‘Tell me what to do,’ Grace said.
Every time Kyle went up in the lift the thought of Hannah’s apartment being empty made him feel sick. It was the same at work. The new guy was pleasant and capable and the rest of them their usual affable selves, but it wasn’t the same without her. Why had she been so secretive during those last weeks? he wondered. Even if she hadn’t wanted to commit herself to him she could at least have said where she was going.
Maybe she was letting him see how she’d felt when he’d walked out of her life. Whatever the reason, he ached for the sight of her.
He’d been home once since she’d left but it had been a hurried affair. He’d only been able to spend a couple of hours with Ben as he’d had a list of appointments as long as his arm, but the next time it was going to be different. His son was all he had now that Hannah was gone.
He’d been living the life of the joyless for almost a month when he boarded a train that would take him to Cheltenham and a peaceful weekend.
As usual his father was waiting for him at the station, with Ben dancing beside him, and his spirits lifted. At least he knew where he was with his own folk.
But his father’s smile was missing and his heart skipped a beat. ‘Your mother’s gone to Casualty, son,’ he said.
‘Why? What’s wrong?’ Kyle asked quickly.
‘I think it’s her leg.’
Kyle rolled his eyes heavenwards. ‘What do you mean, Dad…you think!’
‘Best go and see for yourself, eh?’ his father said. ‘Take the car. Ben and I will stay here for a while and do a bit of train-spotting.’
Kyle stared at him. His father usually went into a flap when anything was wrong with his mother, but not today for some reason.
‘Er…yes…right, then,’ he agreed. ‘Any message?’ But his father was more interested in the train that was coming along the other line and telling Ben to get his notebook and pen ready.
Was his father losing it? he wondered as he drove to the hospital. His mother was in Casualty, and all he could think about was train-spotting!
He was relieved to see that A and E was almost empty. The last thing he would want for his mother was a long wait if she’d hurt herself.
‘I’m Dr Templeton, here to see my mother,’ he told the clerk on the reception desk.
She pointed towards the corridor. ‘First room on the right.’
As he opened the door Kyle could smell coffee, and the first things he saw as it swung inwards were the back of his mother’s head, a plate of biscuits and two coffee cups.
That was in the first glance. It was what he saw in the second that made his jaw drop. There was a doctor in a white coat facing her, with hair of the palest gold and eyes blue as forget-me-nots in a face he’d thought he might never see again.
‘Hannah!’ he breathed. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘What I’ve been trained for,’ she said softly.
‘But in Cheltenham of all places!’
‘I wanted to be near your family for a little while.’
‘My family?’
‘Yes…us!’ his mother said as she closed the door quietly behind her.
‘I see. Or do I?’ he said blankly.
As he sank down onto the nearest chair Hannah got to her feet and came to stand beside him. ‘I thought that if you didn’t want me at least I could maybe be on the sidelines.’
‘Sidelines!’ he cried. ‘I want you in the centre of my life. I always have!’
‘You have a funny way of showing it, Kyle.’
He was observing her warily. ‘And you have a very strange effect on me that makes me say the wrong things…do the wrong things…’
‘Not all the time,’ she teased. ‘I can think of one time when what you did was exactly right.’
His eyes were warming, the shadows disappearing.
‘I can’t believe you pulled this trick on me. I thought that Dad was going peculiar when he said he’d rather stay at the station than come with me.’
‘We were all in the plot except Ben.’
He was on his feet, his arms reaching out for her. ‘Is it all right if I propose to you again?’ he asked with exaggerated meekness. ‘I think I’ve got the words right this time.’
She inclined her head graciously and fixed him with laughing eyes.
‘Yes, you may, but, please, don’t be too long as this room is for emergencies only.’
‘And this isn’t an emergency?’
‘I suppose we could class it as one.’
‘Here we go, then. Will you marry me, Hannah Morgan, because I love and adore you? Life is joyless without you…and Ben would be delighted to have you for a mother.’
‘Yes, of course I’ll marry you, Kyle,’ she said softly. ‘My life is meaningless without you.’
‘I don’t believe this is happening,’ he said huskily.
‘Neither do I,’ Hannah whispered, ‘but it is!’
As his arms tightened around her she said softly, ‘Tell me something, Kyle.’
‘What?’ he breathed.
‘Will we be able to live in the house at Wimbledon? Or have you changed your mind?’
‘I had changed my mind because it would have been just a shell without you there with us, but it’s still on the market and a quick call to the agent will soon change that.’
‘Brilliant!’ she cried with her cheek against his.
‘Anything else you want to ask me?’
She was laughing.
‘Yes, there is. If we should come across my brother-in-law, promise me that you’ll let him tell you about his problems as he always has a desperate need to unburden himself.’
‘If it means that he’s latching on to me instead of you, by all means, but the situation isn’t likely to arise, is it?’
‘Hmm.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He’s out there, waiting to be seen by one of the doctors.’
‘He can be the first to congratulate us, then,’ he said laughingly, and as they left the small consulting room with arms entwined they both knew that for the first time in their lives the way ahead was clear.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5667-8
EMERGENCY REUNION
First North American Publication 2001
Copyright © 2001 by Abigail Gordon.
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