‘They didn’t tell her, did they?’
‘I don’t think so; she’s not here.’
‘She never is when I get ill.’ He laughed, which, in my book, appeared to be a big step forward from the last time. ‘They did all sorts of poking and prodding, then dumped me up here to rest. You weren’t watching me sleeping again, were you?’
‘Well, maybe just for a little while.’
‘Funnily enough, I now find that comforting; which means I’m probably losing my marbles. Maybe I should actually see that psychiatrist now that I’m back in here.’
Before I could answer the consultant appeared and stood at the foot of the bed. He stared at me for a moment. ‘I know you, don’t I?’
‘Probably. I work here.’ I noted his faded badge said Dr Peter Young.
‘Right, nursing staff – I never forget a face.’
‘Not nursing, I work in the morgue.’
‘Oh, what are you doing here, then?’
‘I like to try and visit all the patients before they die, just to get to know them a little better before they end up on the slab. Makes the job that little bit more personal for me.’
‘Right,’ he said, nodding; unsure if I was joking or not and looking at Nathan with a worried expression on his face. ‘Well, um, well, would you mind stepping outside so I can talk to Mr Jones alone?’
Nathan butted in, spoiling my fun. ‘She’s my girlfriend, doctor, so she can stay if that’s all right with you?’
‘Oh, right. Oh, I see, that makes much more sense.’ He flashed a relieved smile in my direction. ‘A little bit of morgue humour.’
I smiled politely.
‘Right,’ said Dr Young authoritatively now back on firm ground. ‘Well, we’re still waiting for a number of the bloods to come back but, given that you’re conscious and showing no signs of stroke or bleeding, the consensus is that you suffered a syncopal event. Given that you’ve had recent head trauma, however, just to be on the safe side, we’ll schedule an MRI for tomorrow and we’ll keep you in overnight for observation.’
Nathan nodded slowly. ‘What’s a sink pal event thingy?’
‘Syncopal event is—’
‘You fainted,’ I interpreted for Dr Young.
‘Fainted?’
‘Yep,’ I said, laughing, ‘like a teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert.’
Dr Young smiled and left us to it.
‘I reckon it all just got a bit too much for you, sweetie, and your brain needed to shut down and reboot.’
‘You make me sound like a laptop.’
‘Well, there’s similarities, I suppose, but you need some rest. I’ll come back in the morning and run you home.’
‘Not sure I want to go back to my flat, not with the girls gone.’
I smiled at his hang-dog expression. ‘Well, maybe you can come home with me for a night. I’ll need to do some tests on you just to make sure all your bits are fully functioning.’
‘Which bits in particular?’
‘Mainly the bits below your waist.’
‘My feet?’
‘Mm, definitely not your feet – well, not until they’ve had a thorough clean, Mr Jones.’
I left and phoned Hayley to explain why I wouldn’t be taking her car back today.
‘You’re condemning me to public transport. Do you have any idea how it looks for a high-powered lawyer to be travelling on the bus?’
‘You’re suspended.’
‘I know, but still … How’s Nathan?’
‘Fine; he fainted with the stress of it all.’
‘I did say the abduction idea wouldn’t end well, but his situation hasn’t changed that much, has it?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘He wasn’t getting to see his girls anyway, so, whilst it’s now legal, ultimately he’s back to square one.’
‘He probably doesn’t see it like that.’
‘No. What are your plans?’
‘I’m taking him back to my flat to look after him.’
‘Don’t break him.’
‘I’ll try not to.’
‘Any idea when I’ll get my car back?’
‘Sunday. I’ll come early, and we can go for brunch. Then I’ll need to go and see my parents, I suppose.’
‘Such enthusiasm.’
‘Do you want to come too?’
‘Has your dad got the llamas yet?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘I’ll think about it. The last time I was there your mum tried to polish my earrings and iron my jeans.’
‘She likes ironing.’
‘Yeah, but I was still wearing them at the time.’
