‘So he’s not up and about at all yet?’
‘He can walk okay but he says he’s unsteady on his feet,’ she said, noticing Noah had a weird look on his face. ‘That’s normal after his injuries, isn’t it? You’d know more than me.’
He pointed a remote to his car and it bleeped. ‘It can be. But every case is different.’
‘Well, hopefully he’ll be up and about before too long.’
‘I hope so too.’ There was a hesitancy before he added, ‘Does he have friends who can pitch in so it doesn’t all fall on your shoulders?’
It felt nice to have someone thinking of her, especially him. ‘Not really, but it’s fine.’ It wasn’t but she didn’t really want to air all her grievances. By the sounds of it, Noah had enough of his own.
‘You guys are divorced, right?’
‘Yes, although he tends to forget.’
‘Doesn’t that bug you?’ When he clocked her surprise at the question, he apologised. ‘I shouldn’t ask; we barely know one another.’
And yet she felt closer to him than any man in a long time. ‘I think we know more about each other than we did earlier,’ she smiled.
‘Well, that’s true. And about Cassie… thanks for listening.’
‘Any time.’
And the thought ofany timewith Noah had her smiling right up until she remembered she was still at Conrad’s beck and call. She crossed her fingers that there would be an end to it soon.
18
Noah only realised he was whistling when a woman turned in the pharmacy to glare at him over the shelf of painkillers.
‘Oops,’ he whispered to Eva, who was reasonably content in the buggy. If he wasn’t moving, he found it best to at least keep talking to her so she didn’t protest at being pinned into a contraption when she wanted to shuffle around on the floor and explore her environment. ‘Maybe she’s not well, hence the pharmacy visit and the mood,’ he floated to the twelve-month-old.
He wasn’t even sure why he was whistling anyway. Perhaps he was trying to pretend that everything was going to be okay and subconsciously wanted Eva to pick up on that vibe rather than any other. He hadn’t slept very well thinking about Paul’s impending visit and Eva’s future – even the run after work and a visit to the pub with Bess and Frank for a few games of pool hadn’t been the tonic he needed.
When it was his turn in the queue, he smiled at the pharmacist and requested Bonjela, Calpol and some eye drops. ‘The eye drops are for me,’ he clarified. ‘Too many late nights.’
The pharmacist bagged everything up and he embraced the benefits of the buggy by shoving it into the basket beneath along with the dozen eggs, a loaf of bread and the bottle of milk he’d bought.
Someone held the door open for him and he passed through, thanking them before he even clocked that it was Maya and he instantly felt a weight lift. He’d noticed it at home too; even when it felt as though everything was against him, when the sexy pilot at work flitted into his mind, it had the power to put him in an entirely new headspace.
‘We keep meeting here,’ he grinned.
‘Seems that way.’ She matched his smile and for that, he was pleased.
‘What brings you here again so soon?’ He stood out of the way of a customer coming out behind him.
‘Picking up another prescription,’ she answered.
Eva wasn’t at all impressed with the hold-up and she screeched, making both of them start.
Noah crouched down and put his hand on Eva’s knee. It was a good distraction from the realisation that the last time he’d seen Maya, they’d had a candid conversation and he’d shared a lot more personal details than he probably should have when he was this new in town. ‘What have we said about screeching, Eva?’
Eva responded to his question with another screech.
He stood up again. ‘She’ll rupture my ear drums at this rate.’
Maya laughed. ‘She’s discovering her sounds, her voice. Isaac was the same.’ She crouched down to meet Eva properly and when she said hello, Eva grinned and reached out to her.
‘Your son is at university, isn’t he?’
