‘It’s like we’re in a bubble here, isn’t it? Almost as if nothing back home exists.’ She held her breath, waiting for him to answer and when he did his voice was low.
‘But it does and we will be going back there, so I don’t want you to regret anything.’
‘Didn’t someone wise once say that the only things you regret in life are the things you don’t do?’ Her heart was thudding in her ears now, and her stomach did another flip as Felix smiled.
‘Wise or stupid, I’m not quite sure, but I want you to be. Sure, that is.’
‘Does this convince you?’ She set the pizza box down on the floor and leant forward, pressing her lips against his, her hands sliding inside the back of his T-shirt as she pulled him towards her. He kissed her back in a way that made it obvious Lily had been right, he wanted this every bit as much as she did. The kiss left her breathless when he finally pulled away.
‘Pretty convincing.’ Felix smiled that gorgeous slow smile of his, that had hooked her on the first day they’d met. ‘But I think we better try it again, just to make sure.’
‘Okay, if you insist.’ She grinned, before leaning towards him again, suddenly as certain of where this was going as she was of how much she wanted it to happen.
18
Post-shift drinks with members of the team had become one of Eve’s favourite things about working at St Piran’s. It didn’t matter if it was a glass of red at one of the wine bars in Port Kara or Port Agnes, or a coffee outside the hospital shop. It was just so nice to feel she’d begun to build relationships that were making some of her colleagues feel like friends. She hadn’t even been sure at first whether she’d wanted to let people get close enough to know the details of her personal life, or if she wanted to risk letting new people in who she might also end up losing. Not to mention that between work, visiting Max and being there for Annie, she hadn’t thought she’d have time for friends.
Somehow they’d come along anyway, and as she carried the drinks to the table, outside the hospital shop, she made a decision. She wanted to tell Isla and Meg the truth about Max, and to let them and Eden in on the news that she and Felix had become a little bit more than friends.
‘So, come on then, how exactly was your trip to San Francisco?’ Eden narrowed her eyes as she asked the question. ‘I’ve barely had a chance to speak to you since you got back and all I get from Felix when I ask him is a big smile.’
‘Well, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work it out then.’ Isla shook her head. ‘If you decided to take a trip like that with someone, it’s because you like them. A lot.’
‘I just went to see an old friend and the timing worked because Felix was going out there for a funeral, and it was nice to have someone to do the journey with.’ Eve was so used to trotting out the line, more or less the same story she’d given Annie and Nigel, she forgot for a moment that she’d decided to confide in her friends.
‘Hmm.’ Meg looked doubtful. ‘The photos you showed me didn’t look like you were on two parallel trips to the same place. You look very enmeshed.’
‘Is that what they’re calling it these days? We just used to call it having the hots for someone.’ Gwen suddenly appeared from nowhere and Eve realised it was just as well she’d decided to come clean, because she seemed to be having a coffee at a Miss Marple convention, the amount of amateur sleuthing that was going on. Gwen certainly wasn’t holding back from the conclusions she’d reached. ‘For what it’s worth, Eve, I think you’ll make a great couple. You’ve both got everything going for you. Great jobs, shared values and you’re both pretty easy on the eye too.’
‘Thanks.’ Eve laughed and she was about to admit she definitely couldn’t argue with that last part when it came to Felix, but then Eden screwed up her face.
‘Eurgh, Gwen, please don’t describe my brother as being easy on the eye and definitely don’t talk about anyone having the hots for him.’
‘Oh, but he is,’ Meg shrugged, ‘and there’s no awful ex-wife still lurking around, ready to stalk you on social media or spray an obscene message about you on the wall of the hospital car park.’ It was something Meg had been through herself in the past few weeks, after going on a couple of dates with another doctorwho had just finalised a very acrimonious divorce. ‘A man with no baggage of any kind is a bit of a unicorn, and you can both go into a relationship with a clean slate. That’s not an easy thing to achieve when you get into your thirties, trust me.’
‘It’s not quite as simple as that.’ Eve ran a hand through her long dark hair, her eye catching Eden’s.
‘You do like him, don’t you?’ Concern clouded her friend’s face. ‘If you don’t, you need to be straight with him, because I know hereallylikes you and, as much as he might always be my annoying big brother, I can’t bear the thought of him getting hurt.’
‘I do like him, well, more than that.’ She wasn’t ready to call it love, but it certainly felt as if it had the prospect to become something that big. She wished it was as easy as allowing things to just play out, and see where they went, but there was such a huge price to play for going all in with Felix. She could lose everything else that mattered to her. Lily had promised her that wouldn’t happen, but she couldn’t know for sure how Annie and Nigel were going to react. Yet putting her life on hold was making her so unhappy, and she knew that closing the door on the potential of a relationship with Felix would make that even worse, so sooner or later she was going to have to jump and see where she landed. Eden already knew there were complications, but she was always going to root for Eve to take a chance on her brother. She needed to tell the others what the problem was and see if that helped. ‘Felix might not have any baggage, but I have.’
‘Are you about to tell us that you’ve got three kids we know nothing about?’ Isla widened her eyes, and they were all looking in her direction. It was now or never.
‘No, but I have got a fiancé.’
Meg lost her grip on her coffee cup and it hit the table, sending forth a spray of liquid that just added to the shocked expression on the faces of most of Eve’s friends.
‘Does Felix know?’ Gwen’s voice was dangerously quiet. She might be all for people living the best life they possibly could, but Eve had a feeling from the expression on her face that one thing she would never condone was infidelity.
‘Yes.’
‘And did you know?’ Meg looked at Eden, who nodded slowly.
‘Okay, I’ve got no idea what’s going on and you’re going to have to explain it to me like I’m ten years old, because I can’t imagine you or Felix doing the dirty on someone like that, let alone Eden being okay with you dating her brother when you’re supposed to be marrying someone else.’ Meg shook her head. ‘I just can’t believe it, or that you’ve got a fiancé you’ve said nothing about.’
‘Max, my fiancé, lives at Oakwood Park and he’s one of Felix’s patients.’ Eve took a deep breath, deliberately not making eye contact with the others. She had to get the whole story out. ‘He was assaulted over two years ago and he suffered a very serious head injury, affecting his frontal lobe, which impacted everything from cognition to language processing skills, but more than anything it completely changed his entire personality. We were weeks away from getting married and he was training to be a surgeon; we had our whole lives mapped out. Now it’s like I don’t even recognise the version of Max that’s still here, because the old him definitely isn’t, and he can hardly even bear to be in the same room as me.’
‘Oh, Eve, I’m so sorry.’ Isla wrapped an arm around her shoulders. ‘My dad had Huntington’s disease and it affected his personality in the end. It’s agony.’
