After lunch? Annie thought as Gideon launched into a list of the things they might possibly do in the afternoon. How had a simple trip to the park suddenly turned into a full-day expedition?
‘Gideon—’
‘Just leave everything to me, Annie,’ he said firmly. ‘All you have to do is be ready on time.’
He was wrong, she thought as she stared up at him. The most important thing was for her to keep remembering that he was a friend, nothing more, or tomorrow was going to turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes of her life.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE sky was blue, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and even the hint of frost Annie had seen earlier, glinting on the rooftops had disappeared. It was a perfect day for the Botanic Gardens.
In fact, it was a perfect day to go anywhere that didn’t have her brother in the vicinity, Annie decided as he launched into yet another whistled rendition of ‘Can’t help falling in love’.
‘David, if you dropped by with the sole purpose of winding me up, I’d far rather you just left,’ she declared in exasperation.
He opened his eyes very wide. ‘Winding you up? Can’t a bloke whistle if he feels like it?’
She scowled at him, then leapt forward with a warning cry to retrieve Jamie who was wobbling precariously on the back of an armchair, trying to look out of the window.
‘Jamie, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times, Mr Caldwell will be here when the big hand is at six and the little hand is at ten,’ she exclaimed.
‘But he is coming today, isn’t he, Mummy?’ her son asked, his small face worried, uncertain. ‘We really are going to the park, aren’t we?’
Her throat tightened as she stared down at him. He’d been up since six o’clock this morning, full of excitement, bursting with enthusiasm, and it was for so very little. A simple trip to the park, that was all, but to Jamie a day out was as thrilling and unusual as a visit to the moon.
‘All working mums feel the same, love,’ her brother murmured, clearly reading her mind. ‘Don’t start mentally beating yourself up, thinking you’re neglecting him.’
It was easy for him to say, but how could she not feel guilty? How could she not sometimes wonder in the dark lonely hours of the night whether she should give up her dream of becoming a specialist registrar and settle instead for some part-time medical work? Work that would give her more free time with Jamie.
‘You could always move back in with me if you’re finding things tough,’ David continued, his eyes fixed on her.
For a second she was tempted, then her lips curved and she shook her head. ‘And cramp your style with all your lovely ladies—what kind of sister would that make me?’
‘My kid sister, and I worry about you.’
His voice was uncharacteristically gruff, and she gazed at him in dismay. ‘David, I’m fine—truly I am. OK, so maybe sometimes I get a bit down-wonder if I’m doing the right thing by Jamie—but, please, don’t worry about me. I really am all right.’
He gazed at her thoughtfully. ‘I guess you must be if you’ve started dating again.’
‘Gideon and I aren’t dating,’ she exclaimed, annoyingly aware that she was blushing. ‘As I told you on the phone, he’s simply taking Jamie and me to the park. It’s no big deal.’
Her brother’s eyes drifted over her. ‘No big deal, huh? So how come you’re not wearing your normal Saturday morning outfit—those tatty old jogging pants and that baggy sweatshirt?’
Her colour deepened. OK, so perhaps she’d made a bit of an effort this morning by putting on her last decent pair of corduroy trousers and topping them with a fluffy green sweater, and she’d washed her hair last night, but that was only because she didn’t want Gideon to be embarrassed in her company.
‘You were the one who said I should get out more,’ she said irrationally. ‘You were the one who said—’
‘Hey, don’t get your knickers in a twist,’ he protested. ‘If you say it’s not a date, it’s not a date. Which means you won’t mind if I stick around until he gets here, check him out?’
‘Check him out?’ she spluttered. ‘David, don’t you dare. Not if you want to leave this flat walking.’
Her front doorbell rang and her brother glanced down at his watch. ‘Ten twenty-five. My word, he’s keen.’
‘David.’
‘Sweetness and light, little sister.’ He beamed. ‘I’ll be nothing but sweetness and light.’
Which was enough to scare the hell out of anybody, Annie thought as she went to let Gideon in.
