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His right shoulder went up and down in a little shrug of assent. ‘It could happen.’
She looked at him in surprise. ‘You surely don’t believe in any of that nonsense, do you?’
‘No, of course not, but you are a doctor and spend a large proportion of your time with other medicos so it’s not unreasonable to assume you’ll end up in a relationship with one at some point. Most of my medical friends are hooked up with colleagues. Besides, who’s got the time to go anywhere else to meet someone?’
She gave him an embittered look. ‘I’ve had two relationships with doctors and both of them were disasters. My last one had an ex-girlfriend he was still seeing while he was dating me.’
‘Yeah, well, I know that feeling,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘Leila was seeing someone else on the nights I was on call. It had been going on for a couple of months before I found out about it.’
‘That’s terrible!’ Georgie said. ‘You must have been devastated.’
He gave a dismissive shrug. ‘I should have known she wasn’t the right one. My sister hated her on sight and so did my mother.’
‘You’re really close to your family, aren’t you?’ she asked.
His eyes met hers across the table. ‘When you’ve been through the sort of stuff we’ve been through as a family you either pull together or pull apart. We were lucky enough to pull together. My stepfather is a great man who has been a fabulous father figure to me, even though no one could ever really replace my real father. I have enormous respect for Jack as it’s the hardest job in the world to love someone else’s kid.’
Georgie felt another tight gear shift in her chest. ‘You are lucky as I have several friends who positively loathe their stepparents,’ she said. ‘It’s made their relationships with their real parents very strained, which is terribly sad.’
‘As I said, it’s not easy taking on the responsibility of someone else’s children, but Jack has done so without complaint,’ Ben said. ‘In fact, if you hadn’t been told you’d never guess I wasn’t his biological child. He treats me exactly the same as he treats Hannah.’
‘I’m looking forward to meeting her,’ Georgie said.
‘Thanks for coming to the rescue,’ he said. ‘I was starting to panic about helping her choose underwear and things like that. There’s eighteen years between us so she’s always been a little girl to me, but now she’s thinking about boys and dating. It’s scary stuff.’
‘It’s hard, being a girl,’ she said, ‘especially at that age. You’re sort of stuck with a foot in both camps. Not quite an adult, not quite a child.’
He picked up his coffee again. ‘Was it hard for you, growing up as an only child?’
She ran her finger over the r
aised logo again. ‘I had my moments of wishing I had less of my parents’ company but on the whole I think I’ve been lucky. Although I’ve often wondered what it would have been like to have a brother or sister, especially now as my parents seem a bit lost and vulnerable.’
‘I can’t imagine your father ever allowing himself to be vulnerable,’ he commented. ‘He’s the archetypal control freak.’
‘Not according to Madeleine Brothers,’ she put in with a tilt of her chin. ‘She spoke of him with nothing but praise, so your attempt to discredit him in my eyes failed. No one I’ve spoken to thus far has said a bad word about him.’
‘That’s because you’ve been speaking to the wrong people,’ he countered. ‘Madeleine worked with him for a short time in a private hospital, not a cash-strapped public one with overworked staff.’
‘She warned me about you,’ Georgie said. ‘She said you were a heartbreaker.’
His brows lifted slightly. ‘Did she?’
‘Yes.’
‘I can assure you I am nothing of the sort,’ he said. ‘For one thing I don’t have the time to date indiscriminately, and secondly I’m starting to feel the need to settle down.’
Georgie couldn’t help feeling surprised by his open admission. Most men his age were reluctant to date monogamously, one-night stands and short-term casual hook-ups being the preferred choice of dealing with their sexual needs.
‘You look as if I’ve suddenly grown two heads,’ he commented. ‘Isn’t it de rigueur for an almost thirty-five-year-old man to admit to wanting a wife and family?’
‘It’s not all that common these days,’ she said. ‘Most of the men I’ve met are commitment-shy. The mere mention of a baby sends them running faster than a greyhound on steroids.’
He smiled at the cynical twist to her mouth. ‘You’ve obviously been meeting the wrong men, Georgie. I know about twenty farmers who are desperately looking for a good woman to settle down with. Perhaps it’s just city men who don’t want the whole deal.’
She lowered her gaze from the deep blue intensity of his. ‘Perhaps …’
‘Come on,’ he said after a tiny pause. ‘We’d better get back to work. You’re working on Richard DeBurgh’s theatre list with him this afternoon, aren’t you?’
