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He missed being part of a couple. He hadn’t realised it until now. All those intimacies of living together. The gentle touches, the secret smiles, the knowing looks, the innate synchronicity that happened when one person knew the other so completely. He hadn’t hadn’t had time to think about it since Annie had died. He certainly hadn’t had time to want it. But looking at Hailey asleep with Tom, it was all he could think about.
Maybe this had been Annie’s grand plan for him? He used to talk to her. A lot. In the beginning. But then Tom had fallen ill and existing had been all he could manage. Annie and his grief had faded even further as everything to do with Tom had taken over.
He gave himself a mental shake and left the kitchen, sitting himself down in the chair where Hailey and Tom had been earlier. He sat forward, his elbows bent on his knees, his face cradled in his palms. This was insane. He barely knew her. And he certainly didn’t know how to date and do the daddy thing.
All presuming that she’d want to. Which, given her reticence to babysit, didn’t seem likely. Hailey had significant baggage, he’d heard as much tonight. And Tom and he had enough of their own. Above all else he had to think of Tom first. And as much as Tom adored Hailey, it didn’t mean it was reciprocated.
His gaze fell on the book that Hailey had brought with her to read. It was a memoir and he flipped through it absently while his thoughts chased each other into a giant jumble. A slip of paper fell out from between two of the pages and he picked it up off the floor.
He frowned. It wasn’t paper. It was a photograph. Hailey was cuddling a little boy who was laughing up at her. The boy looked about Tom’s age and the spitting image of the man who was also laughing, his arm draped possessively around her shoulder.
Callum’s heartbeat pounded through his veins, his curiosity piqued. He knew this was none of his business but the image was captivating. Who were those people in the photo with Hailey? Was the man a lover? Her husband? Had she been married? Was the little boy hers? What had happened to him? Was she grieving too? Was this what she’d alluded to with Tom earlier? What had Hailey been through?
So many questions. So many reasons to run a mile. And yet he still felt drawn to her. Why? He replaced the photo in the book and wandered back into Tom’s room, looking for answers. He stood at the end of the bed, observing a sleeping Hailey.
Man! She was seriously gorgeous. In sleep all her defences had been stripped away. The frown he saw on her face a little too frequently was gone, her delectable mouth, too often pulled tight, was slack and inviting. He had a feeling he was seeing the real Hailey.
But who was the real Hailey? The efficient nurse? The younger sister? The reluctant babysitter? The laughing woman in the photo with the mystery man and child? And what the hell did it matter? He didn’t need a woman in his life. He’d already had one, found happiness with one. It was greedy to expect more, surely?
He glanced at his sleeping son, grateful to still have him. Losing his wife had been heart-breaking. To have lost Tom too…that would have been soul-destroying. He usually daren’t wish for anything more. Except right now, with Hailey asleep in Tom’s bed, he wished he had a crystal ball or a magic wand. He wished he could go back and make everything right. For both of them.
Hailey murmured as if his wish had disturbed her as it had passed by. He mentally tossed up whether to wake her or not. His heart told him to let her sleep. But his gut doubted whether she’d appreciate the gesture. Yes, she got on with Tom. If he had to bet the apartment on it, he’d even say she liked him. But he’d be blind and stupid to not realise she was there only through sibling pressure.
He wondered for a moment, though, what it would be like to be allowed the liberty of kissing her awake. To feel her mouth curve into a smile beneath his, her arms creep up around his neck.
He shut his eyes against the vision and gripped the end of the bed. ‘Hailey?’ he called.
She didn’t stir so he moved closer, crouching beside the bed and giving her shoulder a shake. Hailey stirred again, muttering to herself, turning in the bed so she now faced him, his eyes level with her cleavage. He shut them and prayed for restraint. When he opened them he noticed how the T-shirt pulled across her chest, causing the three little buttons to gape and show a glimpse of purple satin. ‘Hailey,’ he said again.
It took a few seconds for Callum’s voice to penetrate the fog of sleep clinging to her. But then she was instantly awake. She sat up as if she’d been hit by an electric cattle prod.
‘Whoa!’ Callum chuckled, startled by her sudden motion and her wide-eyed demeanour. ‘Shh. Don’t wake Tom. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.’
