Playboy Doctor to Doting Dad by Sue MacKay Read Free Book Online Page A

followed the sound. Stopping in the bathroom doorway, he leaned against the doorjamb and watched Abby bath Olivia. He had to swallow hard to get the next mouthful of beer past the lump in his throat. The bath was filled with soap bubbles, and Abby wore her share of them on her cheeks and forehead. She looked gorgeous.
    He cleared his throat. ‘If Olivia gets this much fun out of a bath then I can’t begin to imagine her excitement in those puddles you mentioned.’
    ‘It gets fairly messy.’ Abby tugged a towel from the rail and lifted a protesting Olivia out of the water. ‘Let’s get you dry, little missy. Seamus will be here in a minute and he’ll need scrubbing from top to toe.’
    Kieran gulped and returned to the kitchen, feeling useless and out of his depth. The door looked very tempting. A few strides and he could be at his car. His son would be here any minute. His heart felt oddly out of whack as he grappled withthe enormity of that. The moment he’d been dreading since Abigail’s phone call was racing towards him. He wasn’t ready. He’d never be ready. He stared around, panic beginning to boil up. He needed something to occupy his brain. A bag of groceries lay on the bench. Peering inside, he found steak and salad vegetables. Some of the tension tightening his shoulders eased. Cooking steak and tossing together a salad he could do blindfolded.
    Just then the back door flew open. A deep voice he recognised as Max Brown’s was telling someone, presumably Seamus, to slow down or he’d trip. A little boy tumbled into the kitchen, his clothes covered in grass stains. His chubby face was red and he was chattering nonstop in gibberish.
    Kieran’s hand stopped halfway out of the grocery bag. His breath stuck in his lungs. The time had come. No getting out of this one. What if he got it all wrong? Said or did the wrong thing? Scared the boy off so they’d never get along? He dropped the packet of steak back in the bag. He was out of here. Now. Before Seamus came any closer, before the boy caught his eye and turned him into a complete blithering idiot. Damn it, he should’ve left when he’d had the chance instead of dithering around procrastinating.
    Then Abigail was standing beside him, her hand reaching for his, and it was too late. He couldn’t leave now. The tremor in her fingers surprised him. When he lifted his eyes to hers he saw his own fear and trepidation mirrored there. Her teeth were digging hard into her bottom lip. Turning his hand over, he twined his fingers through hers. Knowing this might be as hard for her as it was for him made everything just a little bit easier.
    He whispered through his blocked throat, ‘Introduce me to our son.’
    She blinked. ‘Sure.’ But she didn’t move a muscle.
    ‘Come on, Abby, we can do this.’ Really?
    Another blink. Then, inclining her head in acknowledgement, she turned to face the man and toddler waiting expectantly. ‘Hey, Dad. Seamus.’ She dropped to her knees and lifted the dark-haired boy against her, hugged him tight for a moment, as though afraid to let him go. Afraid to share him? No, not Abby. She wanted this. Didn’t she?
    As the boy squirmed to be set free, Abby stood up and held him so Kieran could take a good look at him. ‘Seamus, love, this is Uncle Kieran.’ She raised troubled eyes to Kieran. ‘Sorry, I’m not sure what you want to be called, and Olivia has been talking about her uncle all week.’
    Kieran stood spellbound. This was his son. His own flesh and blood. There was no denying the wide, full mouth came from the Flynn side. Seamus had the black hair and blue eyes that all Flynns seemed to inherit, but the expression in those eyes gawping at him was pure Abby. Kieran could’ve wept. He felt his heart dissolving. The boy was beautiful. His boy. Was this how every father felt when he saw his child for the very first time? Frightened? Protective? Lungs all gummed up so he couldn’t breathe?
    The silence in the tiny