‘You’ve been with my mum enough to expect the unexpected.’
‘Fair enough. Keep me in the loop with Nathan.’
‘Ditto with James.’
I returned home and tidied. I really wanted to get my suitcase back and to wash everything, but that wouldn’t happen any time soon by the looks of it. Maybe I could go and get the keys from Nathan, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable going into his flat with him not there. I made do with cleaning the kitchen, the bathroom and hoovering. I noticed a layer of dust on the coving around the ceiling of the living room, but cleaning that would take me another step closer to my mum’s madness and I didn’t want to go there.
Later, I made a trip to the supermarket and bought lots of food and got one of my old cookbooks down from the shelf in the bedroom. I felt very domesticated and sophisticated while I planned what to cook tomorrow. However, I realised after ten minutes of reading some of Nigella’s suggestions that Nathan might well end up back in hospital with food poisoning if I tried my hand at some of her concoctions, and decided that shoving a pre-made lasagne in the oven with some frozen chips would have to do.
*
Next morning, I collected Nathan from hospital. He’d had his MRI, and, as he’d been fine during the night, they let him out, saying they would phone when the results came back.
We stopped off at his flat on the way as I’d persuaded him that I really needed my things. I felt a lot happier when I knew my case had been safely stowed in the boot of the car.
Back at my place I made some sandwiches while Nathan had a quick shower. I took my spare key from the drawer nearest the cooker and put it on the plate with the sandwiches. He hadn’t said much, and I knew he’d be thinking about his kids. I had a plan to take his mind off that and had stripped down to my underwear while he’d been drying off in the bedroom. I opened the door and delivered the food with a jug of orange juice.
‘Room service.’
‘I didn’t order anything.’
‘Well, it’s here now and you’ll have to give me a tip.’
‘How much would be appropriate?’
‘I think two kisses and a shag might be about right.’
We ate the sandwiches three hours later and I explained the key would allow him to come and stay here whenever he wanted. I wasn’t sure he appreciated what a huge thing that was for me but, then again, he was a man, and they didn’t get stuff like that.
Our lovemaking that afternoon was feverish and filled with emotion and tears. Perhaps not as full on as it had been in the Highlands, but we didn’t have the intensity of an electric storm in the background urging us on.
We’d been through so much over the last few weeks that we’d not had a chance to truly let go. This gave us the opportunity and the pent-up frustration and anxiety had spilled over into the bedroom and beyond. Later, while lying snuggled together in the warmth, the room perfumed with the scent of our sex, I said, ‘I love you, Nathan. I’ve tried not to, I’ve tried to keep some space between my feelings and you until everything had settled down, but it’s too late; I’ve fallen for you.’
Nathan squeezed my shoulder. ‘I love you too. I don’t know when it happened exactly. I think Millie knew before I did.’
‘Why? Do you talk to her about this sort of stuff?’
‘No, of course not. Sh
e’s just very perceptive.’
‘She is. She gave me quite an interrogation that day in the motorhome.’
Nathan laughed. ‘To be honest I started to feel something when you made me suck the wine from your fingers.’
‘Yeah, that wouldn’t be love, that would be lust.’
‘Well … maybe, but I started to think about you a lot after that moment. I love your intensity and the fact that everything with you is black or white – usually black, right enough, but you’re always so sure about everything whereas I’m never that sure about anything. Except my feelings for you – they just feel so right.’
‘What about Laura – was it not like that with her?’
‘Once, yes, but that faded a long time ago. Now … well, I don’t like her, I guess. I haven’t liked her for a long time and I’m pretty sure the feeling’s mutual.’
We spent the day in bed, only getting up to pee, eat and share a warm sensuous bubble bath.
We slipped into sleep and I woke up a few times in the night and snuggled up next to his warm, hard body. I could get used to this. It just felt right. I’d never had that before and I liked it.
