil she’d never seen before.

  ‘Yes, she is,’ he said softly, his eyes not leaving the baby.

  Sharyn approached the playpen, breaking the moment like a rock thrown violently into the gentle ripples of a pool. ‘Okay, Kieran, that’s enough playtime. Give Nina the bunny and take your brother outside to play.’

  The boys obeyed without question. Georgia’s schoolteacher eye noted both little boys looked well cared for, in the way of children who were active and well nourished. They were tender and gentle with the baby. The older one gave his tiny cousin a kiss, hopped out of the playpen, took his little brother by the hand, and headed out of a sliding door to a grassed area outside.

  Little Nina had turned at the sound of her aunt’s voice. Now she put up her arms to be picked up. Sharyn immediately swept her into her arms with a murmured endearment. She stood facing Wil. ‘You’re still determined to take her?’ she said. The baby rested comfortably on her hip.

  ‘She’s my daughter, Sharyn,’ he said. ‘We’ve gone through all this.’ Georgia could see a pulse throbbing at his temple that belied the calmness of his voice.

  ‘You didn’t even know you had a daughter,’ Sharyn said. ‘Angie hated you. Wanted to punish you by keeping Nina from you.’

  Maree the social worker placed herself between Sharyn and Wil. ‘We’ve discussed this. Legal aspects aside, your sister’s dying wish was very clear. She wanted Nina to be in the custody of her father, Wil. I can understand your sadness at little Nina going but—’

  ‘Rightly or wrongly, all Angie would have been thinking of was Wil’s money and Nina having access to it,’ said Sharyn. ‘I told her that Nina should know her father but Angie wanted revenge on her ex for kicking her out. She wanted her secret kept until one day she could taunt him about Nina and blackmail him for more money in return for seeing his little girl.’

  Georgia shuddered at the matter-of-fact tone of Sharyn’s voice as she discussed her sister’s warped motivation. Wil’s expression didn’t change but the words must have hurt. ‘That changes nothing,’ he said.

  Sharyn hugged the baby closer to her. ‘Nina is happy here with us. I looked after her when her mother was at work. What makes you think you can look after a little girl?’ Georgia sensed the pain underneath the anger.

  ‘She’s my daughter and belongs with me,’ Wil repeated. ‘I can look after her very well.’

  With Wil’s wealth he could give his daughter every advantage. So much more than the aunt could provide. Georgia appreciated that he didn’t rub in their difference in social status and income. Besides, she didn’t think that was what Wil meant—he meant the special love of a parent, the closest bond a child could have. Father trumped aunt. Wealthy father with doting grandparents, no doubt waiting in the wings, held all the cards.

  ‘You? A guy on your own? A guy who couldn’t stay married for even six months?’

  Georgia cringed at Wil’s sharp intake of breath. ‘Yes,’ he said, obviously through gritted teeth.

  ‘It’s not right.’ Sharyn clutched the baby tighter, as if daring Wil to prise her out of her arms. ‘If you cared about her, you’d leave her with me. A little girl needs a mother...a woman in her life.’

  ‘She will have a woman in her life,’ said Wil. He moved closer to Georgia and put his arm around her. That was the first shock. Then came the second. ‘Georgia is my fiancée.’

  What?

  Georgia stiffened, went to protest. But Wil tightened his grip on her shoulder. She knew what he meant. Play along. Back in the day they’d sometimes pretended to be dating to deter an unwanted admirer at a party or out at a bar. Each other’s wing person. They’d have a good laugh about it afterwards.

  Georgia didn’t feel like laughing now. ‘Uh, yes.’ She forced a smile. This wasn’t a game.

  ‘Congratulations on your engagement,’ said the social worker, looking very pleased.

  ‘Th-thank you,’ said Georgia, not able to meet her eye, furious with Wil for putting her on the spot.

  ‘She’s an elementary schoolteacher and knows all about little kids,’ Wil added. He squeezed Georgia’s shoulder again in an unmistakable prompt.

  ‘Uh...yes, I do,’ she said. ‘And babies. I have five nieces and nephews and have looked after them all. Ask me anything you want about babies.’

  Sharyn looked her up and down as if she were something loathsome. ‘Angie told me all about Georgia. The best friend she thought her husband fancied. Looks like she was right not to trust you, if you’re now engaged.’

  Georgia gasped at the accusation. Went to deny it. Bit her tongue. This wasn’t real. She was, in truth, just his friend. She had nothing to feel guilty about.

  ‘Not true, Sharyn,’ Wil said. ‘Georgia was indeed just a friend then.’

  Irrationally—because that was all true—his dismissal of her as a woman his wife had had no cause to fear hurt. Georgia schooled herself not to betray just how much it hurt. She’d never tried to be more than just a friend, she reminded herself.

