A nurse came by with four boxes of tablets and instructions on how to take them, then we were free to go. I ached to feel clean again, and sleep in a soft bed with silky sheets. “Any chance of a bath at your place?” I said as we headed to where a taxi was waiting.
“Yes. Have you seen the en-suite to my room?”
I shook my head. The painkillers had started to work and the pain was at least bearable. “Does it have a big bath?”
“A fucking huge one.” He gave the driver his address. “What do you want picking up from your place? Or anything from the shops? Marie sent me a message asking.”
“She’s not going to mine on her own, is she?” I said, images of there being an ambush running through my head like a scary movie.
“Denico’s with her. He’ll check yours over while he’s there and drop her off here. She’s going to stay tonight and depending on how you are, we’ll head over to Tintagel tomorrow.”
“That sounds good,” I said, letting myself lean against him in the cab. “I could do with some of my clothes to take away with us. Shorts, t-shirts. There are some long summer dresses…”
“I’ll phone her,” he said, pulling out his iPhone. “There’s no way I’ll remember all this. And you’re about to list a load of girly stuff too.”
I nodded. He pressed a couple of buttons and passed the phone to me. Marie answered almost immediately.
“Hi mum,” I said.
“It’s you. It’s good to hear your voice. Jackson said you looked terrible last night.”
“He’s a charmer, isn’t he? Killian said you were going to mine to pick some stuff up for me.”
“What do you want me to bring?”
I listed off what I wanted for the next week or so, thankful I had her to look after me. She’d been doing that for twenty-eight years and had never let me down, even when it came to choosing which clothes to bring over.
“How about underwear?”
“Grab what you can,” I said. “I can sort out what to take with me when it’s here.”
“Just don’t do too much,” she said. “I’ll be with you in a couple of hours, maybe three as I promised I’d meet Ava for lunch.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I really need to nap.”
“As long as it is sleep and not your concussion getting worse.” Killian interjected. I glared at him.
“If you don’t feel right, you must say,” he added.
“I will do.” We hung up and I passed the phone back to Killian.
“I see you’ve managed to inform all of my family of exactly how I am?”
He smiled cockily. “That’s the beauty of group chats. In my defence, I was getting bombarded with messages from them all. Rather than having to reply to each one it was the easiest thing to do.”
I yawned. “Fine. I’ll let you off. Do you have any bath foam?”
The cab stopped outside his house and he pulled out his wallet. I made a mental note to at least try to pay him back for what he’d been spending, although I was pretty sure he wouldn’t accept and if he did it’d end up back with me in the form of a book or bottle of wine or some other gift.
“I’ve got something like that which my mother left.” He opened the door and let me though, the house empty as Nick and Katie had left early to get to Oxford to pick up the twins.
“That your mother left?”
He nodded. “My mum has stayed. I haven’t had any women use the bath here.”
Although clearly there had been women here. I pushed the sick feeling away, attributing it to tiredness and my dull headache as opposed to jealousy. I had no right to feel jealous.
“Do you want a drink first or just to get in the bath? I can bring you a tea or water up?”
