The Heart Surgeon's Baby Surprise. Meredith Webber

“Would one of you guys mind obliging?” And, anyway, most of the team are married and having a biological child by someone other than their wife, even if they didn’t acknowledge it, could cause problems in their marriage. I’m not totally insensitive!’

      ‘No?’ He was smiling now, the rat! Taking absolute delight in her embarrassment. ‘I must say it would enliven team meetings no end for you to suddenly come out with a request for a sperm donor.’

      ‘It’s all very well for you to joke,’ Grace snapped, hating him more and more for she’d never found it easy to deal with teasing. ‘But this is a serious problem for me.’

      She sank back in her chair, swigged down the rest of the wine, and sighed.

      Theo looked at her, reading the dejection in her pose, the embarrassment that lay behind it, and seeing also, behind the façade of confidence, the motherless little girl who wanted nothing more than to please the father she obviously adored.

      It was the little girl who sneaked through his defences, although when he replayed Grace’s rationale in his head he suspected there was more to her wanting a child than she’d said. Oh, it had sounded very sensible—but was she using her father’s desire to see the family line continued to hide her own longing? He’d seen her at the hospital—seen the way she looked at the small patients—and wondered if she felt it would weaken her somehow to admit she wanted a child for herself?

      He sighed.

      ‘Look, I’m sorry for teasing you, and I do see how difficult it must be for you, but if you’ve thought this through at all, you must realise that the chances of you getting pregnant right off from one…er, donation are very slim. What are you going to do then? Ask someone else?’

      She stared at him, such horror in her eyes he knew immediately she hadn’t considered the possibility of not getting pregnant straight away.

      ‘But I ovulate regularly and I’ve been tested and I’m still producing viable eggs so if I time it right, why not? People get pregnant accidentally all the time, so surely if I stick to the right date, so will I.’

      Theo shook his head at her desperate protest.

      ‘Are you really such an innocent?’ he demanded, then was sorry when he saw the colour creep into her cheeks again. And although he found her blushing attractive he was sure she hated it, so he regretted he’d embarrassed her.

      ‘Of course not!’ she said indignantly, but he heard a lie in the words. Then she shrugged her shoulders.

      ‘You must think I’m stupid—stupid for not realizing. Even more stupid for having such a pathetic idea—a baby for a birthday present…’

      She stood up, adding, ‘Let’s go. I’m paying,’ in the kind of voice he heard from her in the hospital—cool, efficient, in control.

      But not totally in control for her handbag had fallen from her lap, spilling its contents on the floor.

      She bent to gather things, obviously flustered, and he bent with her, picking up a lipstick tube, thinking how attractive she was when her mask of self-control slipped. And suddenly the idea of being a sperm donor for this woman didn’t seem such a bad idea, although…

      ‘There, I think that’s it,’ he said, pressing a small pack of tissues into her hand, touching her fingers, looking into her clear eyes, the full lips so close he could have kissed them.

      Tension he didn’t understand built between them, growing stronger by the second until he had to diffuse it—or kiss her!

      He let her pay the bill, and as they left the restaurant she turned back towards the hospital.

      ‘Aren’t you living on Kensington Terrace?’ he asked.

      She nodded, as if still afraid to speak in case she said something more she’d regret.

      ‘Then you don’t have to go back to the hospital. We can walk across the park.’

      ‘Do you live in that direction?’ she asked, studying him now, suspicious…

      ‘I don’t, I live closer to the city, but it’s not much further for me to walk through the park then from your place to the hospital where my car is than it is to walk from here. I’ll see you home.’

      Definitely suspicious but although her lips—he really had to stop looking at her lips—opened to protest, they closed again, and she didn’t shake off his hand when he put it on her elbow to guide her across the road and in through the park gates.

      Grace had seen the park in daylight but had not had time to explore it, although someone on the team had mentioned ponds with ducks and geese, and riding trails and dog exercise areas. None of which had much relevance for her, so she’d not taken much notice. And certainly no one had spoken of the romantic possibilities of the area, although as they walked along well-lit paths, in and out of patches of shadows cast by huge old trees, the park assumed a very romantic atmosphere.

      Romantic atmosphere? What was wrong with her? One devastatingly embarrassing meal with a colleague and she was thinking romance?

      ‘Peaceful, isn’t it?’ Theo remarked, as they wandered along the path through a particularly dense bit of shadow.

      ‘Yes, very!’ she said quickly. Peaceful was a much better description than romantic!

      ‘You’ve settled into your flat?’ her companion asked, and once again she was grateful. Perhaps he’d forgotten her stupidity at dinner.

      ‘Yes, although I need to find a supermarket and do some proper shopping, and probably find a means of transport to get to and from the shops. I assume there are buses.’

      ‘There are buses but I could drive you. You’ll probably have a lot of stuff to get and bringing it home in the car is easier than carting it home on a bus. After work tomorrow? We’d better check with Jean-Luc as he’ll probably need to find a supermarket as well.’

      Why was he doing this? Making arrangements that meant he would see more of her? Theo puzzled over this dilemma as they exited the park, a little part of him feeling regret that they’d not taken advantage of the night-time romantic ambience.

      He must be crazy, although Jean-Luc would probably be with them the following day.

      Jean-Luc? Grace was living in a flat above him. Surely he’d have been a better candidate for a sperm donation.

      ‘Why not Jean-Luc?’ Theo asked, as they waited for traffic to clear before crossing the road to the big old house that had been divided into flats and was kept by the hospital for visiting medical personnel. She turned to him, hesitated an instant, then offered him a smile that was only marginally better than a grimace. They crossed the road before she answered.

      She turned to face him on the footpath outside the house. ‘Believe it or not, I did consider it.’ There was enough honesty in her voice for him to know it was the truth. ‘But how embarrassing for both of us if he felt he didn’t want to do it,’ she continued, ‘and probably worse if he did agree. No, it had to be someone a little more at arm’s length, if you know what I mean. Anyway, thanks to your common sense I’ve realised I was being unduly optimistic and definitely irrational in thinking I could do it my way. I’ll get in touch with an IVF clinic here and find out what’s involved in getting on a programme.’