Only You

Chapter 5

He didn't go back to the hospital that night – but he wished he had. He wanted to go back, to tell Natalie that Nina had broken up with him, tell her he loved her. But he knew that would be a bad idea.

Because just like last time, Natalie wasn't ready.

The conversation in which she had basically told him that she regretted letting him go, that she wished that they were together, had occurred over the top of her comatose son. Owen had been so sick which had made her vulnerable and the fact that he had been there to support her through it had made her cling to him and tell him things, confess her feelings, in a way that she might never have done had her son not fallen ill.

Plus, was he able to jump from one relationship straight into another? He loved Nina and he wouldn't deny it. Their relationship had been good for him; he'd grown and matured and realised that he could be happy without Natalie – but he had also realised that he didn't want to be. As easy as his relationship with Nina was – childfree and with minimal responsibilities – he missed the connection he had with Natalie. There was an ease to their conversations which his relationship with Nina lacked, their silences tended to be uncomfortable and their conversations stilted. They never could talk or communicate very well but they were close in other ways. Physical ways. Their attraction had burned hot but all too soon it had burnt out. He and Natalie were already close, they communicated well, they laughed and they had fun working together. They had a connection which couldn't be denied – and he owed Nina a great deal in bringing him to the realisation that not only did he want Natalie in his life, but that a relationship built on solely on desire (and dire financial situations) could not survive very long. What he and Natalie had, surely a relationship built on that could last?

But then Natalie had a son. There was more to consider than just what he and Natalie wanted, and even though Owen seemed to like him, was he ready to take on another man's child? Granted, Jeffrey Manning was dead and that removed several of the more common complications of helping raise another's child, but that also meant that should he and Nat work out, he may be the only father Owen ever knew. And that terrified him. He didn't know that he had the ability to be a father never mind be a good one. His own dad had always been tough on he and Jay, always kept them at arms-length and rarely, if ever, showed any affection. How could he be any different when he had never been shown how? The last thing he wanted for Owen was a resentful relationship with his step-father in an already complicated situation – and that was before he had even factored in Helen and the violent mood swings he'd had to deal with from her when the boy was born. Did he really want to take on the complications of Natalie's life and make them his own?

The short answer was yes – which was what he had told Erin when she had levelled these questions at him when she had returned, slightly tipsy and very angry at him, from her evening at Kim's. She had looked at him dubiously, clearly concerned for his frame of mind.

"Look Will, the spare room is yours as long as you need it." Erin had held her hands up in defeat. "Just don't rush into anything right now. You're five minutes out of an intense relationship and Natalie almost lost her son. You're both in difficult positions – take a breather."

Will sighed and sipped his beer. Take a breather.

**CM**

Something was going on. She knew it from the way he was anxiously glancing at his cell phone every few seconds until it vibrated with a message. She knew something was wrong from the way he shot out of the room so fast his feet barely touched the floor and with barely a look back – and from the radio silence she had experienced for the rest of the day.

She had half expected him to stroll back into the room and apologise for the quick exit, a grin on his face – but one hour had turned to several and there had been no sign of him.