Six More Hot Single Dads!. Kate Hardy

take it slowly and give it time.’

      ‘That’s really good advice.’ Erin paused. ‘What about your mum?’

      He sighed. ‘She tries. Caitlin goes to her place after school until I’ve finished at work and can pick her up. But there’s quite a generation gap between them and Caitlin doesn’t really talk to her, either.’

      ‘It sounds like a vicious circle—the harder you try, the more distance you end up putting between you all.’

      ‘Yeah. You’re right. We need help.’ He looked bleak. ‘Though I feel bad about burdening you.’

      ‘You’re not burdening me. I asked you what was wrong, and I offered to help. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t want to,’ she pointed out. ‘I remember what it was like for me. And I was difficult at fifteen. Rude, surly, wouldn’t let anyone close. I was the original nightmare teenager.’

      ‘And it got better?’

      With her dad, at least; though they weren’t that close. ‘Yes.’

      ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘It feels as if you’ve just taken a massive weight off my shoulders.’

      And, oh, when he smiled like that... It made Erin’s heart do a funny little flip.

      Which was completely inappropriate.

      If they’d met at a different time in his life, things might’ve been different. But he didn’t need the extra complications of a relationship—especially with someone who had baggage like hers and didn’t believe in love any more.

      So platonic it would be. It was all she could offer him. ‘That’s what friends are for,’ she said. ‘Though, be warned, you might think the weight’s back again plus a bit more, when I’ve had you weeding and carting heavy stones about and then muscles you’ve forgotten you had suddenly start to ache like mad.’

      ‘As you say—that’s what friends are for.’ He smiled again. ‘Thanks for lunch. My shout, next.’

      ‘OK. But I’m afraid I have to dash, now—I have clinic,’ she said, glancing at her watch.

      ‘And I have Theatre.’

      ‘Want to walk back to the unit with me?’ she asked.

      He gave her another of those heart-stopping smiles. ‘Yes. I’d like that.’

      She smiled back. ‘Right then, Mr Townsend. Let’s go see our patients.’