by Kate Hardy
‘Sure.’
She took him round the corner to what looked like a church—until he noticed that it was roofless, there was ivy growing over the walls and there was no glass in the windows.
The plaque on the wall told him that the church of St Dunstan’s in the East was rebuilt by Wren after the Great Fire of London; it was bombed in the Blitz but Wren’s tower remained and the church area was made into a garden.
‘So just over there we have all the hustle and bustle of the City of London,’ Lorenzo said. ‘And here it’s just peace and calm, full of flowers and bees.’
‘Amazing, isn’t it?’ Jenna said. ‘I came here with Will and Lu, too. She used it as inspiration when they started building the sensory garden at her school.’
‘I can see why,’ Lorenzo said.
There were several wooden benches arranged around the small bubbling foundation in the centre of the church floor. They sat on one of the spare benches and watched the bees hovering over the flowers of the shrubs planted in the garden.
‘The perfect English summer day,’ Jenna said.
‘Maybe there was a garden here in Roman times, too,’ Lorenzo said. ‘Just round the corner from the bath house.’
‘A walled one, to help shelter from the cold in winter,’ she said. ‘No wonder they needed the underfloor heating in that Roman house. I still can’t imagine how cold it must’ve been back then for the Thames to freeze over.’
‘Especially on a warm summer day like this one,’ Lorenzo agreed.
As they left the church grounds, their hands accidentally brushed against each other again. Lorenzo gave in to the impulse to let his fingers link with Jenna’s. She didn’t pull away, and they walked in silence back towards the Monument, hand in hand. Oddly, this felt right.
‘Maybe,’ he suggested, ‘we could walk by the river for a bit.’
‘I’d like that,’ she said. ‘From here, we could walk down to Tower Bridge, then head over the river to the South Bank.’
‘That’d be good.’
He held her hand all the way along the side of the Thames and across the bridge. And somehow they were still holding hands by the time they got to the South Bank. There were street entertainers, stalls selling everything from jewellery and crafts through to books and prints. Children were darting in and out of the fountain installations, laughing. Something he’d enjoyed doing with Florence, as soon as she was old enough to toddle. He’d lifted her over the walls of water and she’d giggled and clapped her hands. ‘Uv oo, Dada.’
Gone.
All gone.
* * *
Something had put the sadness back in Lorenzo’s face, Jenna thought. What was it about the South Bank that had made him feel that way? She loved the vibrancy of the area, the street entertainers and the art installations. And she’d always loved the fountains.
On impulse, she tugged at his hand. ‘Come on. Let’s get to the other side of the fountain rooms. The one who gets wettest buys the drinks.’
At that, the shadow seemed to clear from his face. ‘OK. You’re on.’
Lorenzo was the first to get sprayed by the fountain when a mini wall of water sprang up unexpectedly.
Jenna, halfway across the installation and still completely dry, grinned. ‘Oh, dear. Poor Renzo. You are so buying those drinks.’
‘Don’t bet on it,’ he teased back.
She was just about to be smug and step out onto the other side of the installation when she realised she’d misjudged her timing—and was promptly soaked by the largest wall of water popping up.
Lorenzo strolled across when the water had died down again. ‘You were saying, Dr Harris?’
‘All right, so the drinks are on me,’ she said, giving a mock pained sigh. ‘Do you want beer, wine or coffee?’
‘Actually, the smoothies over there look good,’ he said, indicating one of the stalls.
‘Smoothies it is, then,’ she said with a smile.
Once she’d bought their smoothies, they sat on one of the benches overlooking the Thames, watching the light playing on the water and looking over at the buildings on the North Bank, from the glass and steel constructions of the buildings in the City of London through to the towering dome of St Paul’s. She felt Lorenzo shift slightly next to her, and then his arm slid round her shoulders.
They’d held hands. This was the next logical step. If she pulled away, she knew without having to ask that he’d respect her boundaries and give her space.
