Janey cast her eyes over me, down at the bowl, then back at me again. She didn’t say anything but her look spoke volumes. Removing the bowl, she left the room and a few moments later the downstairs loo flushed.
‘Mikey?’ she called.
Calling Pilot, Michael leant over and scooped his arm under my legs.
‘Hold on,’ he instructed, and I did. All of a sudden I was exhausted, completely and utterly. Without thinking, I rested my head against his chest and felt his arms tighten around me. Janey laid my coat over me and all four of us, five if you counted the teddy Pilot now insisted on taking everywhere, left the house. Janey unlocked the car door with the remote and popped the boot as she got in.
Michael looked at the dog. ‘Up.’ Pilot obeyed, sitting down on one hip.
Michael tipped me towards his body, so that I was resting heavily on his chest for a moment as he quickly grabbed the boot lid and pushed it closed before wrapping his arm back around me. As he turned, I vaguely caught sight of the dog’s face, replete with teddy dangling from his mouth by one arm, peering contentedly out of the back window.
Janey had already opened the back door for her brother and Michael now slid us both in the back seat. Adjusting our position, he reached over to fix the seat belt in place as my vague fumblings were having little effect. Plugging it into the holder, he gave Janey the OK and she pulled off, out into the traffic.
Outside the window the sky was dark with cloud. It had barely lightened the entire day. Thankfully, Christmas lights threw their cheer from people’s front windows, and strings of them stretched across the roads, their lights bright against the gloomy backdrop of sky. In fact, they seemed incredibly bright today. I closed my eyes against them momentarily.
‘You OK?’ Michael’s soft accent drifted towards me.
I nodded, my hand immediately moving to the back of my neck as I did so, at the soreness the movement caused.
‘I think we need to get you into bed.’
I bumped my head against his shoulder, in part because I seemed to have little control of it as we rounded a corner.
‘I bet you say that to all the girls.’
His laugh was soft but I felt it rumble through his chest as he pulled me towards him. The kiss he dropped on the top of my head was even softer. In fact, it was so soft, and so…well, out of character for our relationship that I could only think that whatever delightful bug I was fighting was now causing me to hallucinate. But I’d had worse dreams than an undeniably gorgeous man holding me close, smoothing my hair back and resting a large, cool hand on my forehead so, right now, I was happy just to drift about in this one. And categorically ignore the bit of it where I’d thrown up in front of him. Twice.
Chapter Eighteen
The rest of the evening was all a bit blurry, which was just as well as I was pretty sure it had involved yet more hurling. As weak daylight pushed its way through the darkness, I lay in the bed and looked up at the ceiling, knowing I had to get back to my own flat. Although I was inordinately glad of the siblings’ kindness yesterday, it wasn’t fair for me to descend on Janey and her family. They had enough to cope with with two young children and a baby on the way, without me cluttering up the place.
I rolled my head – an action that took far more effort than it should have done – and looked at the clock, screwing my face up when I read the time. OK. So, maybe I’d just grab a couple of hours more sleep and then head off home.
When I woke, it was slightly later than I’d planned. As in, half a day later than I’d planned and Janey was sitting on the edge of the bed. On the other side, Lily was leaning on it, peering at me.
‘Hi.’
‘Hi,’ I replied, in a raspy voice.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘Better.’ Which was true. I still felt pretty damn dreadful but I did feel better than I had done yesterday. It was all relative.
‘You’re still looking pretty ropey,’ Janey stated, before sticking a thermometer against my forehead. A second later it beeped. Janey looked at it and made a hmm noise before popping it on the bedside. ‘Your temperature is still high and you’ll be dehydrated after yesterday so we need to start getting some liquids into you.’ Janey’s nursing training kicked back in and I couldn’t deny it was comforting to be here, but I knew I couldn’t stay.
I took her hand. ‘Janey. Thank you so much for taking care of me, but I really need to go home now.’
‘Out of the question. I’m not having you at home on your own in that flat when it’s far easier for me to keep an eye on you here.’
