When Kelly returned from the counter Jake was flirting with a pretty waitress. The sight cheered her up.
She had a milk shake too, to keep him company, and as they sat sipping through straws he said wryly, ‘We look like a couple of high-school kids.’
‘If you go back a while. High-school kids don’t drink milk shakes any more.’
‘True. But we did, once. You were seventeen, but you looked younger, so it had to be a milk bar.’
‘Oh, yes,’ she breathed as it came back to her. ‘I’d taken an exam and you were waiting outside the school gates.’ She chuckled suddenly.
‘What?’
‘You asked how the exam had gone. You were only being polite, but I was on such a high that I bent your ear for half an hour about how brilliantly I’d done. Then I looked at you suddenly and you were glassy-eyed with boredom.’
‘Not boredom. I admit I was barely listening, but I was thinking how pretty you were.’
‘And I thought how grown-up you were, until you made a gurgling noise with your straw,’ she remembered.
‘Like this?’
He’d reached the end of the glass and he noisily sucked up the last bubbles through the straw. She immediately did the same, and he grinned. Then something caught his attention over her shoulder. Kelly turned to see a tall man standing in the door, scanning the room until he saw Jake. The next moment he was making his way towards them.
‘I looked into your room and you weren’t there,’ he said. ‘I hoped I’d find you here.’
‘Kelly, this is Dr Ainsley,’ Jake said, and she reached up to shake hands.
She was trying to equate this pleasant-faced man in his forties with the dragon of Jake’s description. Dr Ainsley had a stubborn chin but genial eyes.
‘I’ve heard all about you,’ he said cheerfully, engulfing her hand. ‘Anna, on Reception, spread it through the building as soon as you’d left the front desk.’
‘Ah,’ she said, non-committally, wishing she knew exactly what Anna had said.
‘Let me get you a coffee,’ Jake offered.
‘I’ll get it,’ Kelly said at once, but Dr Ainsley laid his hand on her arm.
‘Let him,’ he said. ‘It’ll do him good to move about.’
When Jake was out of earshot the doctor said quickly, ‘I wanted to talk to you alone.’
‘How is he, really?’
‘He’s recovering, but not as fast as he should. It’s as though he can’t rouse himself to make the effort.’
‘But he’s always been so strong and confident, so-so macho.’
‘They can be the worst. The more a man is used to being in control, the harder it hits him when he’s in a situation he
‘He told me how he tried to walk alone too soon.’
‘That was the turning point. Until then he’d managed to convince himself that he could get well to his own timetable. When he discovered that he was wrong it hit him very hard. He’s going to need careful looking after.’
The significant way he was regarding her made Kelly say hastily, ‘Dr Ainsley, I’m not married to Jake any more.’
His face fell. ‘But I thought-I must have got it wrong.’
‘We were divorced a few weeks ago. If we were still married, do you think I’d have waited this long to come?’
‘Of course not. I’m sorry.’
‘Jake’s in my past.’
‘But you’re here.’
‘Caring for him is a habit that’s hard to break. Just not in that way.’
‘I gather he doesn’t have any other family.’
Kelly shook her head. ‘No brothers or sisters, and his parents are dead. And since neither of them had siblings either, he’s got nobody.’
‘Except you.’
‘And Olympia Statton.’
‘Ah yes! Glamorous blonde, all furs, teeth and la-di-dah?’
Kelly choked with delight at this put-down of Olympia. ‘That’s her.’
‘She’s been in once or twice, carefully timed for when the cameras were there. Then she complains about “press intrusion”. She’s not exactly chaining herself to his bed. Anyway, what Jake needs now isn’t a lover, it’s a mother or a sister.’
‘All right, I’ll come in as often as I can.’
Jake had returned with the coffee. He looked drawn, as though the short trip had been too much for him.
‘You shouldn’t have done it after walking here,’ Kelly said, concerned.
‘I’m all right,’ he said irritably, then quickly, ‘Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to snap.’
It was almost as though he needed to placate her, she thought, shocked. During their marriage he’d often apologised for some piece of thoughtlessness, but never as though he was actually afraid to offend her. But before she could reassure him he made a sound of annoyance with himself.
‘I forgot the spoon.’
‘I’ll get it,’ Kelly said, rising and putting a restraining hand on his shoulder.
‘I’m perfectly capable-’
‘No, you’re not, so shut up!’ she told him firmly.
He didn’t argue further, and there was a touch of gratitude in his grin.
She fetched the spoon and returned to the table, but just as she was sitting down everything seemed to retreat from her. She reached out quickly and just managed to sit down before she fell.
‘What is it?’ Jake asked anxiously.
‘Nothing, I-’ Kelly covered her eyes because the room was swimming.
‘Don’t say nothing. I thought you were going to faint.’
‘Well, I’m not,’ she said, pulling herself together. ‘I’m just a bit tired these days.’
‘Well, if you will insist on working in a cafe as well as going to college-’
‘Yes, I expect it’s that,’ she said, trying to sound cheerful through the waves of nausea.
Jake studied her face, concerned. ‘I don’t like it. You’re a funny colour, isn’t she, doc?’
‘Not really,’ Dr Ainsley said with a shrug. ‘It’s the strip lighting. It makes everyone look pretty ghastly.’
Which was remarkably unperceptive of him, Kelly thought, because she felt terrible.
‘I’ll be back in a moment,’ she said hurriedly, and made a dash for it.
There was a ladies’ room nearby, but by the time she reached it the nausea was already passing. She found a chair and leaned miserably back against the wall, until she felt well enough to move. When she went out the two men were waiting for her.
‘Are you all right?’ Jake asked.
‘She’s fine,’ Dr Ainsley said. ‘Look, her colour’s better already. It’s you I’m worried about. Let’s get you back to bed.’
He commandeered a wheelchair and came back to the ward with them. There he said briefly to Kelly, ‘Not more than five minutes,’ and departed.
‘Give that job up,’ Jake said, as he climbed carefully into bed. ‘I know what you said before, but we’re not enemies, are we?’
‘Would I be here today if we were?’
‘Then let me help you, even if it’s just a loan-’
‘I’ll come in tomorrow and we’ll talk about it then,’ she said. Just now she felt she had to get away to think.
‘Tomorrow, then,’ he agreed. He suddenly tightened his hand on hers. ‘You will come, won’t you?’
‘Promise.’
