Page 30 of The Doctor's Surprise Family

“Sorry,” I whispered, as the presenter got going.

Claire glanced at me. “Huh?”

I smiled as a penguin did a loud belly-flop. Oli cheered, and the presenter tossed it a fish.

“I should’ve asked first,” I said.

“Asked about what?”

I gestured all around us, at the crowd, at the birds. “Today. All of this. About my whole plan. I thought, I don’t know, what do kids like? What would I have liked when I was his age? But it’s too much, isn’t it?”

“For one day? I’ll say.”

I looked down at Oli and felt like a jerk. He was laughing, excited, but his eyes had gone glazed. He had the same look I got working a double, pumped up from adrenaline, running on fumes. Claire had the look I got the next day —afterthe double, after the crash, when all I could do was faceplant into bed. No doubt, I’d cost her a much-needed rest day, dozing while Oli played catch with her dad.

“If it’s too much, we don’t have to do dinner.”

Claire studied Oli, biting her lip. “I don’t know about that. He’d love your spaghetti. But how about maybe we do it at our house? That way, he can eat and conk out right after.”

I was tempted to ask, would her parents be home? The thought of dinner with them was a nail-biting prospect. Not that the Everetts were especially scary, but I was the man who’d run out on their daughter. I’d left her pregnant and broken her heart, and now here I was, taking over their kitchen. But if I wanted to be part of Oli’s life, his gran and grandad would be part of that.

“Sounds good,” I said. And I’d make sure it was. Claire deserved that much, after the day she’d just had.

Her parentswerehome, but my nerves were for nothing. Whatever they might’ve felt about me crashing their lives, they made me as welcome as they had that Thanksgiving, the night I first knew I was falling for Claire. I made my spaghetti and Sharon helped, and Alan took Oli to watch some TV. He came and nudged Claire as I dressed the salad.

“You should get out the tray tables.”

“You want to eat in the den?” Claire peered past him, across the wide dining room.

“Oli’s drooping a bit, and that show just came on — you know, that nature one with all the monkeys. I’m worried if we move him…” He pulled a face.

“Good thinking,” said Claire. “Hey, Blake, could you grab those? They’re up in the cupboard above the fridge.”

I got down the tray tables and dusted them off, and carried them through to the sunset-lit den. Oli grumbled and squirmed when I set his on his lap.

“Easy there, bud. It’s just for your dinner.”

“I’mnota bug.”

“No,bud, not bug. Like, you’re my buddy.”

Oli scrunched up his legs and his table tipped over. Alan picked it up and set it to one side.

“Watch your monkeys,” he said. “You think they’d like spaghetti?”

Oli just grunted, and his little head dipped. I could see he was struggling to stay awake. Claire set down his dinner and plopped down on the floor, and set about cutting his noodles to size. Sharon came up behind me.

“Missed his nap, huh?”

I dipped my head, shamefaced. “Yeah. That’s on me.”

“I hear he had fun, though. The aquarium, huh?”

“We saw penguins,” said Oli, his voice thick with sleep. “Can penguins be pets? Mom? Can penguins be pets?”

“I don’t think so,” said Claire. “But we’ll go back real soon.”

“You think they’ll remember us?”

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