The problem was, she didn’t want to pull away.
So she shifted slightly, too, moving closer to him. And in response his arm tightened slightly round her.
It was so easy to be with Lorenzo. Jenna didn’t feel that she had to chatter to fill the space. It was fine just sitting together in the sunshine, sipping smoothies and watching the world go by. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done something like this, and it made her ache.
When they walked to the Tube station, their arms were still wrapped round each other. Lorenzo held her hand on the train and all the way back to her flat.
Butterflies were doing a stampede in her stomach, a mixture of excitement and fear.
What now?
She turned to him, intending to kiss him on the cheek and thank him for a lovely day. And somehow she missed and her mouth brushed against his. Her lips tingled where they touched his, and the tingle ran all the way down to the base of her spine.
Knowing she shouldn’t be doing this, she did it again. And this time his arms wrapped round her and he deepened the kiss.
Kissing like a teenager on her front doorstep.
How long had it been since she’d done something like this? Years and years and years.
She pulled back slightly and looked him straight in the eye. ‘Sorry. That wasn’t supposed to happen.’
‘No need to apologise.’ He rested his palm lightly against her cheek and stroked the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. ‘But it did happen. So what now?’
‘We both said we weren’t in a place where we wanted a relationship,’ she reminded him. ‘That we’d just see how things go.’
‘True,’ he said. ‘But this thing between us—somehow I don’t think this is going to be easy to ignore.’
‘Also true,’ she said. ‘But you and I—I think we both come with baggage.’
‘Stuff that’s been hard to deal with, and just as hard to talk about.’ He looked at her. ‘So we’ll be kind to each other. No pressure. No promises. Just enjoy each other’s company.’
Friends, but with the possibility of more. Not rushing into things. ‘Taking it slowly,’ she said, ‘sounds good.’
He leaned forward and kissed her again. This time it was very deliberate and it made her knees feel as if they’d melted.
‘See you tomorrow,’ he said.
‘Tomorrow,’ she echoed.
And Monday suddenly looked as if it was going to be very bright indeed.
CHAPTER FIVE
AT WORK THE next day, Jenna and Lorenzo were both busy in the PAU. It seemed to be Jenna’s day for sorting out fractures: a girl who’d fallen over roller-skating and put her hands out to save herself, ending up with a greenstick fracture of her arm; a boy who’d fallen off the monkey bars in the playground and fractured his elbow; and a toddler who’d fallen over while running around at playgroup and ended up with a spiral fracture of his tibia.
‘Got time for lunch before your next clinic?’ Lorenzo asked as they headed out to the staff kitchen.
‘Lunch would be great. I could really do with some coffee,’ Jenna said feelingly. ‘It’s been one of those mornings.’
‘Rough cases?’ he asked.
‘Fractures, fractures and more fractures,’ she said.
‘Don’t tell me. Greenstick ulnar fractures?’
She
grimaced. ‘One, plus a spiral tibia—though the one that worries me is the lad who fell off the monkey bars.’
‘Supracondylar fracture?’ Lorenzo asked.
Breaking an arm just above the elbow was one of the most common fractures in children, so it was a fair guess. ‘No. This one was actually on the joint. I had to send him up for surgery.’
Lorenzo winced. ‘Poor lad. Was it a simple fracture or has he injured the growth plate as well?’
‘Right now, I don’t know. We’ll need to keep an eye on him,’ she said. ‘How about you? How was your morning?’
‘Full of small children with rashes, along with mums who were in a bit of a panic,’ he said. ‘Thankfully none of them turned out to be septicaemia. I’ve put one toddler on a food exclusion diet, though, to see if it helps with her eczema. Her mum’s already using non-bio washing powder and being careful with detergents and toiletries, so we agreed to look at foods, and we’re following up in a fortnight.’
‘Starting with dairy?’ she asked.
He nodded. ‘The usual suspects. I gave the mum a list of substitutes—she was already clued up about caring for sore, itchy skin and she’s using the right emollients.’
