Christmas with Dr. Delicious by Sue MacKay

Author:Sue MacKay [MacKay, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781460377710
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

FRASER pulled into the drive of his parents’ home just after six the next morning. He’d left a note on the bench back at Allan and Rose Page’s house, thanking them for putting him up the previous night.

Quietly closing the truck door, he headed up the path in the dark to the front door. Hopefully his dad had had a quiet night.

His father’s newly querulous voice shattered that wish. ‘What do you think you’re doing, skulking around here, you scoundrel?’

‘Dad? What are you doing outside this early?’ Fraser stared at the semi-naked man sitting on the top step. ‘You need more than pyjama pants to protect yourself against the cold and damp.’ At least the rain had finally stopped.

‘Keeping an eye out for you, Henry Broad. You needn’t think you’re getting past me to Molly. She’s mine now. She don’t want a bar of you, so beat it.’

Shock slammed into Fraser, forcing the air out of his lungs. Dad doesn’t recognise me. Knowing that this would happen didn’t lessen the impact or the pain. He’s really lost all sense of what’s real.

‘Dad, it’s me, your son.’ Fraser spoke evenly, quietly, pretending his heart wasn’t pounding his ribs like a battering ram. He needed to make his father come back from wherever his mind had wandered. ‘Dad, I’m Fraser,’ he said as he slipped his jacket off and around his dad’s shivering shoulders. This was the man who’d tormented and bullied him all his childhood and yet Fraser would give anything to bring back the father he was more familiar with.

‘Go home, Broad.’ His dad’s voice dipped, wavered, as though he wasn’t sure what was going on.

Fraser grimaced. How long has Dad been out here? His skin was icy. Hypothermic? Shivering and confusion were symptoms. But the confusion was more likely due to the dementia. ‘Come on, let’s get you inside and warm.’

Where was Mum? Finally getting a desperately needed full night’s sleep? This would rattle her, and cause more sleepless nights as she kept one eye open to watch over the man she’d spent all her adult life with.

His dad stood up slowly. ‘Don’t get funny with me, Broad. I know you’ve been sneaking around, trying to win Molly away from me.’ He swung an arm in Fraser’s direction.

Carefully catching the arm, which wasn’t as muscular as it used to be, Fraser tried to turn his father round and lead him inside, all the while aching for this once strong man. The man who’d been a hard father, who’d pushed him around, taunted him over any shortcomings, and yet had sat with him for every single round of chemo.

Twisting out of Fraser’s hands, his dad yelled, ‘Don’t you touch me. Get off my property and don’t come back, you hear?’

Fraser reluctantly tried another tack. ‘Ken, get your butt in the house now before Molly comes looking for you. She’s going to be mad as hell if she finds you out here.’ It was a crappy state of affairs when

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