‘You don’t need to keep an eye on me. I really am feeling much better than I did. And I promise I’ll drink, like you said.’
Janey tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. ‘You can promise whatever you like sweetie. You have a temperature of one hundred and two and you’re not going anywhere.’
That at least explained why I currently felt like one of those cook-in-the-bag chickens.
‘Don’t you like our house Katie?’ Lily had been studying me and now her big green eyes were full of question.
‘Oh no Lily! It’s not that at all.’
‘What is it then?’ she asked, her hand going to where mine lay on the outside of the duvet and her little fingers curling around mine.
‘Well, your mum and dad are busy already and I don’t want to take up any more of their time.’
Lily started playing with my fingers.
‘When I was poorly Mummy looked after me.’
I smiled as did Janey.
‘If you’re not here, will your Mummy look after you?’ She lifted her innocent eyes to mine. I saw Janey’s face tense. I shook my head, trying to ignore the swooshy feeling the movement caused.
‘Why not? Is she far away?’
‘Yes, she is sweetheart.’
‘Which is exactly why Katie is staying here until she gets better. Come on Lily. Leave Katie in peace now. Did you finish your puzzle downstairs yet?’
Lily nodded. ‘Uncle Michael and Pilot helped me.’
‘Pilot’s a smart dog.’
‘I love him.’ Lily beamed, making me smile too.
‘He is rather wonderful,’ Janey agreed, throwing a private glance my way. ‘I’ll be back in a bit.’ She pointed a finger at me. ‘Do not move!’
I gave a weak half salute and let my head flop back onto the pillow. Vaguely aware of the sound of rain beating against the window, I rolled my head a little to look out. Rain streaked down the glass, the droplets racing each other and melding together as more joined them. Looking past them, I watched the trees as they bent with the force of the wind.
‘It’s pretty vile out there.’ The deep voice made me jump, mostly because it wasn’t Janey’s. ‘Even Pilot gave me a filthy look when I took him out earlier.’ Michael gave me one of those easy smiles, the one I’d seen him use with his family, but rarely outside that. His hair was damp and pushed back and he wore a semi-fitted black T-shirt with khaki cargo pants. ‘Can I come in? Janey’s sent up some soup and a drink for you.’
‘Of course,’ I said, pulling the sheet up almost to my neck.
Michael waited whilst I settled myself. ‘Comfy?’
I nodded.
He frowned, then put the tray down on the dressing table. Leaning over, he grabbed another pillow. ‘Sit up a minute.’ I did so and he squished another pillow behind me. ‘Better?’
It was. Much. I nodded.
‘Right. Here you go.’
It wasn’t that it didn’t look nice or smell good, I just wasn’t sure I felt like eating anything right now. I lifted my gaze and found Michael watching me.
‘Just so you know, if I go back with anything other than empty plates, it’ll be my fault. That’s already been made perfectly clear to me.’ I pulled a face and he grinned. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Thank you, Michael. For this and for yesterday.’
He shook his head and turned to go. I took a spoonful of the soup.
‘I’m sorry about the whole boyfriend being married thing, by the way.’
I half swallowed and half choked on the food as the impact of his statement hit me. At the same time, my eyes took in the fact that Janey’s guest bedding was pure white and the soup was tomato red. Michael was back across the room in two strides, removing the tray so that I could die choking in peace without ruining my host’s bed linen. He handed me the glass of water and I managed to find a gap in the coughing to shove some down my throat which thankfully began calming matters.
‘OK?’ he asked, bending to replace the tray in front of me, but staying poised to remove it should I try a repeat performance.
OK wasn’t exactly the best description of how I was feeling so I didn’t reply.
He put the tray down anyway, taking my silence as acceptance. I kept my eyes away from his and my mind focused on what had possessed his sister to tell him when she’d promised not to.
‘Janey didn’t mean to tell me.’