  Georgia was aware of the woman’s narrowed glance at her empty ring finger and she fisted her left hand in response and put it behind her back. Of course people would expect an engagement ring. Guess Wil hadn’t thought of that with his spur-of-the-moment comment. Unless he’d planned to say she was his fiancée all along?

  She put that thought aside to consider later. By not denying his from-out-of-nowhere
claim—how could she have?—she had committed to playing along. Especially as Wil’s former sister-in-law seemed still determined to fight.

  Wil pulled her closer. She tried to relax against him, difficult when she was so intensely aware of his strength and warmth, the utter masculinity of him. He still smelled the same. She’d always managed to deny how attractive she found him. Pretending to be his wife-to-be took her denial to a whole new level.

  Sharyn continued. ‘But that doesn’t qualify you to be a mum. Especially to a little girl who has lost her own. She looks cheerful enough now but she knows her mummy is gone, that something is very wrong in her world.’ She choked up but scowled at Georgia’s look of sympathy.

  Georgia glanced up at Wil, trying to seem like a concerned fiancée seeking reassurance, then back to Sharyn. ‘I’ll do my best. I should imagine Nina would be a very easy child to...to love. Just because Nina is going to live with her dad and...uh...me, doesn’t mean she has to say goodbye for ever to her aunty and cousins. I’m sure Wil will want you to be part of her life.’

  Georgia sensed Wil still beside her. Had she overstepped the mark, gone where a pretend fiancée shouldn’t go?

  ‘Really?’ said Sharyn, relief softening her combative expression. ‘We’ll get to see her?’

  Georgia was so disconcerted at the situation she found herself in, she struggled to sound normal. ‘Of course. Family is important.’ She looked back up at him. ‘Isn’t it, Wil?’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ he said with a vehemence that surprised her.

  ‘So I don’t have to tell the boys they’ll never see their baby cousin again?’ Sharyn said.

  ‘No. Uh...in fact they could be pageboys at our wedding.’ Georgia had to suppress a grin at the look on Wil’s face. Served him right for dropping her into this. ‘They’d make cute little ring-bearers, wouldn’t they, Wil?’ she said, perhaps a little too sweetly.

  ‘Uh, yes,’ he muttered.

  Sharyn’s face lightened. ‘Pageboys? I’m not sure they’d stay still long enough for that,’ she said. ‘But you’re serious about keeping in touch?’

  Georgia gritted her teeth. How could she possibly be expected to answer such a question? She pasted on a fake fiancée smile as she gave Wil a glance she hoped he would recognise as over to you.

  ‘I’ll make sure Nina keeps in touch with her cousins,’ he said.

  His former sister-in-law nodded and reluctantly handed her little niece over to her father. ‘Make sure you do,’ she said.

  Wil took Nina from her, a little awkwardly but with growing confidence. Georgia caught her breath as she watched him.

  There was something about a tall, broad-shouldered, manly guy holding a little baby in strong, protective arms that was heart-stoppingly appealing. Even more appealing when the guy in question was her friend Wil, and the little daughter he had only just discovered. He so big and powerful; Nina so small and vulnerable. The way he held her, the intensity of his gaze were as if he was silently assuring Nina he would protect her from every possible bad arrow the world might have in wait for her. But the way the tiny girl looked back up at him with the same dark eyes made Georgia’s heart turn over. There was a connection there. Now she really believed it—Wil was a father.

  A wave of yearning swept over her. Not for Wil—of course not for Wil. He was just a friend. Or for his daughter. Her days were filled with looking after other women’s children. She wanted her own baby one day. At twenty-seven going on twenty-eight, her biological clock had started to tick insistently. But as her track record with marriageable-type males was abysmal, that particular dream might not be coming true any time soon.

  She’d knocked back three proposals, the first while she’d still been at uni. Commitment was what she’d craved but the guys just hadn’t been quite right. The most recent had been Toby. She’d let the relationship go on for too long, wasting her time and his. But she’d thought that pathway was expected of her—marriage to the steady kind of guy everyone had liked. Children to follow. Even to the fact that Toby had been a fellow schoolteacher—just think how convenient all those school holidays would have been when it came to vacation childcare. But that hadn’t been enough for her to want a ring on her finger. Even after Wil had married and dashed any deeply suppressed hope she’d had of their friendship developing into something deeper.

  Wil turned to her and smiled. The dimple was in full force. ‘Do you want to hold her?’ he said, as if offering a gift of inestimable value.

