E for England (12 page)

Hugh murmured to Nina, ‘Keep me informed. Where's Doctor Stradbroke?'

‘In the kitchen.' She drew him away from the group by the bed. ‘I think she's crying,' she whispered.

‘Oh dear.' Her barely knew Eleanor. He couldn't possibly barge in, he'd embarrass them both and he wouldn't have a clue what to say.

Nina took one look at his face and smiled. ‘Give her a few minutes, Doctor.'

‘All right, fine. Yes. I'll be in my office.'

‘Did I overreact?' Annie flopped into an armchair. The kids were in bed, worn out by their day at the beach. She wouldn't be far behind, worn out by the emotional trauma of
her
day at the beach.

Leonie poured a glass of red and placed it on the coffee table in front of Annie. ‘What do you mean?' She glanced at her watch. ‘My taxi should be downstairs in about fifteen minutes.' Energy to spare.

‘Hugh implied I overreacted to Mattie going off by himself but he doesn't understand. He thinks because nothing happened it's okay.'

‘Nothing did happen and it
is
okay.'

Annie shook her head. ‘Neither of you understand. I nearly lost him. Some nutter could have taken him. It only takes a second.'

‘That's true, but Mattie would kick up a stink if someone tried and there were heaps of people around. Anyway Hugh and I would have heard him.' Leonie grinned. ‘He seems to like Hugh now.'

‘Yes. Should I let them play football next weekend? That was a surprise, Mattie asking if he could go to the park with Hugh.'

‘Don't see why not. You can go and supervise.'

‘Mmm.'

‘They must have some boy thing happening. Mattie probably needs it. He does miss his father.'

‘But Hugh is no substitute for a father. He's not interested in having children.'

‘Does that matter?'

‘I suppose not. It's surprising that he'd bother wasting his time with a six year old.'

Leonie shrugged. ‘He's a nice guy. He's also a smart one. He can see Mattie misses his Dad and maybe he thought he could do something to help a bit. It's no big deal.'

‘Are you saying I'm not managing to provide what my son needs?'

A slow smile slid across Leonie's face. ‘No. I'm saying Hugh will run about kicking that stupid football with Mattie and they'll both enjoy themselves and you won't have to do it. You can read your book.'

Annie laughed. ‘Put that way, you're right.' The laughter died. ‘But I'm not letting Mattie out of my sight again. Or Floss.'

Leonie put her glass down and stood up abruptly. ‘Don't you trust
me
with your children?'

Annie licked her lips. Did she? Why the hesitation? ‘I do, I trust you far more than I trust Hugh. But they're my responsibility and I have to make sure I don't slip up ever again. I've messed up twice recently. Twice too often.'

‘I have to go.' Leonie pulled on her jacket, straightened the collar and yanked the sleeves into place. ‘See you later.'

‘Have fun.'

Annie grimaced as the door clunked into place. Had she offended Leonie? It sounded that way. Was Leonie so invested in what Annie thought? They weren't close, weren't best friends; they were work colleagues, but even that was a stretch because Leonie the lawyer was much further up the food chain than Annie in Accounts. But she did trust Leonie and the children liked her. Leonie had been wonderful with them today. She might not want her own children but she was very good with someone else's, in short bursts.

Hugh, however, was another matter entirely. Annie's jaw tightened. He didn't want children and that was fine, but he wouldn't be left in charge of hers ever again.

She couldn't very well stop him from playing football with Mattie though. It wasn't fair on Mattie and would be very difficult to explain to him when he was finally opening up to a male.

Annie clicked on the television and began flicking. Saturday night football held no appeal, a rerun of a Harry Potter movie likewise, yet another forensic crime series. She paused on a movie deciding whether she'd seen it or not but it involved a young woman alone in a house with someone creeping about outside. She moved on. Scary movies weren't her thing, she'd had enough drama and emotional tension in her life; she wanted light viewing and happy endings.

She settled on a dance show, sipped the wine and curled up on the couch for another scintillating Saturday night of entertainment. The tangoing and foxtrotting was interrupted forty five minutes later by knocking on the door. Five to nine. It had to be a neighbour, no-one had buzzed the intercom.

