His Secret Love-Child

‘What of his mother?’ Cal asked.

‘No news. Harry has every cop in the state looking for her, and every medical clinic within a thousand miles. I told him about the von Willebrand’s thing and he’s scared we have a bleeder.’ He stooped and hugged the dog as if he needed some comfort himself. ‘I guess we all are.’

‘I’m not sure. I’m guessing it may well be the father,’ Gina said.

‘Why do you say that?’

‘I am just guessing. But I saw the birth site. If the mother had been a bleeder as well, there would have been a lot more.’

‘Maybe you’re right,’ Hamish said, relaxing a little. He looked from Gina to Cal and back again and he stopped relaxing. He looked interested. ‘So, out at the settlement…bad?’

‘Bad,’ Cal said.

‘Cal’s going to organise them a swimming pool,’ Gina told him, still hugging CJ, and Hamish stared.

‘The hell you are.’

‘Yeah, well, I’m going to take a shower first,’ Cal said, and tried to push past him to go into the house, but his friend blocked the way.

‘You’re going to organise them a swimming pool?’

‘To bribe the kids to go to school.’ Gina smiled. ‘It sounds a fantastic idea.’

‘I read about that,’ Hamish said. ‘I remember showing Emily and saying what a great idea. And Em said what we needed was someone to get enthusiastic and organise it here.’

‘Cal’s enthusiastic.’

‘Not now I’m not,’ Cal said. ‘I’m not the least bit enthusiastic. Hamish, move over, mate. I want to get past.’

‘When I’ve finished asking questions,’ Hamish told him. ‘So you’re going to organise a pool.’ He glanced across at Gina. ‘And you’re going to help?’

‘Not me. I’m going back to the US.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Hamish complained. ‘No one’s making sense.’

‘My ice cream’s squashed,’ CJ told them all conversationally. He pulled back from his hug and eyed his mother’s cleavage. ‘I think some of my ice cream’s dropped down there.’

‘Great,’ said Gina. She peered down. ‘Oh, goody. Chocolate.’

‘I guess that means you get first crack at the shower,’ Hamish told her, and grinned. ‘Want some help?’

‘CJ will help,’ she said with dignity.

‘I was offering Cal’s services.’

‘Butt out, Hamish.’ Cal was feeling like so many things were being thrown at him his head was spinning. He needed space. He needed to get away by himself and sort his head out. And the chocolate ice cream had gone where?

‘Will you look after my dog?’ CJ was asking him, and he tried to think of something useful to say. Hamish was chuckling.

‘Hamish is a paediatrician,’ he told CJ. ‘He’s good at handling babies. Rudolph is a puppy and therefore-’

‘CJ, Rudolph isn’t your dog,’ Gina told her son, tugging him up the steps.

‘The Grubbs can’t keep him,’ CJ said, distressed. ‘He has to be my dog.’

‘We can’t take him home, honey.’

‘I’m going back to the hospital,’ Hamish said. ‘I’m needed.’ He gave them his most virtuous look and disappeared. Fast. Before he ended up with a dog.

‘I need to keep Rudolph,’ CJ said urgently, not even noticing Hamish’s exit in his distress. ‘What will happen to him if I can’t keep him?’

‘Cal will look after him,’ Gina said, ‘Won’t you, Cal?’

‘I don’t want a dog.’

‘Of course you do,’ she told him. ‘Everyone wants a dog and he’s splendid. You won’t have to need him at all.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Figure it out, Einstein.’ She tempered the words with a smile but the smile was strained. ‘He’s a fine dog, Cal. You offered to take us because you thought we needed you, but we don’t. But Rudolph needs a home and CJ needs to know that he’s in good hands.’

‘But…’ Cal stared down at Rudolph. He really was the weirdest mutt. His huge, long face looked lugubrious already and he was only a pup. Imagine what he’d look like when it got some age on.

The dog was staring right up at Cal and suddenly the bounce had gone right out of him. He expected to be kicked. His tail was right underneath him and he whimpered.

‘See. He knows his life hangs in the balance,’ Gina said.

‘What are you looking at me like that for?’ Cal demanded of the dog. ‘The Grubbs aren’t planning on putting you down.’

‘What’s putting down?’ CJ asked, and Cal knew he was lost.

‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Fine,’ he told the dog. ‘I’ll keep him,’ he told Gina. ‘You walk back into my life and suddenly I’m organising swimming pools and taking care of manipulative dogs and…’

‘And what, Cal?’ She tilted her chin and met his look with one of defiance.

‘And nothing.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ she whispered. ‘Nothing. CJ and I are off to have a shower and then I have patients to see. You have a dog to care for and a swimming pool to organise. Separate lives, Cal. But that’s the way you want it. Isn’t it?’

‘And the damnable thing is that I now have the Grubbs’ dog, which they’ve been trying to palm off onto unsuspecting victims for the last two months and they didn’t even try me, and now look!’ Cal was in Charles’s office, and Rudolph was beside him. The mutt had cheered right up. He was leaning-hard-against Cal’s leg and his tail was sweeping the carpet as if he’d found paradise.

‘He looks quite a nice…personality,’ Charles said cautiously, and Cal grimaced.

‘If you grin, I’m going to have to slug you.’

‘Hey, I’m in a wheelchair.’

‘I’ll tip you out of the wheelchair and then I’ll slug you.’

Charles grinned.

‘You know, it’s not such a bad thing,’ he told him. ‘You need someone to love and Rudolph sure looks like he needs someone to love,’

‘I do not need someone to love.’

‘Which is why you’re sending Gina home.’

‘I’m not sending Gina home either,’ Cal snapped. ‘I offered to marry her.’

Charles stilled. ‘You did what?’

‘I offered to marry her. She refused.’

‘You offered to marry her,’ Charles said cautiously. ‘Gee, that was noble of you.’

‘It was not noble. And she refused.’

‘Why?’

‘How would I know?’

‘Did you tell her you love her?’

‘Yes!’

‘You’re kidding.’ Charles was still staring at Rudolph, who had rubbed against Cal so hard that Cal had put his hand down to push him away. Now, though, the hand had become a scratching post. Cal’s fingers were running along the dog’s spine and Rudolph was arching in ecstasy. ‘I don’t believe it.’

‘I’ve never loved anyone else.’

‘No,’ Charles said cautiously. ‘Maybe that’s the trouble.’

‘Look, it’s academic anyway,’ Cal told him. ‘She’s going home to the States the day after tomorrow. Our baby’s looking good. Gina could leave tomorrow but apparently she’s got some date with Bruce, crocodile hunting.’

‘So your son’s last day in Australia will be spent with someone else,’ Charles said, still carefully watching the