The Australian's Proposal (Mills & Boon By Request): The Doctor's Marriage Wish / The Playboy Doctor's Proposal / The Nurse He's Been Waiting For by Alison Roberts, Meredith Webber

Jack’s cheek with the back of his hand.
    ‘Silly young fool,’ he said gruffly, and Kate swallowed hard. It wasn’t that she begrudged Jack this familial affection, just that once again it emphasised her own lack.
    She took Jack’s hand, promised to see him later and left the cubicle, assuring herself it was lack of sleep and a letdown after the tension of the night that was making her so stupidly sentimental.
    A small boy who looked just like Cal was sitting on the top step when she arrived back at the house. Beside him, spreadeagled like a fireside rug, was the weirdest dog Kate had ever seen. Part cocker spaniel and part something spotty, she guessed, greeting both boy and dog with a smile.
    ‘Hello, I’m Kate. Who are you two?’
    ‘I’m CJ and this is Rudolph, and his nose isn’t red because he’s not called after a reindeer but after a dancing man. I’m hiding.’
    ‘I thought you might be,’ Kate said easily. ‘From anyone in particular?’
    ‘I’m supposed to be at that stupid child-care place, but Rudolph followed me and sat outside so I decided to take him home, and he won’t stay home on his own so I’m here, too.’
    ‘Of course,’ Kate said, not understanding much of the conversation. ‘Do you think the people who mind you at the child-care place will be worried?’
    ‘They won’t notice ‘cos they don’t know me ‘cos I’m new. Or they might think I’m sick.’
    ‘Well, that’s OK, then,’ Kate said, climbing the steps and sitting beside the pair.
    Rudolph raised his dopey head and soft brown eyes looked deep into hers, then he dropped his head onto her leg and went back to sleep. Going to child care and back must have been a tiring business.
    ‘I’m waiting for Hamish, he’ll know what to do.’
    ‘I’m sure he will,’ Kate agreed. This was obviously a job for Robin rather than Batman.
    Fortunately, the top of Hamish’s dark head appeared above the foliage in the garden, and the dog, perhaps sensing his presence, woke up, then loped off down the steps, the huge grin on his canine face making him look even dopier.
    The boy followed the dog, disappearing round a bend in the path then reappearing on Hamish’s shoulders, the dog lolloping around his legs.
    ‘You’ve met CJ, then?’ Hamish greeted her, and Kate nodded. ‘He’s absconded from child care again,’ Hamish continued, apparently unperturbed by the child’s delinquency.
    He set CJ back down on the top step, then sat himself down in the space between the child and Kate. Rudolph found this unacceptable and proceeded to spread himself over all three of them.
    ‘Off! Sit!’ Hamish ordered, and the dog looked at him in surprise, then, to Kate’s astonishment, obeyed.
    ‘I’ve been teaching him to sit, like you told me,’ CJ said, giving the dog a big hug and kiss. ‘He’s a very clever dog, isn’t he?’
    ‘Yes, he is,’ Hamish told him. ‘It’s just a pity he’s going to have to go and live somewhere else.’
    ‘But he can’t go somewhere else to live,’ CJ protested. ‘He’s
my
dog!’
    He gathered an armful of dog to his chest as he spoke, and glared at Hamish over the spotty head.
    Hamish nodded.
    ‘He is, but if he keeps causing trouble, like making you run away from child care, your mom will just have to give him away.’
    Silence, and Kate, who thought Hamish’s chiding had been unnecessarily harsh, reached around behind his back to pat CJ on the arm.
    ‘They laugh at me.’
    The whispered words were barely audible, but understandable enough to make Kate’s stomach clench.
    Hamish, however, seemed unmoved.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Some of the kids. They say I talk funny.’
    ‘Bloody kids,’ Kate muttered under her breath. OK, so CJ appeared to have a slight American accent, but did that make him so different? At child-care level? What age would the kids be? Four? Five at the most?
    ‘Of course you do—that’s because you’re half-American—and it’s not funny, it’s just an accent,