Freya rolled her eyes. ‘I knew that she’d make a deal out of it. James, I’d been out all night for New Years Eve. I don’t need your concern.’
‘Well, like it or not, you’ve got it.’
‘It’s not necessary, James. I was ill a long time ago.’ She had been seventeen! James still looked out for her, was still way too overprotective. ‘Don’t worry, if I need to see someone I’ll be sure to ask for a referral.’
So much for leaving it! But that was Freya—once her mind was made up she could not just sit by.
He stared back at her and Freya wondered if he’d got the point she was making so she spelt it out.
‘Why don’t you have an eating disorder unit here?’ Freya asked.
‘We can’t have everything.’
‘Please!’ Freya said. ‘That’s the whole point of The Hills, the patients have everything! Given that the majority of your clientele are in the public eye I’d say an eating disorder unit might be a necessity rather than a luxury. Yet you refer them elsewhere.’
‘I’m trying to...’ James started, but then he halted and it incensed Freya.
‘Trying to watch out for me, trying to avoid hurts, trying to pretend it doesn’t exist.’
‘You’re better now,’ James said. ‘Do you really need constant reminders?’
They were getting nowhere.
‘I need to get on,’ Freya said. ‘I’ll see you up there.’ She walked out, collected her camera from her office and headed up to the cardiac unit, where Paulo was now being cared for.
He looked amazing.
The dusky colour of his skin on admission was now a gorgeous coffee colour and his lips were pink and he was sucking on an ice stick.
And then Zack came in with a colleague he was handing Paulo over to, to check on the boy before he headed off on a well-deserved weekend break.
‘I thought you were off for the weekend!’ Maria exclaimed.
‘In an hour I shall be,’ Zack said, and then looked at Paulo. ‘I don’t have to ask how you are, do I?’ He glanced over and nodded to James and saw Freya and her damned camera. ‘Is Maria okay with this?’
‘Maria is,’ Freya said.
‘I’m delighted to have our picture taken if it will do some good.’ Maria nodded. ‘Will you be in it?’
‘No, thanks.’ Zack shook his head. ‘I keep it up here, Maria.’
‘Come on, Zack.’ Maria was the one who pushed for him to join in the happy shot.
‘Seriously.’ Zack shook his head. ‘Maria, I’ve got to go and see another patient now.’ He was honest. ‘They don’t need my smiling thumbs up if it doesn’t go well for them.’
It was who he was, Freya thought.
Private.
And she wanted in, though she was doing her best to hold back.
Zack went and wrote up his notes and his instructions for Paulo and his other patients while he was away.
He had a small baby on NICU that had already had more tests and procedures done than most people had in a lifetime but he had to go back up there now and order some more before he made a decision next week as to whether or not to operate.
‘Hey,’ Zack said, when Freya came out from the photo shoot. ‘Are we still on for riding?’
‘We’re at work!’ she reminded him.
‘Sorry.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘I’ve got cabin fever. I’ve been here since Tuesday.’
‘I’ve booked us for midday,’ Freya said. ‘We can meet there.’ She gave him the address and Zack nodded.
She had meant what she’d said, Zack thought, about today having no strings attached.
Their paths had only crossed briefly since the other night.
For Zack it still felt like it had been a bit of a dream. Even when she had come in to wake him up when PICU had paged him a couple of hours later, Freya had made no reference to what had taken place.
He had brought them to work and the trouble for Zack was that he wasn’t adequately troubled by it.
Even now he had asked her about riding, and there were people around.
He needed to reel things back, but it was very hard to do so when you were walking through stables and another person had come up with the very thing you needed.
It felt so good to get away and be doing something he probably wouldn’t have made the time for today.
‘I didn’t know how experienced you were,’ Freya said when he arrived. ‘I said intermediate...’
Oh, no, he wasn’t.
It didn’t take long to establish that Zack knew his way around horses and he was given Bullet, who, Zack was assured, lived up to his name.
Freya had Camp, her usual horse, who was patient and steady and everything that she was not.
And they were off.
Together but separate and it suited Freya today. Half an hour in, Zack found a lovely flat length and went for a gallop as Freya just plodded along and looked at the stunning view, past the city and out to the Pacific Ocean.
Then she heard Zack coming back and he was all breathless and Bullet wasn’t even sweating.
‘I needed that,’ Zack said, falling into pace with her.
‘And I needed this,’ Freya sighed.
After a while they stopped to eat the lunch Freya had made. It was nice to breathe in fresh air and eat but Freya was distracted. Her mind kept going over that morning and her conversation with James.
‘You okay?’ Zack checked.
‘I will be,’ Freya said. ‘I had words with James.’
And they weren’t anonymous strangers any more and this wasn’t about Mila and James so she told him the part she felt she wanted to, even if it was rare that she spoke about it.
‘James took on a lot when I was ill and now we can hardly talk about it.’ She told him how he’d come and hauled her out of a nightclub and that she’d collapsed. How James had found a rehab place for her that was a bit alternative but which had suited her.
‘How long were you there for?’ Zack asked.
‘Six months. Two of those were spent fighting.’
‘Fighting?’
