Page 15 of Prognosis Temporary

It just felt right. As right as Sebastian’s forefinger felt pushing back a lock of her hair.

‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Why’d you decide to become a psychologist?’

He searched her face like he, too, had demons and he didn’t know where to start. ‘My father was a Vietnam vet. He was a prisoner of war for a brief time. He suffered severe PTSD. My mother was clinically depressed most of her life. Because of Dad mostly. Their marriage was certainly no bed of roses. So...’ he shrugged ‘I guess for the same reasons as you. To help. To understand.’

Callie nodded, liking the openness of his pale green eyes and the fact that he was some kind of kindred spirit. She shot him a slow smile. ‘And what on earth are you doing in this neck of the woods? Community mental health is a little lowbrow for such a hotshot, surely?’

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Sebastian chuckledbut his gut tensed. The answer to that one was complicated and a lot closer to home than the ancient history that was his family.

He played with a lock of her hair. ‘I just needed a change of pace.’ Callie was looking at him intently and he averted his gaze to the silky slide of her hair through his fingers. ‘To try something different.’

She arched an eyebrow at his evasive answer but didn’t say anything. For damn sure she knew that he was evading her question, though. She was just choosing to let it go.

For now.

Instead, she leaned forward and kissed him, lingering over it, her tongue stroking his lips. Desire squirmed in Sebastian’s belly but she kept it light, easing away far too soon and cuddling into his side again.

‘So,’ Sebastian murmured after he realised the silence had gone on for an eternity. He’d been too wrapped up in the press of her breasts against his ribs and the slow, steady fan of her breath against his chest to make conversation. ‘What I want to know is, how come you aren’t married with a swag of kids by now?’

She laughed. ‘You have to ask that? With my gene pool? Inflict that on some poor innocent child? No way. Absolutely not. And there’s not a lot of guys around who are comfortable with my no-kids stance. Also...I raised Andy’s kid from two through to ten so I’ve done my mothering.’

Sebastian blinked at the ceiling. Well that he hadn’t expected. ‘Raised?’ he asked tentatively because he might have only known her for a day but he was already coming to know she buried her hurts deep. ‘Past tense? Where is he now?’

She rolled to her back and Sebastian felt her absence acutely. She was only a couple of hand spans away but the distance between them felt like a gaping chasm.

‘Back with his mother,’ she said, her voice a monotone as she stared at the ceiling.

‘But she wasn’t always around?’ he clarified wondering how far he could push.

‘No.’ She rolled her head from side to side. ‘Zack’s mother was a drug addict. And my brother wasn’t capable of looking after him either. Aleisha’s parents raised Zack until Andrew died and then...they couldn’t cope any more. They didn’t know if their daughter was dead or alive from one minute to the next and they were getting older. Too old to cope with an energetic two-year-old-boy. So I took him in.’

The depth of emotion in Callie’s husky voice made Sebastian ache for her. He glanced over to find her eyes were closed. ‘But he’s back with her now?’

‘Yes.’ Her throat bobbed. ‘She’s clean. Has been for two years. She’s married to a good guy. Very stable with a great extended family. And she has a great job. She – ’Callie cleared her throat. ‘Wanted her son back.’

The ache grew bigger. Sebastian didn’t have to ask to know that giving her nephew up had been gut-wrenching for Callie. Her soft, tremulous voice said it all. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered, rolling up on his elbow and dropping a kiss on her shoulder.

She nodded, squeezing her eyes together tight. ‘It was the right thing to do.’ She drew in a ragged breath. ‘And it’s working really well. He lives nearby, goes to the same school, has the same friends. He adores his stepfather. He’s happy, that’s all that matters.’

Sebastian kissed her shoulder again.

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, staring directly into his. ‘What about you? Do you have kids? This, by the way, would be a very bad time to tell me you have three. And a wife waiting for you back in Melbourne.’

He chuckled. ‘Oh, no, not me. No wife. No kids. Same reasons as you, really. Another bad gene pool and my parents’ train wreck of a marriage led to my own no-kids policy.’

And he’d seen so much in his life, particularly this last year — so much violence and hate and suffering — he wasn’t sure he wanted to bring an innocent child into such a screwed-up world.

‘And let me tell you there aren’t any women out there comfortable with that.’ Except for maybe her...‘Women, or at last the ones I’ve been involved with anyway, think you’re going to change your mind. That they’ll be the ones to make you see that you actually really do want babies. But...I don’t think some people were meant to have children, you know? Me included.’

‘Amen to that,’ she said vehemently, rolling onto her side and kissing him - hard and deep - for long cataclysmic moments before she pulled abruptly away. ‘I gotta go.’ She sat and scooted to the side of the bed. ‘I’ve got to work tomorrow.’

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The screw and run manoeuvrewas a well practised one for Callie. She never stayed the night. It was a rule she’d adopted early in her dating life - a product of a chaotic and unsettled upbringing - and had been cemented when an impressionable child came into her care. And even though Zack was gone, sleeping with a man was an intimacy she didn’t want to invite.

Especially not with Sebastian.

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