‘Am I too early?’ Gideon said, clearly misinterpreting her expression. ‘The traffic wasn’t as heavy as I’d thought it would be.’
‘No, of course you’re not too early,’ she reassured him. ‘I just have to collect one or two things.’
‘He’s been here before.’ Jamie had followed her down the hall, and was surveying Gideon with a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty. ‘Is he the one who’s taking us to the park?’
‘That’s right.’ Gideon smiled, crouching down to Jamie’s height. ‘My name’s Gideon, and I’m a friend of your mummy’s.’
‘Mummy said you’re a doctor like her,’ Jamie observed, ‘but that you were the big cheese.’
Annie’s eyes flew to Gideon’s in embarrassed consternation, but to her relief he grinned.
‘Any particular type or flavour?’ he asked, his brown eyes brimming with laughter.
‘Stilton, perhaps.’ She chuckled. ‘Or how about Brie? Crusty on the outside, but soft as butter in the middle.’
‘Or Danish blue,’ her brother declared, appearing beside them without warning. ‘Which can cause severe allergic reactions in people who can’t take penicillin.’
Gideon straightened up. He was half a head taller than David but in Annie’s small hallway he looked even bigger. ‘You’re Annie’s brother.’
‘You’re Annie’s boss.’
‘And David’s just leaving, aren’t you, David?’ Annie said quickly, glancing from her brother to Gideon with foreboding.
‘I’m not in any rush,’ David replied. ‘In fact, why don’t you go and collect Jamie’s emergency travelling gear while Gideon and I become better acquainted?’
‘Jamie’s emergency travelling gear?’ Gideon repeated, clearly puzzled.
‘I always takes a spare set of Jamie’s underpants and trousers with me whenever we go anywhere,’ Annie explained. ‘He sometimes gets a bit excited, you see, and forgets to ask to go.’
‘You should be taking notes, Gideon,’ David said. ‘For future dates.’
‘David.’
Her brother smiled. ‘Just trying to be helpful, sis.’
Yeah, right, she thought, but this kind of help she could do without. ‘I won’t be a minute, Gideon,’ she said, shooting her brother a glance which said, Don’t you dare to interrogate Gideon or make any smart remarks.
‘We’ll wait for you in the sitting room,’ David replied with a grin that said, Hey, what do you take me for? It didn’t reassure her for a second as she shot down the corridor, towing a loudly protesting Jamie behind her.
‘Annie tells me you’re a specialist registrar at the Merkland Memorial,’ Gideon said, as he followed David into the sitting room.
‘That’s right. Annie told me you’re taking her and Jamie to the Botanic Gardens.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Hoping to strike lucky with my sister, are you?’
Gideon’s eyes narrowed. ‘As you’re Annie’s brother I’ll let that pass. If you’d been anybody else I’d have punched you on the nose.’
‘Fair enough.’ David nodded. ‘But Annie’s my kid sister—’
‘Then why do you let her live in this dump?’
‘I don’t let Annie do anything,’ David replied, his voice tight. ‘My sister makes her own decisions—always has. Getting her to stay with me when she was pregnant was tough. Persuading her to stay on after Jamie was born was even harder. She wanted her ind
ependence, and she wanted her own flat. I tried to talk her out of both, she said no.’
‘I see.’
‘I don’t think you do—not yet—but you will.’
‘David—’
‘Annie tells me you’re a widower. Is that true?’
Gideon’s eyebrows rose. ‘Do you want to see my wife’s death certificate?’
‘It would be reassuring.’
‘Now, just a minute—’
‘Annie hasn’t had an easy life,’ David interrupted, ‘and I don’t just mean these past four years. Our parents were killed in a car crash when she was sixteen and I was twenty. We were left with no money, and it was Annie who washed dishes after school so I could complete my medical training, Annie who took a weekend job in a supermarket to feed us both.’
‘I know she’s special—’
‘So do I, which is why I want to make one thing crystal clear. If you ever hurt my sister—make her unhappy—I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.’