‘It’s tough for parents, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
There was another shadow in his face, quickly masked, and Jenna was starting to wonder. She knew that his wife had left him for someone else, but she had a feeling there was more to it than that—just as there was to her situation with Danny. Had they maybe lost a child, first, and the only way his ex had been able to cope was to find someone else, someone who hadn’t shared the pain with her and reminded her of the loss every time she saw him? In which case, working on the paediatric ward must be so difficult for him—or maybe he was such a dedicated doctor precisely because he knew how it felt to have a sick child and he wanted to spare other people going through the same pain.
Though asking him straight out felt much too intrusive. Until he was ready to talk to her, she wouldn’t pry. Especially because she wasn’t enough of a hypocrite to expect him to open up about his past without admitting to her own.
Awkwardly, she changed the subject. ‘I’m ordering toys this weekend. I have a wish-list going round the ward for suggestions so, if you have any strong views on what we need, make sure you grab the list.’
‘I will.’ He smiled at her. ‘Can I take you out to dinner tonight?’
‘Sorry. Mondays are my evening with Lucy, Will and Ava.’
‘Tomorrow?’
She shook her head. ‘Tuesday is salsa class.’ She smiled back. ‘You could come to salsa class with me, if you like, and we could grab something to eat afterwards.’
‘Thanks for the offer, but my two left feet are already wincing at the idea of more salsa. Wednesday’s the team ten-pin bowling night out,’ he said.
‘And Thursday is my ballroom class. So maybe we can do something on Friday?’ she suggested.
‘Friday it is,’ he agreed.
When they walked through the reception area back towards the ward, Jenna noticed there was a table with a bake sale in aid of dementia patients.
‘Hang on a sec,’ she said, and browsed the table for a couple of minutes before buying a coffee and walnut cake.
‘Is that for the ward kitchen?’ he asked.
‘No, it’s for my sister tonight. Coffee and walnut cake is her absolute favourite.’
‘Then I’ll buy some cake for the ward kitchen,’ he said, and chose a lemon drizzle cake.
‘I would’ve pegged you as a chocolate cake fiend,’ she said.
‘Pretty much any cake will do,’ he said, ‘but lemon drizzle cake has always been my favourite. My mother puts limoncello in hers.’
‘Would that be limoncello made by your family, from your own lemon orchard?’ she asked.
‘Actually, yes, it would.’ He laughed. ‘We’re terribly clichéd. Wine, lemons—the only thing we don’t grow right now is olives, though I think one of my cousins is eyeing up a grove or two and thinking about branching out. Pun most definitely not intended,’ he added with a grin.
‘It’s nice that you’re kind of the bedrock of the local economy,’ she said. ‘Lu’s very keen on all the slow food stuff.’
‘Good food is always worth paying attention to,’ he said.
‘You sound like my twin,’ she said with a smile. Lorenzo and Lucy would get on really well, she was sure. But she wasn’t ready to introduce him to her family just yet. They’d agreed to take it slowly and see where things took them. And that suited her just fine.
* * *
That evening, Jenna skilfully used cake to deflect Lucy’s questions about the danceathon, and turned the conversation to the wedding in Scotland. She knew if she admitted that she was seeing Lorenzo, Lucy would insist on meeting him, checking him out to make sure he wasn’t another Danny. And then the grilling would begin—for both of them. She wasn’t ready to talk, yet, even to her twin.
Yes, she’d like to be as happy and Lucy and Will were. But where did you find somebody to love, somebody who’d love you all the way back? In your thirties, anyone you met had baggage. Cracks in their heart from previous relationships. Could she and Lorenzo heal each other’s hearts, or would their new relationship fall through those cracks?
* * *
On Wednesday night, Lorenzo and Jenna were both at the ward’s ten-pin bowling night out, though they were on different teams and didn’t get much chance to talk to each other. But on Thursday evening Lorenzo was browsing through the local ‘what’s on’ website and spotted something he liked the look of: Screen under the Stars. He really liked the idea of seeing a film outdoors.
