soon as I get paid, they’ll be gone,’ Louise swiftly retorted, but Maggie just stared. ‘And I’m going to start looking for a place this weekend.’ She felt a twinge at the thought of not living with Maggie any more, but while their small flat was fine for two single girls living a carefree existence, it wasn’t suitable for raising a child and had only ever been a stopgap for her. ‘In a few weeks things will be fine. Fine,’ she said again, as if by repeating it she was somehow assuring it would all happen.
‘Declan’s dad is a consultant surgeon,’ Maggie said softly. ‘He’s raking it in.’
‘I know,’ Louise gulped, ‘and sometimes it terrifies me. Sometimes I think I should take him for everything he’s worth because Declan deserves it.’
‘And other times?’ Maggie pushed gently.
‘I look at my parents—their marriage ended because of a brief affair my father had six months before he met my mum. Every month a fight broke out when it was time for Dad to pay his maintenance—’
‘Louise—’ Maggie attempted, but Louise stopped her right there.
‘Daniel and I were together for four weeks,’ Louise said. ‘I don’t want him paying for his mistake for the rest of his life, the way my dad did.’
‘Even if you have to?’
‘That’s the difference.’ Ignoring her wine, Louise stood up, wandered over to the tiny kitchenette and flicked on the kettle. ‘I don’t see it as a mistake. Yes, Daniel may be a consultant, but clearly he didn’t think I’d make a very good consultant’s wife. This is about so much more than money.’
‘What if he asks you out now?’
‘As if!’ Louise scoffed. ‘And even if he did, there’s no way I’d go.’
‘Why not?’
Louise thought for a moment before answering. ‘Because I can’t imagine trying to fill him in on the last year of my life and somehow managing to omit the fact that Declan’s his.’
‘Would it be the end of the world if he found out?’
‘The end of his world probably. He doesn’t want children.’
‘But he’s got one! And if things don’t work out between the two of you, at the very least you know he’s a decent guy and you’ll have some financial support. Louise, lies catch up in the end and you’re living with a time bomb. A cute one at that.’
‘Well, it isn’t going to happen. According to Daniel, I’m a single mother, which is hardly an upcoming young consultant’s ideal date.’
‘Don’t be so sure!’ Never one to miss an opportunity, Maggie picked up Louise’s still full glass. ‘There’s a lot of unfinished business there—for both of you.’
‘SORRY if this is awkward for you!’
A good dose of Maggie had an infinitely calmer Louise steering her stainless-steel dressing trolley into Daniel’s room the next morning. With Elaine on a late shift, staff allocation had been done by the nurse unit manager, Candy, who, blissfully unaware of their history, had decided, given the nature of Daniel’s injury, to save him the embarrassment of having someone familiar look after him and had allocated the delicate task of taking his dressing down to a blushing Louise.
‘Awkward doesn’t come close.’ Daniel grimaced, wobbling his way gingerly back to the bed with his IV pole in one hand, a pair of black cycling-short-style undies on and a white T-shirt at mid-torso and pulled onto one arm only. ‘That’s why I took the dressing down myself in there.’
‘Have you had a shower?’ Louise said accusingly, answering the question for herself as she did so—his hair was drenched and his back was still soaking. ‘You’re not supposed to get your dressing wet—and you know that you’re supposed to let the staff know if you get out of bed. You could have passed out or anything.’
‘I’d have been far more likely to pass out if you’d come at me with those bloody tweezers and peeled it off…’ Daniel attempted, but his face had a horribly greyish tinge and Louise knew that, despite his bravado, the room was spinning for him. She watched as beads of sweat broke out on his forehead and knew that if he didn’t get to the bed soon, he’d end up on the floor. ‘Come on,’ she said gently, taking the IV pole from him and instinctively taking his arm—instinctively, because she was a nurse and he was a patient who had done way too much and was about to pass out. But nothing in her nursing career had prepared her for this, his touch, the first in almost a year almost more than she could bear, feeling his reluctant weight on her arm as she tried to lead him the short distance to his bed.
Maybe her touch was too much for him, too, because after a few seconds of contact he pulled away. But Louise was having none of it.
‘Take my arm and let’s get you back to bed,’ Louise said firmly, but again he pushed it away, attempting to drag himself the last few steps. However, his body today wasn’t as autonomous as his mind, and he clutched at a chair to steady himself, loudly dragging in air as he willed himself not to faint. Completely unfazed, Louise just rolled her eyes.
‘Faint away, then, Daniel.’
‘I’m OK,’ he insisted through very pale, very dry lips.
‘The porters can always help me lift you back into bed when you land on the floor…’
He gave in then, actually held out his hand to her, and she took not just that, but his arm, too, placing her other arm around his. His back was drenched with cold sweat as she swiftly steered his fall from grace onto the safety of the mattress—and he lay there on his side for a moment, ghastly pale and completely out of it. If she’d been more junior she’d have pressed the bell and called for help, but Louise was confident enough in her own ability to know that Daniel was suffering from nothing more than a simple faint, and saved him the indignity of the world rushing in by raising the foot of the bed and giving him a quick whiff of oxygen. She checked his pulse and watched him closely as he came round.
Yes, she’d giggled with Maggie about the appropriateness of his injury, made more than a few wicked comments last night as she’d compared it to childbirth, but watching this tall proud man absolutely out of it, seeing the purple bruise halfway down his inner thigh and spreading over the top of his cycle shorts, she softened like butter, knowing how horrible and undignified this entire episode must have been for him. Despite the pain, despite the anger, she actually felt sorry for him.
‘You fainted,’ Louise said gently, as his eyes slowly opened. ‘But you’re fine now.’
‘Did you call a code?’ Even in this wretched state he managed a stab of dry humour at his predicament. ‘Just in case there’s someone left in the hospital who’s missed out on a good look at my scrotum!’
‘Ooh, believe me, I thought about it,’ Louise grinned down at him and watched as a ghost of a smile flickered on his lips, standing quietly as his colour slowly returned and his pulse settled. ‘Better?’ she said finally, when she’d checked his blood pressure. Clearly he was, so she turned off the oxygen and lowered the foot of the bed as he slowly sat up.
‘Thanks.’ Daniel nodded, letting out a long breath. ‘Thanks,’ he said again, clearly appreciating the fact that it was still just the two of them in the room.
‘Have some water,’ she offered, splashing some water from the jug into a beaker and lifting it to his lips, knowing as surely as the sun rose every morning that if it had been anyone else other than her who had walked into the room, they’d have been shooed away with a stern bark, and he’d have ended up on the floor. She was glad for the chance to be able to look after him—at least for this short time.
‘How’s