‘David—’
‘Everything OK in here?’ Annie asked, red-cheeked and breathless as she dashed into the sitting room, clutching a carrier bag, with Jamie at her side.
David smiled. ‘Everything’s hunky-dory. In fact, I think Gideon and I understand one another perfectly now.’
She didn’t like the sound of that at all, but there was no time to ask for an explanation. Not when Jamie was already heading excitedly for the door and Gideon was following him with his car seat, but she turned to him anxiously as they drove away from Thornton Street.
‘I hope David didn’t say anything to upset you. He means well, but sometimes he forgets I’m not eighteen any more.’
‘He didn’t upset me in the least,’ Gideon replied smoothly.
‘He was the same when I was a teenager,’ she continued. ‘Always fussing over me, grilling every boyfriend I ever had. It was one of the reasons why I opted to go down south to do my medical studies.’
In the light of what had obviously happened to her down south she might have been better—safer—to have stayed in Glasgow, Gideon thought ruefully, but he didn’t say that.
‘Annie, it’s OK,’ he said instead. ‘Nothing David said annoyed or angered me.’
She had to be content with that. Jamie was already clamouring to know if they’d reached the park yet, and she took solace in the fact that Gideon didn’t appear to be unduly ruffled. Which didn’t mean, of course, that she wasn’t going to give her brother merry hell the next time she saw him. His constant interrogation of her boyfriends had been bad enough when she’d been eighteen, but she sure as heck wasn’t going to let him get away with it now she was twenty-eight.
Not that Gideon was a boyfriend, of course, she told herself firmly. He was a friend, nothing more, but that still didn’t mean she liked the idea of her brother grilling him.
Especially when Gideon proved to be both an entertaining and informative companion in the gardens.
‘How did you get to know so much about the eating habits of squirrels?’ she asked in admiration as they strolled along the path, with Jamie running ahead of them. ‘Not to mention being able to identify every tree.’
‘My grandfather used to take my brother and me out to Loch Lomond every weekend,’ Gideon replied, ‘and there was nothing Grandpa Caldwell didn’t know about the countryside.’
‘Is your brother a doctor, too?’ she asked, and he laughed.
‘Heavens, no. Richard was the sensible one. He became a lawyer and earns considerably more than I do for working a lot fewer hours.’
‘Would you swap if you could?’ she said curiously, and he smiled and shook his head.
‘Not in a million years. I love my job. In fact, it’s my whole life now.’
But it shouldn’t be, she thought with a slight frown as she watched him swing Jamie up into his arms so he could see a squirrel sitting on the branch above them. He should have more—he deserved more. He should have a wife, and children of his own.
He could have you, her heart suddenly whispered. He could have you, and Jamie.
Definitely not, her mind shrieked, absolutely not. You’re never going to get involved with a man again, remember. It’s just you and Jamie against the world, remember.
But you like him, don’t you? her heart whispered when Gideon gently lowered Jamie to the ground. You like him a lot.
She did. Actually, it was odd, but she’d never once asked herself whether she liked Nick. Oh, she’d loved him—loved him desperately—but she’d never once asked herself whether she liked him.
‘Mummy, what’s that big building over there?’ Jamie demanded. ‘The glass one?’
‘It’s the Kibble Palace,’ she answered, dragging her thoughts back to the present with difficulty. ‘An engineer called John Kibble built it a long time ago as a conservatory—a sort of big greenhouse—for his home at Loch Long. He gave it to the Royal Botanic Institution in 1873 and they dismantled it, then shipped it up the Clyde and rebuilt it here.’
‘Can we go inside?’
‘Of course we can,’ she replied, and with a whoop of delight Jamie was off and running towards the entrance.
‘He seems to be enjoying himself.’ Gideon laughed.
‘So am I,’ she admitted. ‘I’d forgotten how lovely the gardens were.’
‘Have you ever been here in the summer for one of their open-air concerts?’
She shook her head. ‘I always meant to come when I was younger, but somehow I never got around to it.’
‘Then we’ll certainly have to rectify that,’ he declared as he led the way into the palace. ‘I’ll bring you here in the summer.’