  Hold baby Nina? As a potential stepmother? Of course she wanted to hold the dear little thing. But she wasn’t sure what Wil expected of her. To gush that she couldn’t wait to be little Nina’s mummy? That would be going too far in this crazy charade he had thrust her into. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—lie. Instead, she would try to behave as she normally would when offered a cuddle of an adorable baby.

  She held out her arms with a smile, was rewarded with the deliciousness of a soft, sweet-smelling baby in her arms. ‘Hello, Nina,’ she murmured. ‘I’m Georgia.’ The baby replied with her cute, four-toothed smile and a string of babble that just might have meant pleased to meet you. Nina was, without a doubt, enchanting.

  But how dare Wil put her in a position when she had to pretend to be a doting mum-to-be? Engaged to be married to him? It stretched the boundaries of a newly ignited friendship a step too far. She didn’t want to fall back into the good old Georgia trap—always obliging, always helpful, making excuses for the inexcusable—not for her family, not for her friends and especially not for Wil, who had ignored her for two whole years.

  CHAPTER THREE

  WIL RISKED A sideways glance at Georgia where she sat next to him in the car as he drove back towards Sydney. Her eyes were closed, but he knew she wasn’t asleep.

  In two years, she hadn’t changed a lot. Her hair, glinting reddish highlights in the afternoon sunlight, was cut a little shorter into a more sophisticated style. Her cheekbones seemed more pronounced and made her look more grown up, more womanly, though the scatter of freckles across the bridge of her nose was still delightfully girlish. She must have had her ears pierced as she was wearing stud earrings he’d never noticed before—she’d never worn earrings for fear of them getting caught in her horse-riding helmet. But she was still riding horses if her toned arms—bare in her sleeveless dress—were any indication.

  He was struck again, as he had been many times since they’d reconnected, by how lovely she was. Not in an obvious look at me way, but in a quieter way that needed a second glance to be truly appreciated. He’d appreciated her beauty from the get-go, even more so as he’d got to know her. But it wasn’t just a tumble of dark hair, deep blue eyes and an oval-shaped face that made her so attractive, it was her warm, generous heart, ready laughter and her smile. Georgia smiled not just with her lips but with her eyes, her whole face lighting up and warming those who were lucky enough to be on the receiving end.

  There had been years in Wil’s life where smiles bestowed on him had been rare. When he’d first met Georgia, back during his first days of university, her smile had been like a gift. She’d been as disappointed as he had about the lack of an equestrian club, but her good humour about it had soon had him planning how he could continue to see her. Fortunately, riding horses had been an immediate shared interest. He’d had to be convinced by the quirky indie music she favoured but he’d gone along with it as an excuse to see her. Then he’d got to genuinely like it. And to like her. A lot.

  He hadn’t straight away relegated her to the ‘just friends’ zone. Far from it. He would have asked her out like a shot that first day at uni if each of them hadn’t already been dating other people. As neither of them were the types to cheat, it hadn’t happened. Turned out the opportunities where they’d both been single and available at the same time had been rare. But there had been undeniable moments when neither of them had followed up on the chance to step up their friendshi
p to something else. Then he’d got to thinking she was way too valuable as a friend to risk losing her friendship. Yet. Maybe one day he’d take that chance. It had seemed to him that Georgia had ‘commitment’ stamped all over her. He hadn’t been ready for ‘for ever’. Girlfriends had come and gone. Georgia had stayed. Until the big mistake that had been his marriage.

  Now Georgia was annoyed with him. The tight set of her mouth, the uneven breathing told him she was seething while she pretended to sleep. He knew why.

  He should have consulted her before introducing her as his fiancée. But it had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. A gut response to the criticism that he wasn’t capable of looking after a baby. Fear that, despite the baby being legally in his custody, somehow the sister and the social worker would block him from taking his daughter home with him.

  Georgia had been shocked when he’d made the outrageous claim, though she’d hidden it well. The rigid way she’d held her shoulders had told him she was less than pleased. Yet she’d stepped up to the plate. She’d made the perfect pretend fiancée. Things wouldn’t have gone as smoothly without her intervention. He could never thank her enough.

  From the back seat, where baby Nina was strapped into her brand-new baby car seat, came a sudden loud murmur. Georgia’s eyes shot open. ‘Is Nina okay?’ She twisted around to check on her. ‘She’s still snoozing. Must have been dreaming.’

  ‘I wonder what a seven-month-old baby dreams about?’ he said.

  ‘Who knows?’ she said. ‘Food? Comfort? A former life, perhaps, if you believe in that.’

  ‘Whatever that dream might have been, she sounded happy,’ he said with relief.

  ‘She seems a happy baby. Healthy and well cared for too. Angie must have been a good mum.’ Georgia’s tone was guarded.