Читать книгу Rising Stars & It Started With… Collections - Кейт Хьюит - Страница 59

WHEN her phone rang fifteen minutes later, she was driving, just approaching the roundabout, and she didn’t pull over so she could take the call, as she usually would have. She didn’t indicate when she saw that it was Courtney and instead she drove straight on.

Dominic was there.

She felt as if Dominic was there in the car beside her.

It rang again and this time it was her mum. Still, she ignored it.

Then it rang again as she arrived home and she sat at her computer before answering.

‘Oh. Hi, Mum!’

‘You didn’t pick up.’

‘I was driving.’

‘Where are you?’ she asked. ‘I thought you’d gone down to the canteen.’

‘I’m at home,’ she said, as if she was breathing normally, as if home was the natural place she should be.

‘Well, you need to get here!’ Bridgette stared at her screensaver and tried to shut out the sound of her mother’s panic. ‘The doctors are here and they say Harry needs an operation. There’s a space that’s opened up on the list and they want him to have an operation!’ she said again really loudly.

‘What operation?’

‘He has to have surgery on his ears, and if she doesn’t sign the consent, he’ll go back on the list…’ She could hear the panic in her mother’s voice. ‘Bridgette, you need to get here. You know what your sister’s like—Courtney can’t make a decision. She’s gone off!’

‘It’s a tiny operation, Mum. It could do him an awful lot of good.’

‘Bridgette, please, they’ve added him to the list this evening. Courtney’s going crazy!’

‘Mum…’ Bridgette looked into Dominic’s eyes as she spoke, and then into her own and wanted to be her again, wanted to be the woman who smiled and laughed and lived. ‘It’s up to Courtney to give consent. If not, he can go on the waiting list and wait, but it would be a shame, because his hearing is really bad.’ She stood up. ‘I’ve got to go, Mum. I’ve got things to do. Give Harry a big kiss from his aunty Bridgette. Tell him that I’ll bring him in a nice present for being brave.’ And she rang off.

She took the phone into the bathroom with her and because she didn’t have any bubble bath, she used shampoo, put on a load of washing while she was waiting for the bath to fill and every time the phone rang, she did not pick up.

And then she did her hair, straightened it and put on blusher and lipstick too, even though she knew Dominic was on call and wouldn’t be coming round. Then when her phone finally fell silent, she tackled her bedroom, worked out how to use a stud finder and put up the shelves that had been sitting in cardboard for way too long. Then the phone bleeped a text and it was from Dominic.

She took a breath and read it.

Op went well—he’s back on ward and having a drink. Home tomoz.

She felt the tension seep out of her.

Should I come in now?

She was quite sure what the response would be, that he’d tell her to stay put, that Courtney was there and to let her deal with it, but as she waited for his reply, there was a knock at the door and when her phone bleeped he didn’t say what she’d thought he might.

No, stay put—your mum’s with him.

She wanted to know what was happening so badly. She had this stupid vision it was him as, phone in hand, she opened the door.

Instead it was her father and Courtney.