needed and to take him for any procedures if Courtney wasn’t available. I said that Mum and Dad had to help more if Courtney wasn’t around…that I was through looking out for Courtney, that I was only on Harry side.’
‘You said all that?’ He put down his coffee and took her hand. ‘Well done. How did Courtney take it?’
‘I didn’t stay to find out,’ she said. ‘I just left the meeting. I hope you don’t mind, but I said that I’d been seeing someone, that he lived in Sydney—it just made it seem more real to them. It made them believe that I would leave if I told them I had somebody who wanted me to go with them.’
‘You did.’
And she’d no doubt cry about it later—but not now. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For getting him squeezed onto the list.’ He gave a frown. ‘I know you must have…’
‘Well, I thought it might buy another night before she dropped her act, and when you came out of the meeting…’ He looked at her, didn’t want to tell her how hard it had been to step aside, to not be in that room, not as a doctor but sitting beside her. ‘I figured she might drop it a little quicker if you weren’t there to sort it out for her.’
‘Well, it worked. She fell apart when she had to actually make a decision and it all came out. It isn’t drugs—it’s alcohol. She’s just been slowly falling apart since I kicked her out.’
‘It would have happened wherever she was,’ Dominic said. ‘It was probably going on here…’
And she nodded because, yes, it had been a bit.
And she thought of Harry’s birthday that should have been about cordial and cake but instead her sister had chosen to party on—and so too had Paul.
‘I hate what she did,’ Bridgette said. ‘I just couldn’t have her stay after that.’
‘Of course you couldn’t.’ Dominic thought for a moment, knew he had to be very careful with what he said. Certainly he was less than impressed with Courtney, but even if people didn’t like it at times, he was always honest. ‘But I think it’s something you have to move on from. She’s clearly made a lot of mistakes, but if you’re going to be angry with anyone—’ he looked at Bridgette, who so deserved to be angry ‘—then I think it should be with him.’
‘It was both of them.’
‘He took advantage.’
‘Oh, and you never have—’ She didn’t get to finish.
‘Never,’ Dominic said. ‘Not once. My sexual résumé might not be impressive to you, but…’ He shook his head. ‘Nope, what he did was wrong, and however awful your sister has been, I bet she’s been trying to douse an awful lot of guilt about her treatment of you.’
Bridgette nodded. ‘She’s gone to rehab. It’s three months and Mum and Dad are paying. She came over last night with Dad and said she was terrified of letting everybody down…which she may well do, so I’m not getting my hopes up, but I’ve made a decision to be here for Harry.’ She saw him glance at his watch.
‘Sorry, I’m rattling on…’
‘It’s not that. I have to leave in an hour. I can’t miss that plane.’ He took a deep breath. Really, he was finding this incredibly difficult—she seemed fine, better than fine, as if she wasn’t missing him at all.
Wouldn’t miss him.
But he would miss her.
Which forced him to speak on.
‘What you said about Sydney, about having someone who wanted you there, you weren’t exaggerating, Bridgette.’ He took her hand and her fingers curled around his. Inside her, those little wisps of hope uncurled too, and it was so wonderful to see him, to have him sitting beside her, to know this was hard for him. ‘I want this to work too. I just can’t not be there for Chris,’ he said.
‘I was very unfair to you—it was ridiculous that I couldn’t even get away for a single weekend, and it is about to change. I spoke to my parents this morning so maybe I can get away now and then, maybe I could come up on days off, or some of them.’ She stared at her fingers being squeezed by his, and she wished he would jump in, would say that was what he wanted, but he let her speak on. ‘And who knows what might happen in the future? Courtney might get well—’
‘You’re not going to leave Harry,’ Dominic cut in. ‘You might be able to convince them, but you’ll never convince me. You’re not going anywhere while Harry’s so little.’
‘No.’ She could feel tears trickling down at the back of her throat and nose. She’d been so determined not to cry, to do this with dignity, to let him go with grace. She could see the second hand on his watch rapidly moving around, gobbling up the little time that they had left. ‘No, I’m not going anywhere. Well, not long term.’
‘And I don’t think the odd weekend is going to suffice.’
‘No,’ she said, because it wouldn’t be enough.
And they could talk in the time they had left, but what was the point? Bridgette realised there was no solution to be had, so instead of tears she gave him a smile, not a false one, a real one. And she put herself first for once, was completely selfish and utterly indulgent and just a little bit wild, because as he went to speak she interrupted him.
‘Have we got time for a quickie before you go?’
‘We need to talk,’ Dominic pointed out.
‘I don’t need anything,’ she cut in. ‘I know what I want, though.’
And he wasn’t going to argue with that.
He didn’t know what he had expected to find when he came over, how he’d expected her to be when he’d knocked at the door, but as always she’d amazed him. Then, as she opened the bedroom door, she amazed him all over again.
‘Wow.’ As he walked into her bedroom he let out a low whistle. ‘You’ve got a carpet!’
‘I know!’
‘I’m impressed.’ He looked at the shelves and politely didn’t comment about five holes she had made in the wall—because he wouldn’t know how to find a stud either.
‘Just you wait.’ She was at his shirt as she spoke. He pulled off her T-shirt and undid her bra and it slowed things down undressing each other, so they stripped off for themselves and then Bridgette peeled back the duvet.
‘You get first feel…’
‘Of what?’ he asked, hands roaming her body, but she peeled off his hands and placed them on the bedding.
‘Of my million-thread-count sheets. I was saving them for best…’
Which he was, Bridgette knew that, because he lay on the sheets and wriggled around and made appreciative noises, and then he pulled her in and kissed her.
‘I want to feel them now,’ she said.
So she lay on the sheets and wriggled around