I remained silent, concentrating on spoonfuls of soup, my mind darting about, trying to get my groggy brain to find a way to leave without upsetting Janey. Or more likely finding a convenient drainpipe to shimmy down which was probably the only chance I had at leaving right now if my friend had anything to do with it. When I finished, Michael took the tray away and put it on the side. But he didn’t leave. For a moment, neither of us said anything.
‘Don’t be angry at Janey for telling me.’
I shook my head. ‘I’m not.’ I knew telling him intentionally wouldn’t have entered her mind once she’d promised me not to.
‘I know you and I haven’t always seen eye to eye about your boyfriend, but if you were mine…I mean…’ He fiddled with the spoon in the soup bowl a moment. ‘Well, although I agreed that Janey looking after you was the best thing, I thought that maybe we ought to let your boyfriend know. You know in case he finally wanted to step up and do something for you.’ I gave him a wary look under my lashes. ‘Janey was busy mixing up paracetamol or whatever magic potion it was and was obviously distracted…’
Turning my head towards the window, I focused on the rain. ‘What did she say?’
Michael hesitated. ‘Something about his wife probably not being too keen on that idea.’
I closed my eyes and waited for him to leave.
His hand on mine made me start. My eyes flew open to find his intense gaze on me. Quickly, I looked down, focusing on the long, sturdy fingers resting on top of mine.
‘I know that we started out a bit rocky and that I’m really just a client, so I know it shouldn’t matter…It’s just that I’d sort of thought we were becoming friends.’
I flicked my glance up to meet his for a moment.
‘Admittedly friends that don’t always agree but that’s OK too.’ He gave that twitch of a smile I’d seen the first day when I’d called him out for being an arse. ‘But I’d hoped we’d got to a point where you could at least have told me you’d split up with your boyfriend. I would have made an effort to try and say the right thing. No guarantee I would have said it but I would have tried.’
‘I couldn’t,’ I said, softly.
His brow creased. ‘Am I really that bad?’
I shook my head and automatically moved my hand. He caught it and held it.
‘What then?’ his voice was soft, and when I looked up his face was creased with concern, the green eyes that entranced me held my gaze, demanding an answer.
‘Because I thought we…might be able to be friends too. But I knew that once you knew this about me…you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.’ I let my gaze drop. ‘Even though you are the only client who has driven me to distraction, made me lose my temper, and self-control, for some reason, I didn’t want you thinking badly of me.’
‘And why would I be thinking badly of you?’
‘You know why.’
‘Because he was married?’
I closed my eyes and turned my head, bile rising again just at the thought of it all.
‘A fact you had no idea of.’
I shook my head.
‘So in what complicated little scenario would that make me think the worst of you?’
Calum’s words bounced off the walls of my mind.
‘He told me that I must have had some inkling, some idea that everything wasn’t…as it should be.’
‘Did you?’ Michael’s tone wasn’t accusatory.
‘No.’ Finally I looked at him. ‘I stupidly just swallowed every lie he told me.’
Michael studied me for a moment, before his fingers reached out to tuck a wayward piece of hair back behind my ear.
‘Katie, just to be clear, I do not think badly of you. Him? Well, let’s just say I was right when I said you deserved better.’
‘I just felt the whole thing might be a little close to home for you, and I wouldn’t have blamed you for feeling…something towards me.’
‘I do feel something towards you, Katie…and don’t look so worried.’ His gentle laugh relaxed his face and body, and it was hard not to respond in kind. And I might have done, if I hadn’t suddenly felt so tired. Knowing that Michael didn’t hate me or think I was some sort of destroyer of families had released a knot of tension I’d been carrying since that night. Like I’d said, I hadn’t even known why his opinion of me mattered so much. What other people thought of me wasn’t usually high on my priority list. Unless I cared about them.
‘You look exhausted.’ Michael gently tipped me forward enough to whip out the extra pillow he’d used to prop me up to eat. ‘Why don’t you get some rest? We can talk some more later.’
I made a half-hearted effort to nod, my eyelids already closing.
