Not the world’s best silver lining, but… ‘Start small, aim high.’ One of his mum’s better sayings. ‘Forgive him, Max…’ being one of the worst. There was no chance Gavin Henshall deserved his forgiveness. Not after everything he’d done.
Euan’s mum fretted at the hem of her supermarket uniform. ‘Could you run us through what the call’s going to involve again, please?’
‘Absolutely. It’ll be similar to the one Fenella’s going to have tomorrow.’
‘She’s the poor woman with epilepsy?’
Max nodded. Fenella had first came into A and E on a stretcher after a horrific car accident. Since then the forty-one-year-old had come in with cuts and bumps after experiencing severe epileptic seizures resulting from the head trauma she’d suffered. The poor woman was nearly housebound with fear. A service dog could change her life.
‘She’ll be getting a dog specifically trained for her requirements.’
‘And Euan’s dog will be trained to help with his…situation?’ Carly asked.
Bless her. She never could bring herself to say PTSD.
‘My crazy brain, Mum. My crazy brain!’ Euan pulled a wild face and waggled his hands.
The poor woman looked away. She blamed herself for what her son was going through, as parents so often did, when, in reality, the attack on Euan had simply been very, very bad luck. The kind of bad luck that could change his life for ever.
Max looked Euan square in the eye. ‘Esme knows what happened and will find a dog that can be there for you. It’ll make being at home on your own more relaxing.’ He glanced at Esme’s email again, trying not to picture her lips pushing out into a perfect moue as she concentrated. He cleared his throat and continued. ‘She mentions having a chat with the headmaster at your school. Some therapy dogs are permitted, so…if you need it, he might be coming along to school with you.’
Euan’s antsy behaviour suddenly stilled. The poor kid. The past couple of times he’d shown up in A and E had been for black eyes and cuts from fights at school. Despite the best efforts of the headmaster, it definitely wasn’t Euan’s safe place.
His story set the bar for cruel cases of mistaken identity. He’d been walking home from school about eighteen months ago when a local gang had mistaken him for someone else and had near enough pulverised the life out of the poor blighter.
Even in the war zones he’d been in, Max struggled to remember a kid who’d met the wrong end of a fist to such ill effect. He was a poster boy for PTSD. He bunked off school regularly. He had frequent panic attacks. His nightmares woke everyone in the flats around them, the screams were so piercing.
Carly was a single mum and worked shift hours so couldn’t be there for him when he needed it most. He was a scared kid with no one to back him up and the only way he knew how to deal with all that fear was rage. With waiting lists longer than Max’s arm, Euan needed someone beyond the psychiatric profession on his side. Someone to give him a bit of confidence. A reason to see the bright side of life. Someone with the unerring loyalty of a dog.
Max glanced up at the clock. ‘Right. It’ll be a short call. Enough time to meet the dog, find out his or her name.’
‘I hope it’s a boy. A huge bulldog!’ Euan’s eyes gleamed with possibility.
‘There’s only one way to find out.’ Max pressed the button and waited for Esme to answer.
Seeing Max Kirkpatrick’s face appear on her screen brought back a whole raft of emotions Esme thought she had dismissed a week ago. So she’d thought he was hot. So what? Lots of people were hot. Like…um…movie stars. And models. And ex-soldiers with dangerously sexy hair working in inner-city A and Es who were doing their damnedest to keep their hearts off their sleeves.
But now that she was seeing him again?
Heart hammering. An entire swarm of butterflies careering round her tummy. A flock of birds might as well have been circling her head. She tore her eyes away and did her best to focus on the young lad sitting next to Mr Extra-Gorgeous with a cherry on top.
The boy he’d selected, Euan Thurrock, really pulled at her heartstrings. Skinny. Buzz cut. Looked ready for a fight, but it was so easy to tell there was a scared little boy hiding beneath all of that bravura. She couldn’t imagine having to live in the same neighbourhood where he’d nearly lost his life. When the proverbial rubbish had hit the fan when she’d lived in Glasgow, she’d had a five-thousand-acre estate to hide in. Euan had to confront his biggest fears on a daily basis. She wasn’t entirely sure she ever had.
She glanced at Max then looked back at Euan. ‘So, are you ready to meet Ajax?’
Euan punched the air. ‘Ajax sounds awesome. Like an attack dog. Is he a Rottweiler? A Doberman Pincer?’
Esme smiled. ‘None of the above, I’m afraid.’ She whistled the dog over and watched Euan’s face melt with affection when the golden Lab popped his furry face up to the screen. ‘Euan, meet Ajax.’
Despite having done ‘the big reveal’ hundreds of times, Esme felt the familiar sheen of tears glaze her eyes. It wasn’t just the dog’s adorable face as it tried to make sense of what it was seeing on the screen, and this dog was particularly adorable. Dark brown eyes, black nose, fluffy golden fur and ears that quirked inquisitively at any unfamiliar sounds. It was Euan’s face that caught her heart and squeezed a few extra beats out of it.
Seeing this tough kid’s eyes light up to see something that represented hope would’ve turned anyone into a puddle. It was an expression that said he believed someone was finally, unequivocally on his side.
She gave Ajax a treat then asked him to sit beside her. ‘So, Euan, d’you mind introducing me to your mum? She’s the adult coming to stay with you, right?’
Euan’s mum gave a nervous wave as Max and Euan pulled their chairs apart to make room for her to scoot forward. ‘This is Carly,’ Max said, his voice a bit thick with emotion if she wasn’t mistaken. ‘She’s all booked up to join Euan next week.’
‘Actually…’ Carly put her hand to her mouth then dropped it ‘… I’ve got a wee problem on that front.’
Max’s eyes went wide with concern. ‘Is everything all right?’
She shook her head. ‘My bosses have pretty much said if I leave at this time of year, I can expect not to have a job when I get back.’
Esme was shocked. She always covered costs and rarely had problems with employers. ‘Would you like me to make a call?’
Carly shook her head again. She looked as timorous as she was sure Euan felt. ‘I don’t want to make a fuss. I’m afraid the job’s a bit more important than the dog.’
Esme bit down on the inside of her cheek. If only she’d had the training centre in Glasgow, as she’d planned all those years ago.
If only the world was populated by nice, honest men who didn’t spend their new bride’s trust fund on nightclubs instead of training centres.
Before
