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By reuish in Mam’s face at Sebastian and Dad’s funeral One funeral, two coffins, two goodbyes Half the fas just have to be done, and forendless kilometres Don’t knohat I’ll do when the body doesn’t want to pound the pavement any more’

‘Take up go-go dancing’ Talance, like she didn’t want any more bad news yet had to find out ‘So Our baby What are the chances our child will have a heart problem? Is there any e can find out or do we have to wait until a cardiac event happens?’

She’d got to the crux of the matter The reason why he’d determined never to have children in the first place ‘I didn’t explain properly My brother didn’t die of a heart attack but as the result of being in the car Dad was driving when he had his The car went over the bridge onto the rocks thirty feet below’

‘That’s a rough deal,’ she gasped ‘Your poorI don’t knohat to say It’s awful’

‘Yes, it is So you’ll understand when I said I couldn’t have children There’s no way I wanted that happening to ain’

‘I get that co to be a dad so we have to talk about our child’s medical future’

He tapped his fingers on the arms of the recliner he sat in ‘It will be a wait-and-see approach for now Who knows? Medical knowledge is progressing all the tie But I’ll have junior checked by a cardiologist fro ‘Or before if it’s thought necessary’

‘We will’

‘Sorry’ He wasn’t used to factoring so

Her hands splayed across her belly ‘We’ve got knowledge on our side’

Conor reached for her hands They were cold and shaky ‘I’ll talk to one of the cardiologists in the next couple of weeks One step at a tiers crossed all the while that nothing ever rong for junior

‘You’ll talk to someone? Excuse me, buster, but I am as much a part of this as you’

Conor winced He’d done it again ‘This is as tricky for otiate as it is for you to take in’

Taet that’ She gulped ‘I’m afraid’

His chest felt as though it’d been slammed Tamara afraid? ‘Why?’

Her eyes widened ‘Can I do this?’

‘You? Ta’

‘I alanted children, to have the kind of warulp ‘Until Peter, that is I got hi How can I—or you—trust h to adulthood? I’m not qualified I h she had to say all this fast in case she froze

Yep, that man had a lot to answer for This kind, wonderful wo wreck behind the confident nurse’s façade ‘You’re better than that Don’t let hi’

‘I’ hireenstick fracture to her ulna Only it was Tamara’s confidence that was fractured here And, he suspected, her heart

He’d have to nurture her, show she was capable of giving love and receiving it back Huh? Love had nothing to do with their situation Or did it? He’d been intending to leave Auckland to get away from her, and that hadn’t been because he couldn’t stand her But to do that‘You don’t need qualifications to be a parent, just love and patience and understanding Kindness Syot the lot, Tamara’ Conor stood up to pull her to her feet so he could wrap her in a hug ‘Take that deter to med school into this new scenario You can do whatever you want if you don’t let the past shackle you’ Definitely do as he said, not as he did

Her head nodded against his chest ‘I know Some of the time’

She fitted so well in his arhto do with their predica how babies wereand had hihter, closer ‘You’ve got me with you on this’

Tamara shivered, and tension crept into her arms Too much?

Then his oords whacked him around the skull He’d just h So withdraw it No way That wasn’t how he operated He did not walk ahen life got tough