Page 93 of Dr. Single Dad

How could she think I wouldn’t wait? I reach for her and she takes my hand, and we stand on the doorstep for a few minutes, just holding hands, alternating between staring at each other and Guinevere.

“I don’t want you to go,” I say.

“I’ll see you at seven,” she says, then glides down the stairs and turns down the street. Every now and again, she looks back, sees me watching her, and her grin grows wider.

“Guinevere, this is a great day, my sweet girl,” I say as she starts to stir from her nap. “A great day. Daddy has a date tonight. So you gotta go to Uncle Jacob and Auntie Sutton’s place so I can have dinner with Eira. Is that okay?”

She started to make funny noises like a bird tweeting. I lift her out of the sling so I can hear them better. There’s nothing sweeter than cuddling with my daughter, and the only thing that would make me miss an evening of it is an evening with Eira.

THIRTY-SEVEN

Dax

I could have messaged Eira to ask where we were going, but I haven’t. I don’t want to fuck this up, so I need to go at her pace, follow her rules. She said dinner and I’m assuming she would have said if she wanted me in black tie. After changing several times, I settle on a blue shirt and dark blue jeans and a jacket. I can’t remember a time in my life when I was nervous. But I am now. Even when I flew to New York to pick up Guinevere, I didn’t think about the repercussions long enough to be nervous.

Tonight there seems so much at stake.

The doorbell goes and as I stalk toward the entrance hall, I can’t help but remember the first time I met Eira. She was covered in mud and, I thought, the very last person I was looking for.

How wrong I was.

I open the door, but there’s no one there.

“Hello?” I call.

“Here!” She appears from behind the hedge in front of my house. “I just found a bumble bee on your pathway and put him somewhere safer.”

“Of course you did,” I say. “Rescuer of animals and people.”

She steps toward me in a long blue skirt and a white t-shirt, looking effortlessly cool and sexy in that way only she can. “Did I rescue someone?” she asks.

I can’t do anything but smile at her. She looks so beautiful. Her hair hits her waist and her skin seems to shine.

“I bought something for Guinevere,” she says, holding up a gift bag. “A towel. With her initials on it.”

“Oh, thanks,” I say, taking the bag from her. “Shall I open it?”

She shrugs. “Later. Let’s walk.”

I drop the bag into the house and lock the door. We head in the direction of Hampstead village.

“So, Guinevere’s initials are GCC, right?” she asks.

“Right,” I say, “Guinevere Carole Cove.”

“And my sister’s scholarship is the GCC scholarship. Turns out there are scant details about that scholarship, apart from the fact it’s available for ten years and the criteria for consideration is that students have to have lost both their parents in order to be eligible.”

There’s no point in denying it. She’s put all the pieces together. “It was a thank-you,” I say. I knew Eira wouldn’t have accepted money for Eddie’s education if I offered it upfront. A scholarship for her sister seemed the easiest way to repay her in some way, and it had taken little effort from me. A phone call. A bank transfer. The university handled the rest.

The only sticking point had been timeframes. I wanted to make sure Eddie knew about her scholarship immediately and had the money within seven days. I wanted to relieve Eira’s financial burden as soon as possible. Once the universityrealized I wouldn’t change my mind, everything else slotted into place.

“For what?” she asks, pausing in the middle of the pavement.

“For taking Guinevere to the hospital. For taking such good care of her.”

“That’s my job. And it was viral meningitis anyway. She was fine.”

“No one knew it was viral at the time. If it had been bacterial, she would have been in hospital before it progressed. You would have saved her life.”

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