Annie roused herself and went to peer through the peephole. Hugh. Her stomach lurched. She dragged in a deep breath and opened the door, mentally girding herself against the force of her attraction. Despite his behaviour, despite his attitude, despite everything she knew was wrong with the man, her body said otherwise; her body wanted to crawl all over him.

‘Hello, Annie.'

She didn't trust herself to speak.

‘Is Leonie in?'

She shook her head. So. Her hand tightened on the door ready to close it. Leonie. Of course. But wasn't Leonie planning to invite him to that party? Had she stood him up? Forgotten him? Not her problem.

‘Can I come in for a minute, please? I'd really like to talk to you.'

He'd come to see
her
? She firmed her mouth but stepped back to allow him entrance, holding her breath against the overwhelming nearness of him as he passed so close. He followed her through to the living room.

‘Were you in bed?'

‘No.' Waltz music issued forth from the television. She picked up the remote and clicked the dancers off mid-twirl.

‘I'm sorry, Annie. About what happened to today. I have no excuse. I'm sorry.'

‘Thank you.'

‘Please don't be too angry with Mattie. Or me.' His eyes held hers, forcing her to reply, forcing her to forgive. She couldn't hold on to the anger, not with Mattie unharmed safe in his bed and this man pleading with her. This handsome, desirable man.

Not for her. She didn't want that complication and she wasn't a sex with no strings girl like Leonie.

‘I'm not now. I was.' She gestured he should sit.

He remained standing. ‘Friends?' He stepped closer and suddenly his arms were on her shoulders and his lips brushed fire across her cheek. Her heart rattled and thudded, lungs stopped and started with a gasp. He drew away waiting for her reply.

‘Yes. Friends.' She swallowed, fighting a ridiculous urge to follow up with a better kiss. A proper one. An un-friendly one. ‘He really did think he'd seen his father.'

‘Odd.' Hugh chose the couch, sitting where she'd been sitting, lounging back comfortably. ‘But there must be plenty of similar looking people around and it's an easy mistake for a little boy to make when he misses his Dad. Especially if he hasn't seen him for a while.'

Annie nodded. Impossible to stay distant with Hugh so penitent and rational. A relaxed, calming presence. A friend. ‘Would you like a glass of wine? Tea?'

He smiled. ‘Yes, please. Tea would be great.'

She scooped up her used glass and went to the kitchen to set the kettle to boil and dump tea in the pot. When he smiled like that she couldn't think straight. He'd come to see her, not Leonie. He'd kissed her. The thoughts twirled and spun in her head like the dancers she'd been watching. He'd asked about Leonie purely to check she wasn't here so he could talk in private. Now he was settling in to drink tea and chat. Not such a bad way to spend a Saturday night.

‘I thought I was the only person who stayed home on Saturday night,' she said with a little laugh. She leaned against the counter, arms folded.

‘No. I've been at the hospital most of the afternoon and evening. Last thing I want to do is go out again.'

No mention of Leonie. Perhaps she hadn't asked him to the party. ‘Is your patient all right?'

‘Yes. He's stable now. He's eighty eight. We nearly lost him when he came in and he came very close again this afternoon. That's why I had to go. And there's another one I'm very worried about. A young man. We're not sure what's wrong.'

‘Gosh.' He had such an important job. People's lives were in his hands and he cared about them, his concern was obvious. And she'd accused him of irresponsibility yet here he was apologising to her.

The kettle clicked off. Annie finished making the tea. She put some shortbread on a plate and carried everything to the coffee table.

‘Home-made?' Hugh leaned forward to inspect the offering.

‘Yes.'

He ate half a slice in one bite. ‘Delicious!'

‘Thanks. I do a good shortbread. Not bad with cakes, either.' She poured tea.

‘James' mother, my aunt Mary, is a great cook.'

‘Do you see them much?'

‘I haven't lately. I won't have any leave for a while so unless they come to Sydney I doubt I will until Christmas. What about your parents? Where are they?'

Annie swallowed some tea and set her mug down carefully, said the succinct words she always used for this question. ‘My mother committed suicide when I was twelve. Dad died eight years ago of lung cancer. Lifelong smoker.'

