Page 127 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

‘But I feel terrible. You’ve injured yourself because of me.’

‘Cuts and bruises. That’s all.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Well, okay. I admit I might have broken my collarbone.’

Jo gasped. ‘Your collarbone? Oh, God, Razz. I’m so sorry. This is my fault.’

‘I only said I might have broken it. And if I have, a broken collarbone isn’t usually serious. A few weeks in a sling and it’ll be fine. And look on the bright side. You’ve managed what several weeks of expensive therapy didn’t manage – I’ve conquered my fear of heights.’

*

The Mountain Rescue team arrived twenty minutes later and were somewhat bemused to find that they had two patients to rescue, and that one of them was the local GP.

‘Next time, wait for the professionals,’ they told Razz.

‘I know, I know, but I couldn’t leave her down there on her own,’ he said. ‘She was getting cold.’

They were whisked off to hospital. Aside from a few scratches and a hole in the leg of her jeans, Jo just had a mild concussion and a sprained ankle. Razz, as he’d predicted, had broken his collarbone. When they’d both been checked out and X-rayed, Kate picked them up and drove them home, Jo insisting on sitting in the back so Razz could take the front seat, because it would be quite tricky to climb out of the back of a small three-doored car with only one functional arm. It was hard enough with a sprained ankle.

‘Would you mind if we postponed our date this evening?’ Razz said to Jo. ‘I’m happy to meet up, but I don’t want to go to a fancy restaurant when I can’t cut up my own food.’

‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Why don’t we get a takeaway instead? To be honest, I’m more of a fish ‘n’ chips out of the paper than a fancy restaurant kind of a person anyway.’

‘Sounds good to me.’

Jo caught Kate’s eye in the rear-view mirror and gave her a wink. Then she leaned forwards, stretching the seatbelt as far as it would go, and whispered into his ear, ‘We could play Scrabble. If you’re up to that with only one arm.’

48

Kate dropped first Razz and then Jo off at their respective homes, declining the offer of a coffee at Jo’s, insisting that her friend should get some rest.

Jo unlocked her front door and it swung open easily. She thought of how Razz had fixed it, how kind he’d been, but that was nothing compared with scaling down a steep slope to rescue her. Or at least, he’d tried to rescue her. Despite his fear of heights.

She went to look at herself in the bathroom mirror. A purple bruise had formed above her right eye and her cheek was scratched, but aside from that, she didn’t look much worse after her fall. A little make-up would hide the bruise this evening.

One thing she hadn’t asked him, she realised, was where they were meeting. At his place? Or at hers?

She recalled the image she’d sent to Tarquin of the letters spelling out YOUR PLACE OR MINE on the Scrabble board and the upside-down C with a dot turning it into a question mark. She could recreate that, she decided, for Razz.

She dug out her Scrabble board and set the letters up again, but then, on the spur of the moment, she limped back upstairs and rummaged in her underwear drawer until she found a solitary black, lacy stocking. She never wore stockings these days; why would she when tights were so much more comfortable?

She draped the stocking across the board, took out her phone and took a snap. This was perfect; nothing said ‘Let’s get out of the friend zone’ more than a silky stocking draped across a Scrabble board. Well, to a Scrabble fan at least.

She giggled to herself, imagining Razz’s face when he saw it, but then she hesitated. He might realise what she was trying to tell him, or he might see the funny side, which would be good, too. Or he could equally be terrified. She knew him well enough now to realise that Razz was no more confident around women than she was around men. He might find the picture a bit too full on, intimidating even, and that wasn’t what she wanted at all. She decided to play it safe, and sent him an ordinary text saying,

Want to play at mine or yours this evening?

I don’t mind. But might it be easier if I come to yours since you have a sprained ankle?

*

After fish ‘n’ chips, which they both ate with their fingers – Razz because it was easier with his right arm in a sling and Jo to keep him company – Jo set up the Scrabble board on the table in the window of her little house on Hazel Lane. The town of Hebbleswick lay beneath them, golden in the evening sunshine. A busker stood, strumming his guitar in the square – which was more of a triangle than a square to be honest, but everyone called it the square – and passing pub-goers tossed the occasional coin into his cup.

The game got off to a slow start. Razz drew an A from the bag so was starting player. His first word – WILL – scored 14 points as it was on the double word star in the centre of the board.

Jo took an early lead making WHY for 16 points using his W. He then played YOU scoring a measly 6 points.