There were some things he needed to pick up, and he could be alone there, think things through.
Except he wasn’t alone. Sam Cavendish was there, just coming out of his mother’s house next door, and he propped himself against the fence and frowned at Nick.
‘You look like hell. Fancy a drink?’
‘No, I’m going back to the hospital. We just told him.’
Sam winced sympathetically. ‘Ouch. How did it go?’
‘Pretty much as expected. Why don’t you come in? I don’t really want to talk about it here.’
So Sam followed him into the house and propped himself up on the worktop while Nick put the kettle on, for something to do as much as anything.
‘So—what happened?’ Sam prompted.
Nick sighed and rammed a hand through his hair. ‘There was a kid in there having a blood transfusion, and Jem was asking about where his own blood transfusion had come from, and it sort of followed from there. He’s the same blood group as me.’
‘Yeah, Jack told me,’ Sam said. ‘And how did he take it?’
‘Badly. He’s angry. He said he’d spent nearly eleven years thinking he didn’t have a father, and all the time he did, and he said…’ His voice cracked, and he coughed again and flexed his fingers. ‘He said he didn’t care if I was complete rubbish, it was better than being dead.’
Sam snorted. ‘Well, I’d agree with him if my own wasn’t so useless he might as well be dead, but what made him think you’d be rubbish?’
‘I did. I told him James was a hard act to follow, that he might have preferred a hero. Apparently not. I didn’t realise Jack had told you about the blood group thing.’
‘Mmm. He was angry, but he’s not really surprised.’
Nick’s head snapped up and he stared at Sam, stunned. ‘What makes you say that?’
Sam laughed softly. ‘Oh, come on, Nick, everyone knows you’ve always loved Kate.’
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