*
Next morning, as we sat sipping coffee fully clothed for the first time in nearly twenty-four hours Nathan’s phone pinged.
‘Who’s that from?’
He looked up from his phone, a worried expression in his eyes, and reluctantly said, ‘Laura.’
I felt my stomach drop. After all we’d endured in the last few days and weeks she still texted him. How often had he received texts from her and not told me? No, he would have told me. ‘What does she want?’
‘She wants to meet up with me.’
‘After all that’s happened?’
‘I know. Maybe she’s feeling guilty about everything.’
‘As she should, but I don’t think she’s got the guilty gene in her biological make-up. Maybe she’s got the divorce paperwork ready.’
‘Really? I thought they just posted that sort of stuff to you.’
‘They do normally, but she probably wants to inflict maximum hurt on you.’
‘What should I do? I mean, if she wants a divorce then—’
‘What do you mean “if she wants a divorce”? Of course, she wants a divorce so she can be with – what did you call him besides Oodles?’
‘Sorry, I meant when. I’m not thinking straight just now, there’s so much going on. His name’s Simon.’
‘Yeah, Simon.’ A nasty thought suddenly appeared in my head. ‘What if she wants to patch everything up?’
‘Don’t be daft, she won’t want to do that. That’s not how Laura’s brain works.’
I wasn’t so sure. ‘I’ve learned quite a lot about how your wife’s brain works in the last few weeks, Nathan, and I don’t like it. She’s had her fun, she’s won the battle and she won the war. Maybe she’s missing you. It’s amazing how attractive a person can suddenly become when someone else wants them.’
Nathan leaned over and kissed me. I couldn’t help but respond. ‘I don’t think so, Kat. In fact, I won’t meet with her. I’ll just ignore her.’
I sat back and appraised him, taking in his lovely features, his sad blue eyes that always appeared to be filled with regret. He reminded me of a little puppy.
Puppies pee on the floor and chew up the sofa.
‘Shhh.’
‘I didn’t say anything.’
‘I know. I wasn’t talking to you.’
‘Oh, okay.’
Perhaps circumstances had intensified everything, but I knew that I couldn’t ever truly be happy unless I knew for certain that I had Nathan all to myself. There’d always be his children, of course, but I could cope with that. What I couldn’t deal with would be the spectre of Laura hanging over us. ‘No, don’t ignore her. Reply and meet with her if that’s what she wants. You need to be sure you want to be with me. I can’t cope otherwise. I’d rather be alone than always wondering if you’re thinking about her and hankering.’
‘Hankering?’
‘Yeah, hankering. That’s my word for the day. Just go and see what she wants and …’ I paused and gazed into his eyes ‘… and make sure you know what and who you want.’
Nathan pulled me close and we kissed passionately, desperately even. Tears poured from my eyes and he kissed them gently away as we made our way into my tiny untidy bedroom and got naked again. That meant no brunch with Hayley. I’d text her later.
*
Eventually I drove to Hayley’s in the afternoon. My mind had morphed into a dreamlike state, thinking about everything that I had going on, and I discovered with alarm that I’d managed to negotiate thirty-five miles of motorway, an A road, about twelve streets and park outside her flat without remembering any of it. I shook myself out of it, locked her car and pressed the buzzer.
‘Is that my chauffer?’ the tinny voice asked.
‘No, it’s the maid. Would you like me to turn down your bed?’
‘Oh, yes, please, I’ll let you in.’
I hugged Hayley, went into her living room and plonked myself on her couch. She disappeared for a minute and returned with wine. ‘Hayley, it’s only five o’clock.’
‘Never too early for wine.’
‘I’ve not had anything to eat.’
‘I’ll order some Chinese.’
‘I need to tell you about Nathan first.’
‘Okay, let’s talk about our men.’ She said ‘men’ in a deep caveman-type voice, which made me giggle.
‘We spent all day yesterday in bed.’
‘Aww, sweetie, is he still not well?’