He shook his head slowly and sighed. ‘I'm sorry. That's hard, to lose your mother so young and then so soon after, your father.'

Annie bit her lip. Old news. The pain had faded to a dull sense of loss. ‘She'd already left us. I hadn't seen her for two years. Losing Dad was worse, although he did go quickly. I suppose you deal with that sort of thing all the time. Lung cancer.'

‘More or less, yes. Smoking is a killer. Had your mother been seeing anyone for help?'

‘I don't know. Dad never talked about her. Except to tell me she died.' She rubbed her lips together. ‘I'm just sorry the kids won't ever meet their grandparents. Dad died before Mattie was born. Kevin's parents live overseas and we rarely saw them even when we were together.'

‘Do you have siblings?'

‘No.'

‘Me neither. Except for James and Harriet who are just as good as.' A quick frown skimmed like a shadow over his face. ‘Actually I have a younger half-sister I never see.'

‘You were lucky to be so close to your cousins. I would have loved a sister.'

‘I know. They were lifesavers.' Another piece of shortbread disappeared. ‘You did very well, Annie, to go to university and get a degree after a childhood like that. And tackling an MBA.'

She glanced at him and discovered he was watching her, assessing. It had never occurred to her she'd done well at any time in her life. No-one had ever said that before. She'd worked hard at school and to get her degree, but from where she sat everything had pretty much gone down the drain in the last few years. Doing well now meant keeping her head above water. The prospect of resuming her MBA had receded into the mists.

‘I was determined not to be stuck in some dead-end job, which would have happened if I hadn't gone to uni. I wanted to leave Sydney and get away. I wanted to travel and I needed money for that. Dad left me enough to finish university.'

‘And did you travel?'

Her mouth twisted into a wry smile all by itself. ‘I met Kevin in my first year and Mattie was born in my second. I was pregnant with Floss when I graduated.'

‘How on earth did you manage?'

‘Kevin was already working and making good money in IT. But we lived in a group house and people minded Mattie for me. It was hard but it was probably the happiest time of my life.' A brief couple of years before the marriage began to disintegrate at an alarming rate. ‘When I landed the job I have now we were able to afford to rent a house on our own.'

Why was she telling him all this? Must be that very good bedside manner coupled with a sympathetic non-judgmental manner. Plus no-one had ever asked these questions before. No-one was interested enough. Not even Leonie knew some of those details.

‘He must have been a very attractive man for you to fall in love so fast.'

She pulled a face. ‘I was young and I was naïve. I was probably looking for the family I'd never really had. He was persuasive but he was more of a mess than I was.'

‘Being young and naïve doesn't make you a mess.'

‘I was. I wasn't experienced with men and I had all sorts of fantasies.' Still did. She glanced at Hugh then away. Now her fantasies would remain safely in her head. ‘Fancy falling pregnant to the first man who gets you into bed.'

‘You must be very fertile.' He smiled.

Annie laughed. ‘That's me. A great breeder. Or stupid.'

‘A very good mother, I'd say.'

‘I try to be.'

Hugh gave a wry little laugh. ‘Some don't even try.' He drank tea and set the mug down. ‘Still want to travel?'

‘Sure. I want to see the pyramids and the Taj Mahal, and I want to go to Havana and Rio and the Italian Lakes.'

‘You will one day.'

‘I should get a job like Leonie's. She travels all the time.' Annie sighed. ‘Right now I need every penny I earn to keep us afloat.' She clenched her jaw. No use complaining about it — Hugh would be wishing he'd never sat down.

But he wouldn't let it go. ‘Does he pay any child support?'

‘Not recently.'

‘Can't the authorities chase him for you?'

‘They can if I register with them but they can't make him pay if he chooses not to. All they can do is send him letters requesting the money. And when he left the country that was that.'

‘Are you sure he's alive? Not been murdered in some Third World country?' He smiled as though he knew what she'd be thinking about that comment.

She grinned. ‘I think I'd have been told.'

He nodded. ‘Probably.'

‘He sends the kids postcards. Mattie treasures them and he's convinced his Dad's coming back.'