Even though he knew Jenna was at her dance class, he sent her a text, knowing she’d pick it up at some point later that evening.
Pop-up cinema in the park tomorrow evening. Weather forecast good. Shall we?
As he’d hoped, she texted back after her class.
Love to. What’s the film?
Dirty Dancing.
Excellent choice :) What time?
Meet you at your place at seven?
Perfect.
* * *
They were both too busy even to grab a cup of coffee together, the next day. But at seven that evening, he rang her doorbell.
‘What’s that?’ she asked, nodding at the large bag he was carrying.
‘A fleecy blanket,’ he said. ‘It’ll be cold when the sun goes down, even though it’s June.’
‘Good thinking,’ she said. ‘Shall I go and dig out my fold-up picnic chairs?’
‘No need,’ he said with a smile, ‘because our tickets are the VIP ones that include chairs.’
‘Excellent organisation on your part, Dr Conti,’ she said, and slid her arm round his waist. ‘And, because you bought the tickets, I’m buying the drinks and nibbles.’
‘Fine by me,’ he said.
They walked to the park together, queued up so their tickets could be scanned from his phone, bought drinks and popcorn, and then went to find their chairs.
‘I really love this film,’ Jenna said with a smile.
‘So Patrick Swayze’s your ideal man?’ he asked.
‘Dancing like that? You bet!’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Though really it’s the way he sticks up for Baby at the end that I like most. It’s important for your partner to fight your corner.’
‘Rather than giving you an ultimatum.’ The words were out before he could stop them, and he winced. ‘Sorry.’
‘No, you’re right.’ She sighed. ‘Danny didn’t agree with me taking a sabbatical.’ She looked torn, as if she wanted to tell him more but something was holding her back.
She’d told him that she didn’t trust her own judgement any more. So he simply took her hand. ‘I’m assuming you had a good reason. It’s a shame he
didn’t support you.’
‘He said it was career suicide. That I could never make up the lost money and promotions.’ She dragged in a breath. ‘But some things are more important than money.’
Was this time she’d taken to have a child—and perhaps lost the baby and Danny hadn’t been there for her? Though he could hardly ask.
‘From what I see, you’re a well-respected member of the team. He was wrong about a sabbatical being career suicide. Doctors do it all the time. Some to work for Doctors Without Borders, others take parental leave, others need to look after a sick relative for a while. Life happens. You didn’t make the wrong choice.’
‘Thank you,’ she said.
Her ex sounded incredibly selfish. No wonder she didn’t trust her judgement, if she’d fallen in love with someone like that. ‘No problem,’ he said softly.
Lorenzo held her hand all the way through the film and just enjoyed the movie.
As the sun finished setting, he noticed that Jenna was shivering slightly, so he tucked the blanket round her and went to fetch hot chocolate and hot dogs to warm them up.
‘Thank you,’ she said, and kissed him lightly. ‘It’s nice to have someone make a fuss of me.’
Clearly her ex hadn’t done that, and he knew what it felt like to choose the wrong partner. But he didn’t want to talk about that, either, so he just smiled. ‘My pleasure.’
There was something special about watching a film under the stars, and Lorenzo enjoyed every second of it.
‘So would you do a lift like that one in your ballroom class?’ he asked as they walked back to her place after the movie had ended.
‘I guess some choreographers might put it into a show dance,’ she said, ‘but to be honest we don’t tend to do lifts when we go through routines or learn new steps. I’m not in the advanced class.’
‘The way you were dancing at the danceathon looked pretty advanced to me.’
She shook her head. ‘Those were really just easy basics. If you put a few of them together in a combination, the routine looks a lot more flashy and complicated than it really is.’
Back at her flat, he kissed her goodnight on the doorstep. ‘Can I see you tomorrow?’ he asked. ‘I could cook dinner for you.’