The Brooding Doc and the Single Mom by Louisa Heaton

Author:Louisa Heaton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-03-08T16:35:10+00:00

* * *

‘Are you missing your mum?’

Daniel crouched down in front of Jack. They were in Daniel’s back garden. Between his house and the annexe. And Jack didn’t seem himself.

He nodded.

‘Was it a bad day today at school?’ he asked softly.

‘No. It was okay.’

‘No one upset you?’

A shake of his head.

‘You didn’t eat much for dinner either.’ He pressed the back of his hand to Jack’s forehead. He felt a little warm and he was pale. ‘You feeling okay?’ he asked.

‘My tummy hurts.’

Ah... Children often complained of a tummy ache. It could be a number of things, and most of them were not serious, but Daniel had to admit to feeling his heart race a little. He was supposed to be looking after Jack. Stacey had said she trusted him with her son, and he wanted to prove that her belief in him was solid. It wouldn’t do for Jack to be ill by the time she got home.

‘Where does it hurt?’

‘Here.’ Jack pointed to his belly button.

‘Want me to take a look?’

Jack looked at him then, with uncertainty in his eyes, and said in a small voice, ‘I don’t show people my tummy.’

Daniel smiled. ‘Let me tell you a secret. I don’t show people my tummy either.’

‘Do you have a birthmark on yours, too?’

‘I do. But just a small one.’

‘I have a big one.’

‘Well, I’m a doctor. So I’ve probably seen every kind of birthmark you can imagine.’

Jack thought for a moment. ‘Okay. But in the house.’

Daniel nodded and followed the young boy back into the annexe, where he suggested that Jack lay on the couch.

‘We’ll do this only when you’re ready. Just one question. And it’s my favourite question to ask patients! Have you pooped today?’

Jack smiled at the word. ‘Mummy says we shouldn’t talk about poop at the dinner table.’

‘Well, we’re not at the dinner table. So, have you?’

Jack shook his head.

‘Gone pee-pee?’

Jack nodded, and then slowly reached down to clasp the tee shirt that he had tucked into the top of his shorts and lift it.

Daniel was careful not to change his facial expression. He wasn’t shocked by what he saw, but he fully understood why Jack would feel he needed to hide his stomach. The birthmark stretched across one side of it, from his right hip bone to just under his left nipple. It was like a paint splash. It wasn’t raised, or red, but it was large, and his heart went out to this little boy who’d had his life made miserable by other little kids who didn’t like anyone different.

He rubbed his hands together to make them warmer. ‘Can I press on your tummy?’

Jack nodded.

‘If anything hurts, you tell me—okay?’

Another nod.

Jack’s tummy was soft and palpable, and he didn’t grimace or show any signs of anything serious.

Daniel wondered if Jack was simply missing his mum. He didn’t know this area, even if Stacey did, and he was still getting used to knowing his grandparents in person, a new school, new classmates. And now he had been left with his mother’s work friend.

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