‘You’re not alone any more Katie.’ The deep lilting voice drifted into my dream as I felt a large, gentle hand softly stroke the hair from my face.
Some time later, my eyes still closed, I became vaguely aware of the sound of snoring at exactly the same time as realising that there was someone else in the room. As, in theory, I was the only one asleep it led me to conclude two things: that the noise was emanating from me and that I wasn’t alone to hear it. These things all declared themselves in my brain at roughly the same time, culminating in me waking up, sitting bolt upright and announcing that ‘I wasn’t snoring’. Even though clearly I had been.
The figure in the room moved. Michael. He was folded into the nearby chair reading, one long leg dangling over the arm, a lamp beside him providing enough illumination without keeping me awake. Unfortunately. He leant forward, swinging his leg down and over Pilot who was sprawled out on the floor in front of the chair.
‘You know, it’s not a big deal. Women worry too much about that sort of thing.’
I must have looked even more horrified than I felt. Although, admittedly, that might have been hard.
Michael began laughing. ‘Relax. It wasn’t you.’ I realised then that I could still hear the snoring. Michael pointed at the dog. ‘It’s him. You and the rescue centre conveniently forgot to tell me he snores like a hippo with a head cold.’
Having flopped back down, I now rolled onto my side to look at the dog.
‘I can’t say I ever noticed it before. Maybe it’s just when he goes into a deeper sleep, and he wasn’t relaxed enough in the kennels to do that. It’s not unusual.’
‘The snoring?’ Michael grinned. ‘It might not be unusual, but it’s loud.’
‘It’s not that bad. We can’t all be perfect.’ I reached down and stroked Pilot’s ear.
‘That’s true. It did at least drown your snoring out, so there’s that.’
My hand stilled and I shifted my eyes to him. He was rubbish at keeping a straight face and it was written all over his beautiful features.
‘You’re not supposed to be mean to the afflicted.’
‘I know. I’m sorry. Couldn’t resist.’
‘But you could give it a try Mikey,’ Janey said, entering the room and flicking his ear as she passed him.
‘How are you feeling sweetheart? Apart from being irritated by this lummox.’ She thumbed at Michael who mumbled something like ‘charming’ before bending down to stroke the dog. Pilot groaned, stretched, opened one eye briefly and then went back to snoring.
Janey placed the thermometer on me again.
‘That’s good. It’s not back to normal yet but it is lower.’
‘Does that mean I can go home?’ I asked. The truth was, it wasn’t the thought of sitting alone in my flat still feeling decidedly rough that held appeal for me. It was that I desperately wanted a shower. Having apparently sweated out most of the bug I’d picked up, I now felt decidedly icky.
‘Nope. But you can have a shower or a bath if that’s what you’re thinking.’
Oh God. I ponged! I surreptitiously tried to give a sniff but Janey caught my eye. ‘I just thought you might feel better for it. That’s all. Don’t go getting all wobbly in there though.’
‘I promise.’
‘I can give you a hand and make sure if you like. For safety reasons only. Obviously.’ Michael winked at me as Janey turned to leave.
She rolled her eyes at me, ignoring him. ‘You know where everything is. There’s a towel, toothbrush and some clean jammies waiting in there for you.’
‘Thanks Janey.’ I took her hand and reached up for a hug, my eyes unexpectedly, and inexplicably, filling with tears. Janey wiped a rogue one away as she stood.
‘You’re very welcome.’ Her smile was soft and said so much more than her words. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘We’ll leave you to it.’ She looked at Michael meaningfully. He got the hint and I could see he was about to wake the dog too.
‘Pilot can stay. I mean, if you don’t mind. It seems a shame to wake him. Unless you’re leaving, of course.’ I loved the feeling of having the dog lying there contentedly, keeping me company. And I knew it wasn’t just the dog’s company I would miss.
Michael gave a brief smile. ‘No, we weren’t planning on leaving just yet.’
I shifted in the bed, scooting myself up a little more, ready to get out. Janey prodded the back of her brother’s leg with her knee.
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