‘It’s just not fair,’ Juliette said again. Those same four words that she’d already uttered about a trillion times since they’d been on the boat and Bella had slipped into the water.
‘It’s not.’
‘I’m going to need to start ringing people and telling them that my daughter fell off our boat and her toes are wrecked. I’ve had so many messages. Half of Pretty Beach has been in touch. Oh, and all the flowers and deliveries, I haven’t even said thank you to anyone really. I can’t do it, Luke, it’s so unfair. I have to say the words that my daughter’s toe is looking like it’s going to be amputated. How is it going to affect her?’ Juliette knew she was being dramatic, but she just couldn’t seem to keep a lid on her emotions. It was almost as if for her whole life she’d been the one in control, the one on top of everything, but this had thrown her completely and it had seemed that she had lost any kind of rational thought.
‘Juliette, you need to try and calm down. She will cope - she’s as strong as you are. She handled the news of the surgery well and then asked you to bring her laptop and book in.’
‘Yes, she did, and that’s exactly what I mean. Who even does that? Read! Read at a time like this? You get told two of your toes are deformed, it will affect how you walk and one of them is not healing so well and there is a possibility that it is going to be lost, and you ask for a book.’
‘It’s her coping mechanism.’
‘Well, what’s mine then? I have no coping mechanism. I’m so, sooooo angry!’
‘It’s traumatic for everyone involved.’ Luke replied calmly.
‘I told you not to buy the bloody boat, Luke. I told you there are lots of accidents on boats. I told you. It’s your fault. I should never have stepped foot onto the thing.’
Luke didn’t say anything as Juliette sat staring out the window - the air in the car taut and tight with stress.
‘If you hadn’t insisted on buying the boat we would never have been in this situation.’ Juliette continued angrily.
They pulled into Mermaid Lane and Juliette looked up at the house, and as they got home the reality of the latest news regarding the toes hit her even more and she started to cry. Big, heavy tears fell out of her eyes. She and Luke sat in the car for a moment and then he tapped her on the leg. She started to sob.
‘Come on. I’ll make us some tea.’
Juliette followed in behind Luke, and as he started to make the tea, she kicked off her shoes and took off her denim jacket. She opened the cupboard next to the fridge, rummaged around in the back, and found the family-size jar of chocolate spread. She opened the drawer, took out a spoon, pulled off the foil top on the chocolate and started spooning the spread straight into her mouth.
As she stood against the worktop looking at her blue fridge, Juliette kept repeating to herself that she needed to remain calm. She was not handling herself well and she knew it. And so did Luke. Breathe and calm. Breathe and calm.
Wasn’t it to be expected though? What was she supposed to do? Just carry on and be dependable, sensible Juliette? Smile and say oh no worries? The one everyone could rely on - Bella, Maggie, Daisy - she was always the reliable one for all of them. Juliette was always there and now she wanted to climb up onto the roof of her house and scream at the top of her lungs noooooooo. She didn’t want to have to be the dependable one.
She wanted to shout no to her daughter having the accident. But she couldn’t do that. Just as she had always had to, she had to carry on, to get up, get dressed, soldier on and continue. Suck it up and get on with it.
Juliette flicked through her phone checking her messages and emails.
‘There’s a message from the surgery. Sarah is covering all my visits, the clinic and appointments for the rest of the week.’
‘That’s good. You can put all that to the back of your mind for a bit, then.’
‘Oh my god, Luke! The Lellery thing, what the heck am I going to do about that? I haven’t even thought about it.’
‘Good question. You’ll have to think about it next week. You don’t need to let them know yet, do you?’
‘Not really. But I’ll never get the opportunity again if I turn it down.’
‘Let’s think about it when we know a bit more about how she’s going to go. What the consultant said yesterday wasn’t definite.’
Juliette finished her tea and went into the bathroom when the doorbell went downstairs. Luke jogged down the stairs and opened the door to a huge bouquet of flowers from White Cottage Flowers.
He said thank you to one of Felicity’s girls who had delivered it on her bike and closed the door. He took the flowers up to their bedroom and handed them to Juliette as she opened the door from the bathroom.
Juliette took out the card and handed it to Luke.
‘From Jeremy. I do have to admit, he is good in a crisis. I’ll need to call him and sort out everything with Maggie. Oh, Luke, what about Maggie’s feelings about this next instalment? You know how much she loves Bella. She’s going to be distraught too. I need to make sure she’s okay.’
Chapter 28
Luke, Juliette, and Maggie had just got home from the hospital and Juliette was making a cup of tea. Juliette cut Maggie a slice of cake, popped it onto a plate and passed the plate to her.
‘There you go, darling. A nice slice of cake for you,’ Juliette said, with a bright
