been able to keep her family together.
‘It’s not that straightforward, Janey.’ Nina did her best to stay calm. ‘And it’s not fair to Barbara either, for me to just—’
‘Barbara’s a cow!’ Janey huffed.
‘I don’t like you speaking like that.’
‘Well, she is.’
Nina gritted her teeth and not for the first time questioned if she was up to the job of dealing with such an angry teenager. Of course, professionally she was but, as she often said to tearful parents who sat in this office and asked how she handled things so well, she got a break from it, got to go home at the end of each day. If things went well, in a few weeks she could be fully responsible for Janey, and what scared Nina the most was that if she wasn’t up to the job, Janey’s bad behaviour would escalate.
‘Things are moving forward,’ Nina said. ‘I know it seems to be taking ages but I haven’t been in the apartment long. Why don’t we go and get something to eat and I’ll show the photos I’ve taken? I’ve got all the furniture now for your room.’
‘I thought you were working.’
‘I’m going to be working till late,’ Nina said, ‘so I can take a break now.’
They took the lift and there were several choices where they could eat—there were a few cafés in the hospital so that parents could come and share a meal with their child if they were able to, or to spend some time away from the bedside with siblings and such. The whole hospital was geared to being not just child friendly but family friendly, but Nina was starting to feel as if her dream of her family being together was fading before it even had a chance to take off. Maybe they’d do better just walking.
‘What do you want to eat?’
She was met with Janey’s shrug.
They settled for the coffee bar and took a seat at the back where it was a quiet enough to talk. Nina bought Janey her favourite muffin and frappe and herself a regular coffee, deciding she wasn’t hungry yet and would get something to eat later.
‘Here.’
Should it annoy her that Janey didn’t bother to say thank you? Should she let the small things go?
No.
She thought of their parents, how they’d insisted on good manners, but if she said anything, Janey would simply get up and walk out, and not wanting to risk that she let it go.
‘I am doing my best.’
‘Whatever.’
‘I’ve got Blake this weekend,’ Nina said. ‘Why don’t you come?’
Janey didn’t answer. Nina quietly thought that Janey might very well be jealous of the more structured access Nina had with Blake, but that was because of his age and the distance he lived from Nina, which made shorter visits impossible. With Janey it was mainly holidays and the occasional sleepover, especially as Janey’s weekends were taken up with sport activities.
‘I could take you to netball.’
‘I’m not doing netball any more.’
‘How come?’ Nina asked. ‘You loved it, Blake and I were going to come and watch.’
‘Yeah, well, don’t bother. I got dropped.’
‘How come?’ Nina pushed. ‘You were doing really well.’
‘Till I swore at the umpire.’ Janey was peeling apart her muffin, not looking at Nina as she spoke. ‘And Barbara says that if I’m going to carry on like that then I can spend the weekend sorting out the basement.’ She looked up at Nina. ‘I guess if you ring her, though, she might let me come …’
‘No.’ Nina did her best not to be manipulated. Barbara was doing the hard yards, dealing with Janey, and Nina simply refused to interfere in the groundings and early bedtimes Barbara was trying to rein Janey in with. ‘Barbara’s right not to just let it go. Janey, you loved your netball. What were you doing, swearing at the umpire?’
‘She was a stupid cow.’
‘Everyone’s a cow to you …’ Nina tried to hold onto her temper, tried not to upset Janey, but it was impossible. She had no real authority with her sister. Janey pulled all the strings and she started pulling them now.
‘Yeah, well, you’re the biggest cow.’ Janey stood. ‘I’m stuck cleaning out a basement all weekend while you’re busy spoiling Blake. Thanks a lot, sis …’
And she stormed out of the café and straight past Jack, not that she noticed him.
Jack noticed her, though.
He moved out of the way as a fast-moving, angry teenager stormed past and he looked into the café and saw Nina resting her head on her hands. He wanted to go over to see if she was okay but he’d just been called for a consult in ICU so he’d make time for Nina later.
And he would.
Jack was determined now, because he could not, could not, stop thinking about her.
It was an absolute first for him.
Jack’s days were too busy to spend time dwelling on one woman, but he woke up thinking of Nina, spent the day with her sort of present in his mind. And the evenings were impossible, because she was always busy and sometimes she didn’t even return his phone calls.
Another first.
So when he rang at seven that night only to find out that she was working late and didn’t have time to stop, like some idiot he found himself walking through a dark social work department to the light from under her office door with a bottle of sparking water and some take-out.
‘Jack, I really can’t stop.’
‘You can’t eat?’
He had a good point. That coffee with Janey had been a long time ago, but it wasn’t just the timing that was the problem. She was used to Jack looking completely gorgeous and groomed at all times, but she was slightly disarmed at the sight of him in scrubs—he was displaying rather more skin than she could deal with and say no to, so she kept her voice matter-of-fact as she declined him.
‘I can eat, but I have to work. I’m due in court in the morning and I have to finish this report …’
‘You haven’t got five minutes?’
And she remembered her own manners, or she got the delicious waft of food, or it could have been that Jack was someone she found it incredibly hard to say no to, but she gave him a smile and gave in. ‘Thank you.’
‘How was your day?’
‘Busy,’ Nina said. ‘How was yours?’
‘Full on …’ He chatted as he served up their meals. ‘I’ve spent most of it up in ICU. There’s a little one giving the paed team a headache. Still, we’ve got her stable now
