The thought that she was going now made Jon want to weep. Before she’d arrived he’d been coping. But now that he’d seen her face he couldn’t bear to be left alone again. She walked to his bedside and he steeled himself to say one more goodbye and thank her.
‘I’m just going to take these upstairs. I need to get them on Mr Saunders’s desk right away. But I’ll be back.’
‘Thank you.’ He wouldn’t ask when, because maybe she’d think twice about it and not come back. And in any case, he’d be counting the hours in the hope that she did return.
‘Ten minutes. I’ll be ten minutes.’ She took his hand, giving it a squeeze, and in that moment Jon felt completely happy.
‘Don’t you have patients to see?’
‘My first patient’s at half past nine. It’s only half eight now. I’ll see you in ten.’ Jon nodded, and closed his eyes again. If Chloe being here was just a dream, he wanted to hold onto it for as long as he possibly could.
* * *
He didn’t know how long she’d been, but from the way she was slightly out of breath it seemed that she’d been hurrying. Chloe brought an ice pack, wrapping it carefully before she laid it over his eye, and a bottle of spring water from the machine.
‘Would you like something to drink?’
‘Yes. Thanks.’
She nodded, opening the bottle and putting a red and white striped drinking straw into it. ‘You know the drill. Small sips, okay?’
He nodded, and she held the bottle so that he could drink through the straw. Suddenly he realised he was very thirsty, but he tried to drink slowly.
‘That’s good. You can have a little more in a minute.’ She put the bottle down beside the bed and sat down. ‘I can stay for three quarters of an hour and then I have to go. But I’ll come and find you again at lunchtime.’
‘You don’t need...’ He saw the reproach in her eyes, and realised that he wanted her to come back more than anything. ‘Thanks.’
She nodded. ‘Whatever were you doing in the loft at six in the morning?’
Ben had told her, then. ‘I heard dripping up there after last night’s rain. I reckoned it was another leak and went up there just to see what was going on. One of the boards was rotten.’
She knew. Chloe knew what it was like to be alone and helpless. Far better than he did, and this morning had frightened the hell out of him. She reached forward, taking his hand, and suddenly everything was all right.
‘It must have been horrible, having to try and get back downstairs.’
All he’d been able to think of had been getting downstairs to his phone before he passed out from the pain. He’d seen the blood soaking the leg of his jeans and had known he had to get help. But Chloe was here now and he could shrug it off.
‘My phone was in the kitchen. I wasn’t expecting the builder to come, he’d just popped in with some samples for me to look at. When he knocked, I yelled and he let himself in with his key.’
‘It was a bit of luck he decided to come round. Don’t you go clambering around when you’re on your own in the house again.’ Her voice took on the timbre of a very sexy schoolmistress.
‘I’ve learned my lesson. May I have some more water, please?’
She reached for the water bottle and let him drink a little more. Then she sat down again, reaching for his hand. It seemed that everything that had happened between them, and the way they’d both been studiously avoiding each other for the last few months, was temporarily forgotten.
‘How’s Hannah? I’ve been thinking about her.’
‘She’s good. She and Amy are living with me and...well, Amy’s a joy. So’s Hannah. She’s having counselling and starting to build up her confidence. And she’s doing an Art A-Level by correspondence course. It’s something she’s always been interested in, and she’s been producing some lovely drawings.
Even in his befuddled state, Jon could see that Chloe had changed. Or rather she’d continued on the road that he’d seen her take those first, uncertain steps on in France. She seemed so much more confident that she was doing the right thing and ready to make a success of it, for herself as well as Hannah and Amy.
‘I’m glad everything turned out well, Chloe.’
‘Thanks. I think you can take more than some of the credit...’ She flushed red and picked up the water bottle. ‘You want something more to drink?’
It seemed that she’d talked enough about the thing that had brought them together and then torn them apart. That was okay. Jon was just glad that Chloe had come and that she’d stayed for a while. He reached for the water bottle, gasping as he moved too far and pain shot up his leg.
‘Steady on. Just stay down, will you, and let me do the heavy lifting.’ She gave him a smile that reached right to his heart and Jon realised that the idea that had been forming in his head for the last month wasn’t just a dream. It was something that he was going to make happen.