Hallgrímskirkja,’ he said. ‘It’s meant to resemble the volcanic basalt flows—and actually there are a couple of caves by one of the beaches that have columns looking very much like that.’
‘That’s amazing.’
‘The inside of the church is actually very plain,’ he said, ‘as it’s a Lutheran church—the simplicity is lovely, though. And the views from the tower are amazing.’ He paused. ‘We could go and take a look after we’ve had coffee, if you like.’
‘I’d like that very much,’ she said, ‘if you have time.’ She looked him straight in the eye. ‘And if your partner won’t mind.’
‘No partner,’ he said. Lynda had broken their engagement the week after he’d been suspended, and he hadn’t been tempted to date anyone since. It was going to take him a while to trust again. And he wasn’t actually dating Hayley, even if he did feel a strong pull of attraction towards her.
Though he needed to be clear that she wasn’t involved with anyone, either. The lack of a ring on her left hand meant absolutely nothing, nowadays. ‘I take it that it’s the same for you?’
She nodded. ‘No partner.’
This felt like another step towards dating. But it wasn’t, he reminded himself. No commitments and no promises. They were just doing some sightseeing together, that was all.
She took a deep breath. ‘I’m not looking for pity or anything like that, but I should probably tell you that he died just over a year ago.’
So she was still grieving?
If so, that made her safe, because it meant she wouldn’t be looking for a proper relationship.
But to lose her partner... He judged her to be around his own age, early to mid thirties, so it must’ve been either an accident or a seriously aggressive form of cancer that had killed her partner; either way, she’d clearly been through a lot. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘That must’ve been hard for you.’
She nodded. ‘He was killed in an industrial accident. I’m just glad I’d kissed him goodbye that morning and my last words to him were “I love you”—I think if our last words had been something awful said in the middle of a row, it would’ve been harder to deal with.’
‘Yes.’ And Sam knew that one from experience. The morning when his career had imploded, he’d had a fight with his fiancée on the way to work. Lynda had wanted him to give up his mountain rescue work in favour of something that would boost his career at the hospital. Something on a dull committee. He’d refused.
But he should have taken notice of the way she’d been behaving towards him, that last year. Then he would’ve expected Lynda’s reaction to his suspension, a few days later, instead of being shocked to the core by it.
‘So how long have you been in Reykjavik?’ she asked.
‘Since the end of March,’ he said.
She raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s quite a career change, from working in emergency medicine to being a tour guide.’
‘Yeah.’ Sam knew he was lucky. His family had believed in him. His older brother Martin had dragged him out to Iceland, saying that the job was only temporary, but he really needed the help—and someone who had mountain rescue team experience was the perfect person to come and help with glacier walking tours.
Sam knew that Martin hadn’t needed the help at all—he just hadn’t wanted Sam to sit at home alone and brood about the situation. And Sam would be grateful for ever to his brother for giving him something else to concentrate on, without expecting him to talk about the situation or his feelings.
Hayley winced at his flat tone. ‘Sorry, that was really intrusive—you don’t owe me any explanations. Please forget I said anything.’
‘It’s OK. It was a mix of a rough patch at work and a messy break-up.’ Short and to the point. Hayley didn’t need to know his team had been suspended after a diabetic patient’s death from a silent heart attack. He’d been sure that they’d followed all the right procedures during his admission and treatment, but the patient’s family had needed someone to blame for a death that shouldn’t have happened and they’d made a complaint. The hospital trust had been duty-bound to take the complaint seriously and launch an investigation.
A week later, Lynda had broken off their engagement, worried that the stain on his career would transfer to hers because she was his fiancée—according to her, everyone would still think there was no smoke without fire. How it had hurt to discover that the one person he’d expected to bat his corner for him, the way he would’ve done if their positions had been reversed, didn’t actually believe in him. All Lynda had wanted was to buy him out of his share of their house and get his name off the mortgage.
‘I took a sabbatical because I needed a bit of space to help me decide what to do next. Iceland’s a good place to think.’ And he’d come to realise that Lynda hadn’t been right for him anyway. She’d wanted him to be something he wasn’t—the sort who’d serve on committees and boards, moving away from medicine to admin. Sam had wanted to make a difference where it really mattered, saving lives and making his patients better rather than talking budgets and politics. So her breaking up with him had done him a favour, really.
‘I think we all get rough patches at work,’ Hayley said. ‘Days when you lose people, or you know the system isn’t going to get your patient the right help and you can’t do anything about it.’
There was a hint of sadness in those blue, blue eyes, and he guessed she was thinking about her fiancé. But it was none of his business. He wasn’t going to push her to talk.
‘Though I’m sorry you had to deal with a break-up at the same time as a rough patch. That’s a bit of a double whammy,’ she said.
He lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. ‘If I’m being honest, we’d been heading for the rocks for a while. I’d been kind of deluding myself.’ Knowing he was being a coward, but wanting to get back on safer ground and talk about something less emotionally daunting, he asked, ‘So why did you come to Iceland?’
‘I’ve always wanted to see the midnight sun,’ Hayley said. ‘And there were other things on my bucket list, like seeing the whales.’
‘What else is on your list?’
‘Seeing a geyser erupt,’ she said promptly, ‘and touching a glacier, and seeing the split between the continental plates. Oh, and I saw this video of people walking behind a waterfall—I’d really like to do that, too.’
‘I can take you to do all that, as well as that beach with the cave that’s a bit like the church columns.’
‘Thank you. But it’s your job, so obviously I’ll pay you the going rate for a guide,’ she said.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Apart from my weekly self-indulgence of going to see the whales, I haven’t really done anything just for fun. So if you don’t mind me muscling in on your bucket list, and maybe making some suggestions of places I think you might enjoy, it’d be a holiday for me.’
She frowned. ‘Surely you’ve already visited all those places with clients—I mean, aren’t they on every tourist’s wish list?’