‘Oh, no, he’s fine. He got lots of exercise.’
‘Oh, I see, you little minx.’
‘Minx? Now, there’s a word I’ve not heard for a long time.’
‘Well, here’s another word – ex-wife.’
‘Is that not two words?’
‘I don’t know, it might be, but guess who’s refusing to agree to a divorce?’
‘Now let me think … Mrs Cochrane.’
‘How did you guess? You must be psychic.’
‘She probably doesn’t trust lawyers any more. I’ve got problems with one of them now as well.’
‘Lawyers?’
‘No, ex-wives.’
‘Is she refusing to divorce Nathan?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe; he’s meeting up with her later … at her request.’
‘Well, given the events of recent days I wouldn’t worry too much. She’s probably wanting him to sell the flat and give her money.’
‘Oh, yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. I thought maybe she wanted him back.’
‘Well, that’s always possible, I suppose. You know what us women are like, always changing our minds.’
‘Thanks, that’s cheered me up no end.’
‘Well, that’s what happens when we get mixed up in messy relationships.’
‘What’s James’s wife’s name again?’
‘April.’
‘Oh, yeah, so it is. Do you not think it’s a little strange calling someone after the month they were born in or the place they’re conceived, you know, like Madison or Bognor Regis?’
Hayley topped up my glass. ‘Maybe not Bognor Regis.’
‘You never know. If my parents had followed that trend I’d have been called “Toyota Corolla” but, given what they ended up calling me, that might have been a decent trade-off.’
‘Really? I never know if you’re serious or not.’
‘No, my dad told me – a bright green Toyota Corolla the year after he started working at the university.’
‘Why would he tell you that?’
‘You know what my parents are like.’
Hayley nodded. ‘The strange thing about April, though, is that her birthday’s in September.’
‘Really? Weird. Anyway, enough about ex-wives – how are you and James doing after the incident?’
‘Okay. It did put a dampener on things, but I still
like him.’
‘Like, not love?’
‘Not love, not yet at any rate, too many uncertainties. What about Nathan – has he proposed yet?’
‘Don’t be silly. The only person that’s ever proposed to me is my dad’s friend Bob, on Christmas Eve three years ago, but he’d been very drunk, so I don’t think he’d remember. In any case he’d only want to marry my tits.’
‘I don’t think that’s legal.’
‘No, probably not.’
Hayley poured more wine; it hadn’t even reached six o’clock yet and I felt decidedly tipsy. I had to remember I had work tomorrow and the Sunday train service wasn’t great.
‘If Nathan’s wife gets him to sell the flat, he’ll have nowhere to live. He might want to move in with you.’
I thought about that. ‘I could cope for a short while, but my flat’s a little on the titchy side. We could rent something bigger, I suppose. We’d have to if he ever gets access to his daughters.’
‘What about James – where’s he living?’
‘At his brother’s, though he spent last night here.’
‘You little minx.’
Hayley laughed.
‘What’s he up to today?’
‘Having another showdown with April.’
‘Right, so while our boyfriends are away spending some quality time with their wives what shall we get up to?’
Hayley started giggling and I followed soon after.
Chapter 28
Nathan had agreed to meet Laura at their flat. She’d been staying at her mother’s over the weekend and the girls were still there, meaning they could have some space to talk. She also needed to get some more clothes for the kids.
‘Thanks for meeting, Nathan. I know you didn’t have to.’
‘No, I did. I needed to see you to try and get to a place where we can at least have a conversation without screaming at each other, for the girls’ sake if nothing else.’
Laura nodded. Nathan noticed tears pooling in her eyes and she flapped her hands in front of her face to try and fan them away. He sighed. He hated it when women cried; he never knew what to do.
‘There’s a very thin line between love and hate and it’s very easy to cross backwards and forwards over that line in a relationship like ours, Nathan.’
Nathan snorted. ‘Yeah, and I know which side I’m on now.’
The Second Life of Nathan Jones Page 22