It sounded magical. A concert in the open air, on a balmy summer’s evening, with a full moon shining, and Gideon at her side. It sounded…romantic.
And you’re doing it again, she thought with dismay—thinking about him as a man, and not simply as a friend. Good grief, woman, you haven’t even a clue how he feels about you. OK, so he’s brought you and Jamie here for the day, but that doesn’t mean anything. He could be bored out of his skull right this minute, and you wouldn’t know it.
But he doesn’t look bored, she argued back. Look at him talking to Jamie, listening to what he’s saying. Does that look like a bored man to you? No, but, then, he wouldn’t allow his boredom to show, she thought with a slight sigh. He was that sort of man.
‘Mummy—Mummy, come and see,’ Jamie said excitedly, grabbing her by the arm. ‘There’s a pond in here, and it has huge goldfish in it.’
Obediently she allowed him drag her towards it. ‘I think they’re carp, sweetheart.’ She frowned. ‘If they’re not, they’re pretty beefy goldfish.’
‘Carp for sure.’ Gideon nodded, tugging at his shirt collar. ‘Phew, I’d forgotten how hot it is in here.’
‘It’s for the palm trees, sir,’ one of the gardeners said, overhearing him. ‘We keep the air hot and humid to mimic a rainforest.’
‘Well, it certainly feels like one,’ a teenager with a baby in her arms observed, looking distinctly harassed as she passed them.
Gideon shook his head as he watched the girl leave the palace. ‘Look at her, Annie. She can’t be a day over sixteen and yet already she’s saddled with a child. And there’s no need for it nowadays. Not with so many forms of birth control available.’
‘I guess not.’
Something in Annie’s voice made him glance round at her quickly, and what he saw in her face brought a wave of hot colour to his cheeks. ‘Annie, I’m not implying that you—I’m not suggesting that you—’
‘It’s all right,’ she said quietly. ‘I didn’t want or plan to be a single parent either, but unfortunately the Pill isn’t always a hundred per cent effective.’
He stared at the palm trees silently for a second, then cleared his throat. ‘Annie, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way—I mean, your son is a joy and a delight—but being a single parent, it can’t have been easy, and—’
‘Y
ou’re wondering why I didn’t have a termination.’ She sighed. ‘I probably would have if I’d known earlier that I was pregnant. I was twenty-four years old, I’d just finished my medical degree and the last thing I needed was a baby, but I didn’t know I was pregnant until I was twenty-two weeks. My menstrual cycle has always been pretty erratic, you see, and I was still getting some spotting even at twenty-five weeks.’
‘When you found out, you could still have gone ahead,’ he observed, his eyes on her, curious, thoughtful. ‘Terminations can be carried out even at that late stage.’
‘I know, but…’ Unconsciously her face softened. ‘I’d felt him move. If I hadn’t felt him move—realised he was there, that he was real…’ She laughed a little shakily. ‘That probably sounds really dumb and stupid to you.’
‘No. No, it doesn’t,’ he said huskily. ‘I…’ He paused, then started again. ‘Jamie’s father—he’s married, isn’t he?’
For a second she hesitated, then suddenly it was important that he should know, understand. ‘I didn’t know he was married, not at first. We met at the Manchester Infirmary—’
‘He’s a doctor?’
‘He was a consultant, and I thought he was single, like me. He didn’t tell me he was married until after I fell in love with him, and then he said he was separated, getting a divorce.’
‘I take it he wasn’t.’
She shook her head as the memories came flooding back. Memories she’d spent four years trying to forget. ‘I found out later that he didn’t have any intention of getting a divorce. His wife has very good connections, you see—and Nick is a very ambitious man. All he wanted from me was some extra-marital sex.’
‘Oh, Annie.’
He’d reached out and grasped her hands tightly in his, and she managed a tiny, lopsided smile. ‘Go on—say it. Annie Hart, you were a fool.’
‘You loved him, and you thought he loved you,’ he said firmly. ‘He was the fool to let you go. You’re spunky, and brave, and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.’
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