Charlie sank into a battered but supremely comfortable armchair, her grandmother’s ginger cat immediately joining her, turning round and round on her lap before settling. Charlie stroked it absently as she grimaced at her cousin.
‘“Marry in haste…” Gran said, you said, everyone said. I need some leisure to repent. Maybe when I get back from travelling, when the divorce has been finalised, I might be ready to have some kind of gathering. But for now I just want to slink off to Vietnam, join Lexi and her friends, and try and forget the last year ever happened.’
The cat butted her hand, demanding more attention, but Charlie’s focus returned to the envelope. She should be—she was—glad that, thanks to Matteo’s contacts and willingness to be cited as the guilty party, the divorce looked as if it might be almost as speedy as their whirlwind wedding. But although she knew most people thought her wedding another of her madcap schemes, when Charlie had looked into Matteo’s eyes and promised to love and honour him she’d meant it. She’d hoped to spend the rest of her life with him, hoped to start a family with him. But it took two to make a marriage work and so here she was, barely a year on from the day she’d first set eyes on Matteo Harrington, starting to figure out how to begin her life all over again.
A buzzing from the kitchen table alerted her to a call and she reached out for her phone, squinting at the unknown number. ‘Yes?’
‘Is that Charlotte Samuels?’
‘I…yes. Who is this?’ Dread stole into her chest at the grave official tone. ‘What is it?’
‘I’m afraid there’s been an accident…’
* * *
‘Matteo Harrington?’ Charlie gasped at the reception desk and turned, wild-eyed, as the receptionist motioned to a doctor standing behind her. ‘Doctor? Matteo Harrington? How is he?’
‘Charlotte Samuels? Hello, I’m Dr Lewis. We have Mr Harrington in a private room through here. He is very lucky; he’s got a severe concussion and a couple of broken ribs but it could have been a lot worse. Here, sit down.’ And the doctor guided the suddenly dizzy Charlie to a chair.
‘Thank you, but I’m fine.’ Now. She hadn’t realised how tense, how overwrought she had been until she heard the words very lucky. ‘But I don’t understand. Why is Matteo here? I thought he was in London. What happened?’
‘The police will be able to tell you more, but I understand he swerved on a bend, maybe to avoid something.’
‘He’s a very good driver; he wouldn’t speed,’ she said mechanically. ‘Can I see him?’
‘Of course. Don’t worry, he looks worse than he is, but he needs to be kept quiet, no sudden upsets or noise. But he’ll be pleased you’re here. He’s asking for you.’
He is? She managed not to voice the question. Under the circumstances she thought she might be the last person Matteo would want to see. ‘Yes, of course. Thank you.’
A nurse led her through the long corridor with its distinctive hospital aroma of disinfectant and boiled food until she reached a closed door and nodded at it. ‘In there.’
‘Thank you.’ Charlie took a moment to collect herself before turning the handle and walking in. The room was dim, the blinds half closed, lit up by the lights on several machines clustered around the hospital bed, the silence punctuated by a reassuringly constant beep. She took a step closer to the bed and stifled a half gasp, half sob as she saw Matteo, propped up on pillows, eyes closed. It was very unfair. Even unusually pale, his forehead bandaged, Matteo managed to look absurdly handsome, the sharp lines of his jaw accentuated by dark shadow, his hair, for once, allowed to fall naturally, tousled over his brow. Charlie swallowed, aware of her own heart beating in time with the beep of the monitor.
Cautiously she approached the bed. Matteo looked so peaceful, all the stress and strain wiped as if it had never been, more like the man she had married than the one she had left. She nudged a chair a little closer and slipped into it, watching his chest rise and fall and doing her best not to think about how it would have been, how she would have felt, if he hadn’t been very lucky.
‘Hey.’
She startled at the rasp of his voice, turning her gaze to his face to find his eyes half open, a small smile playing about his sensuous mouth and, despite everything, her heart missed a beat, her treacherous pulse responding to him like it always did.
‘Hey yourself. I just spoke to the doctor and she said you are going to be just fine.’ She stopped, wanting to rush on and tell him that she was still his next of kin, for the next six weeks at least, that of course she had come, they were still friends, weren’t they? But the doctor had said to keep him quiet and a rush of excuses didn’t seem like the best way to do that. ‘But you gave us quite a fright.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Slowly but determinedly he moved his arm, taking Charlie’s hand in his. His touch shuddered through her, familiar and yet forbidden. ‘I don’t know what happened. A rabbit maybe, or a bird.’ He frowned. ‘I can’t remember.’
‘What were you doing?’ There was no reason for him to journey down to Kent, not any more. Not that she knew of anyway. Already there were things, places, people in his life she didn’t know; she was no longer part of his present or his future.
She was his past, but it was her he’d asked for, her number he’d given to the doctors. Charlie
