A Natural Father Read Online Free

him.

    “Beautiful girl.”

    Dom forced a casual shrug. Beautiful, married and pregnant. Not exactly a winning combination.

    “Yeah, she’s nice,” he said.

    He turned back toward the stand. Ridiculous to feel as though he’d just lost something valuable. For all he knew, she was a ball-breaking shrew with bad breath and a worse temper. There was nothing for him to mourn, no loss had occurred. They barely even knew each other.

    He was so absorbed in trying to look busy that he almost missed his father’s next words.

    “Such a shame. Her mother very worried, I hear.”

    “Worried? Why?” Dom asked. Then his mind jumped to the obvious. “Is there something wrong with the baby?”

    He knew what it was like to hope each month for good news, only to learn that once again all the wonders of modern medicine could not make up for the failures of nature. For four years he and Dani had tried in vain to have a baby. He could only imagine how wrenching it would be to have all the joy of finding out you were pregnant, only to learn there was something wrong with your child.

    “Something wrong with the baby? How would I know?” his father asked, giving him a look.

    Dom returned it in full measure.

    “You’re the one who said her mother’s worried. What’s she worried about if it’s not the baby?”

    Tony rolled his eyes, then held up his left hand, pointing to his own well-worn wedding ring.

    “No husband. Lousy no-good left Lucy for other woman,” he said. He looked like he wanted to spit, the notion offended him so much. “Poor Lucy, she left with business and bambino all on her own.”

    Dom stared at his father.

    “She’s not married?” he asked, just in case his ears were deceiving him, feeding him what he wanted to hear.

    “Didn’t I just say that?” his father asked. Muttering to himself in Italian, he strode off to serve the customer hovering nearby.

    Dom stared blankly into space for a few long seconds.

    Not married.

    Single, in fact.

    A smile curved his lips. He even turned on his heel, ready to race after her and ask her out.

    He stopped before he’d taken a step.

    She was pregnant.

    Four months pregnant with another man’s child.

    Not exactly your typical dating situation.

    “Hey, Dom, those arms of yours painted on?” his uncle Vinnie called from the other end of the stall.

    Dom blinked. A queue of customers had formed in front of him, waiting to be served.

    Right. He was at work. There was stuff to do. He could think about Lucy Basso later.

    It was a great theory, but he found it impossible to stop himself from thinking about her as the morning progressed. The flash of a red coat glimpsed briefly through the crowd. The sight of a woman pushing a baby stroller. A young couple walking hand in hand, both glowing with obvious contentment over her big, swollen belly. Everything seemed to remind him of her. She’d rocketed from being a vague incentive to come home to the most important thing on his agenda in the space of a few minutes.

    Why was that? Because of the profound disappointment he’d felt when he’d thought she was married, lost to him for good?

    Man, she’s pregnant, he reminded himself for the twentieth time that day.

    But did that really matter? Really?

    THAT NIGHT, Lucy sat with her laptop at her dining table and stared at the number at the bottom of her monthly spreadsheet. It wasn’t abysmal. It was almost respectable, considering her business, Market Fresh, had been in operation just over twelve months. But would it be enough to impress the man at the bank tomorrow?
    Market Fresh had seemed like such a great idea when she came up with it two years ago. She’d been working as hostess in a busy suburban restaurant and listening to the chef’s constant complaints. He didn’t have time to get into the city markets every day to pick produce for himself, and he was perpetually disappointed in what he could source locally. Because she lived close to the