Found: A Father For Her Child

Charlie chuckled. ‘You heading back to Brisbane? Can I give you a lift home?’

Carrie watched the traffic accident investigation squad put yellow markings on the road. They’d promised her a lift back into the city but they didn’t look like they’d be finished any time soon.

She looked up into his face, taking notice of his looks for the first time. He was tall, a good head taller than her. He had nice eyes, grey eyes. A nice face, actually. Calm. Serene. Confident. Even when he’d been snapping orders he’d been completely self-assured. There was something innately tranquil about his features.

He had shaggy brown hair shot with blond, as if naturally streaked by the sun. It hung down, brushing his collar, and seemed to part naturally in the middle, falling in haphazard layers over his ears, just stopping short of impeding his vision. It was hardly inner-city chic, more 1970s rock star, but it suited his laid-back look.

Combined with his three-day growth, he looked a little hippy-ish and as far from Rupert’s cleanly shaven short back and sides as was physically possible. His arms were tanned a deep brown, as if he’d spent a lot of time in the sun. His clothes were casual—threadbare jeans and one of those trendy T-shirts that looked like it had been painted by a preschooler. His chest was broad, his biceps firm in her peripheral vision.

‘You can just drop us at the first taxi rank,’ she suggested.

‘Nonsense.’ He rejected her suggestion. ‘It’s the least I can do for your help tonight. Where do you live?’

‘Windsor.’

‘Perfect. I live in the Valley. You’re on my way.’

Charlie pushed away from the car. He cleared their departure with the scene controller while Carrie arranged for her car to be towed away.

Two minutes later he opened the passenger door to his sedan. Carrie eyed it disparagingly. The thought of leaving the scene with her precious cargo intact was amazingly lightening and for the first time since she’d met him, she could feel her old self returning.

‘You sure this thing goes?’

Charlie feigned an insulted look. ‘I’ll have you know this is a classic car.’

‘It’s ancient.’

He chuckled. It was. It had been secondhand when he’d inherited it as his uni run-around. ‘It’s…retro.’ He was fond of the old banger, preferring it to the ostentatious BMW his parents had bought him for his thirtieth birthday. It had lot of happy memories. He’d kissed his first girl in this car. Had driven to Ayers Rock in it. Slept in it the night of his bucks’ party when he’d been too drunk to drive it home. The Beamer just didn’t have the same amount of soul.

‘Hmm,’ she said, waiting for Charlie to position Dana’s seat. ‘We’ll see how far it gets us.’

Dana stirred as Carrie buckled her into the seat. ‘Where are we, Mummy?’

‘In Charlie’s car,’ Carrie said quietly. ‘He’s taking us home.’

Dana looked around with heavy eyelids. ‘I like it,’ she murmured as her eyes drifted shut.

Carrie stood up and met Charlie’s amused gaze. It was warm and sexy and she blinked, surprised by the parts of her body that were responding to it.

‘Your daughter obviously has an eye for a classic.’

‘She’s four.’

His laughter followed her into the car and Carrie felt a warm sensation down low and deep spread out sensual tentacles until her whole body was humming. It was strange and unnerving and she put the brakes on immediately. So, he had a nice face and a great smile and had talked her down from the ledge tonight. She was a single mother with her eye on a prestigious job. She didn’t have time for this.

Charlie started the car and they drove away slowly. It was a good minute before he lost sight of the multicoloured glow of the accident scene in his rear-view mirror. The adrenaline he had felt at the scene had dissipated, leaving him feeling edgy, and he drummed his fingers against the steering-wheel.

He took a sideways glance at his passenger. At least she was looking better than she had at the accident scene. There was colour in her cheeks now. She had auburn hair, he noticed for the first time. It was wavy rather than curly, tumbling to her shoulders and framing her oval face perfectly.

She had a creamy complexion with a smattering of freckles across her nose and big light brown eyes the exact shade of whiskey. She was wearing a purple tie-dyed shirt with a heavily beaded modest neckline and matching trousers. It was loose and flowing, hinting at her figure beneath rather than revealing it. She had exotic large silver hoop earrings and a thin silver choker with lines of purple beads hanging off it like icicles. The total effect was quite exotic. Very gypsy.

He adjusted the rear-view mirror so he could see Dana’s face. She was staring sleepily out the window, her blonde hair and blue eyes nothing like her mother’s.

‘So, what do you do?’ Charlie asked, making small talk as the silence stretched between them.

Carrie felt her heartbeat pick up tempo. ‘I’m…in management,’ she said.

He laughed. She looked like she read palms for a living. ‘Very vague.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s nothing very exciting. It pays the mortgage and the hours are good.’

He flicked a glance at Dana again. Her eyes had drifted shut. ‘How old did you say Dana was?’

‘She’s four.’

‘Cute age.’

Carrie smiled. ‘Yes, it is. You got kids?’

Charlie snorted. ‘No.’

OK, not into kids. ‘Not your thing?’

Quite the opposite. Charlie had wanted a family of his own for a long time. A chance to do it better than his parents had. If that was possible. If he hadn’t been genetically wired to screw it up as badly as they had.

He shrugged. ‘Veronica, my ex-wife, didn’t want them. It was probably just as well, given the divorce and everything.’

Carrie detected a bitterness scarring his deep voice. ‘Was it bad?’

Charlie’s knuckles grew white on the steering-wheel and Carrie wished she could have bitten her tongue off. She had no idea what had come over her. Maybe it was the moments they had shared at the accident scene that made her feel like she knew this man. That she could ask him such a personal question on such short acquaintance.

‘Oh, God, sorry, that’s none of my business. Forget I asked.’

He could hear the mortification in her voice and relaxed a little. ‘It’s OK. It was…kind of messy.’

They drove in silence for a little while longer.

‘So, does Dana have a dad?’

Carrie shook her head, trying to keep her voice neutral. Unemotional. Even after five years Rupert’s desertion still stung. ‘Not one that’s interested in her, no.’ She looked out the window.

‘Sorry.’

She shrugged. ‘His loss.’ Rupert had no idea what he was missing out on.

Charlie flicked another glance at the little blonde angel sleeping soundly in her seat. ‘Absolutely,’ he replied, his voice quiet.

She looked at him, hit by the sincerity of his tone. It was ridiculous to feel so connected to a person so quickly. She looked away and stared straight ahead. But his thigh was bulky and solid in her peripheral vision. His biceps flexed distractingly with every slight movement of the steering-wheel. He leaned forward and switched the radio on, his hair brushing against the neckline of his shirt and falling forward, momentarily obscuring the sexy stubble covering his jaw.