saw Bill safely away, returning home much later to find Chelsea in the kitchen.
Oh, Andy,’ she said, spinning around with a half-peeled potato in her hand and enveloping him in a tight hug. ‘Thank you so much for having me. Ellie’s been so kind, and I’ll try not to be a nuisance, see…’
She held out the potato.
‘I’m fixing the veggies for dinner!’
He eased out of her embrace and smiled at her.
‘You don’t have to earn your keep here,’ he said gently. ‘After all, we’re family.’
Laughter greeted his pronouncement.
‘I know but I love cooking, so if you and Ellie don’t mind, I might do some now and then.’
‘I’m sure neither of us will mind, we’re often so tired it’s a choice between Thai or Chinese takeaway.’
‘It’s bad for your health, too much takeaway,’ his young cousin said sternly.
Andy laughed.
‘You’re right, but apart from cooking to keep us healthy, I’m hoping you might be a help to me in another way. Do you know anything about soccer?’
‘I was in a team back home, and I played at school,’ she said. ‘Do you think it would hurt the baby if I played?’
‘I’ll check that out. I imagine the baby wouldn’t be too happy being hit with a soccer ball. But you could be goalie. None of them are good enough to score many goals yet, but you could yell advice to them if they got close. And if a ball actually comes near you, you could always hide behind the post.’
‘Not that I’ll fit behind a post for much longer,’ Chelsea said, and returned to peeling potatoes.
He watched her for a moment, then said, ‘When you’ve finished those, would you mind sitting down with me to look at the drills I’ve been working out? I only know the game from school, where it didn’t seem to matter what you did, but I’ve watched about a thousand internet videos on coaching it.’
She put down the peeled potato and came towards him, wiping her hands on an old apron of Ellie’s she’d put on.
‘Let’s see what you’ve got.’
She stood over his shoulder and read what he’d set out, with stick-figure illustrations, and smiled.
‘For someone who only played the game at school, that’s excellent. You could probably give your forwards more goal-kicking practice. Your two forwards should be the best strikers and they really need to practise a lot so it comes more easily to them in a game.’
There was a slight pause, before she said, ‘I used to be a striker.’
‘You were?’ Andy asked in delight. ‘That’s just perfect. Even if you can’t play, you can take the striking practice, try to help them understand different tactics.’
He paused, then said, ‘They’re all misfits, Chelsea, my soccer players. A few of them are kids who badly need to lose weight and somehow getting them into something that would interest them seemed a better way than nagging them to diet. There are a couple of migrants and it’s helping to settle them into the community, and two of the girls are recovering drug addicts so they’re a bit tetchy at times.’
She smiled at him.
‘Then a pregnant teenager should fit right in,’ she said, and went back to the sink, to peel carrots this time.
As he, Ellie, and Chelsea sat down to a meal of lamb cutlets with mashed potatoes, peas and carrots a couple of hours later, he realised just how big an asset Chelsea could be. Not only by helping to prepare meals, but her cheerful chatter broke through the tension that usually reigned when he and Ellie were together.
Tonight they’d even laughed, teasing each other, remembering silly things, something that had become so rare it made his heart ache for what had been.
‘You prepared the dinner, Chelsea, so I’ll clear the table and stack the dishwasher,’ Ellie announced.
‘And I’ll do the pots and pans,’ Andy volunteered. ‘Have you got something to do, something to read?’ he asked Chelsea. ‘Or feel free to use the television in the sitting room. Ellie might have explained there are only two channels but you might find something you’d like.’
‘I’d rather read and there are plenty of books in the bedroom.’
She paused.
‘Whose room was it?’
Andy thought for a moment.
‘The three girls were always swapping rooms, but I think it was Eliza who ended up in that one. They were definitely her posters on the walls.’
Chelsea disappeared, but as he washed the few pots and pans, Ellie by his side, stacking the dishwasher, life felt almost normal—like the old normal…
He waited until she straightened then slid an arm around her shoulders.
‘It might be good for us, having Chelsea here,’ he said, then he couldn’t resist drawing her closer and pressing a kiss, not on her lips but on her temple. He felt her tremble in response, then ease herself away.
But the dreamy little smile on her face told him she hadn’t minded…
Ellie woke suddenly, startled by something she couldn’t immediately place.
It had been a phone ringing. It must have been Andy’s mobile because she could hear his voice now.
Had he changed his ring-tone that she hadn’t immediately recognised it?
But why?
Maybe she was just confused.
She lay awake, aware a phone call to a doctor in the middle of the night wasn’t a good thing.
The talking stopped, then she saw his shadowy figure appear in the doorway.
‘Did it wake you?’ he asked quietly.
‘Habit,’ she said. ‘Do you need me?’
‘Only every day!’
The words were barely there, nothing more than a jumble of sounds, and probably she’d imagined it for now he was talking again. Asking about someone, a patient apparently…
‘Yes, Madeleine’s one of my patients,’ she said, catching up with the conversation although the ‘only every day’ words still hovered in her head.
And heart…
‘Has something happened to her?’
‘Accident out on the Wyndham Road,’
