He closed his eyes just in time. He didn’t see her wipe the tear away as it dribbled from the side of her eye. And before he had a chance to open them again, s
he had hastened back down the ladder and turned away, so that she could no longer see what her heart desired most and which she knew she could never have.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BETH had only left the hearing therapy unit for five minutes, to run down to the canteen to fetch a drink. The receptionist was at lunch, Marcie was out doing home visits and Monday morning was always busy, so it was going to be lunch on the run again.
As she hurried back along the corridor, making a mental list of everything she had to do before three o’ clock, she saw an unmistakable figure, leaning against the locked door of the unit.
‘Waiting for me?’
‘Nah. Just lost again.’ Matt grinned at her. That confiding grin, the one that turned her insides to jelly and made her legs shake. The one that convinced her that everything else she had to do could wait for ten precious minutes.
‘Well, you’ve come to the right person.’ She motioned him away from the door and unlocked it. ‘Come in and I’ll point you in the right direction.’
He chuckled softly and followed her into the empty association area. Beth caught up a clean mug from the reception desk and tipped it towards him. ‘Here. Want half my coffee?’
‘If you can spare it.’ He sat down, loosening his tie, slipping suddenly from mouth-wateringly formal to meltingly casual.
‘I’ve only got time to drink half of it.’ Beth tipped more than half of her drink into the mug and handed it to him.
‘Thanks.’ He took a deep draught. ‘Just what I needed.’
‘Busy morning?’
‘Pretty much the same as yours, from the looks of it. I won’t stay, I’ve just come to give you this.’ He slid three typed pages across the table that lay between them. ‘Just some notes I made last night, after I put Jack to bed.’
It was a great deal more than a few notes. Flipping through the pages, Beth saw an implementation timetable, noting dependencies and a critical path, and two closely typed sheets of suggestions and comments. ‘Wow. That’s great, Matt, thanks. You don’t mess about, do you?’
His blue, thoughtful gaze was on her, trapping her in its depths. ‘I have every confidence that this study is going to benefit my department. So the answer to your question is no. I don’t intend to mess about.’
She could never get enough of this kind of praise from Matt. He could say it again if he liked, but Beth was aware that any hint to that effect would make her sound needy. She scanned the pages again, sipping her coffee.
‘How’s your week looking?’ He’d given her a moment to recover herself and was moving ahead again. ‘I’m leaving early for Jack’s school Christmas concert tonight, but I can make any other evening. I brought your study up at the unit’s weekly meeting this morning and there was a lot of interest. It would be good to meet up soon.’
He really did not mess about. ‘Tomorrow would be fine. Here?’ After last night, Beth didn’t much want to meet with him at either his house or hers. She’d only just managed to get out of there before she’d made a fool of herself and shown her tears.
‘If you like. Either here or in my office. About six?’
She laid her coffee down and grabbed at a couple of sparkly marker pens that she had knocked against and which were rolling towards the edge of the table. ‘Yes, that would be great. Your office, perhaps. I imagine it’s less of a mess than it is here.’ She gestured towards the boxes of medical supplies and Christmas decorations that were waiting to be unpacked.
He grinned. ‘Only because I haven’t been in it for long. Give me time. Chinese?’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘We have to eat. I’ll pop out and get a takeaway. I hear that the Chinese across the road isn’t too bad.’
‘It’s very good.’ Beth wondered whether a takeaway in Matt’s office constituted going out for a meal with him, and decided it didn’t. ‘Yes, let’s do that. Tomorrow at six.’
Beth made it down to his office at two minutes past six, and found Matt at the door, a large, fragrant-smelling bag with a red dragon on it in his hand. He grinned broadly at her and motioned her in.
He had cleared his desk, and set a comfortable chair for her on the opposite side of the desk from his own. He motioned Beth to sit, and put the bag down between them.
‘I wasn’t sure what you’d like so I got something of everything.’ The side of his face twitched with tense amusement. ‘I hope you’re not picky.’
‘No, I’m starving.’ The food smelled great and Beth was hungry. She hadn’t had a chance to stop for lunch and had made do with an energy bar from the bottom of her handbag.
‘Good.’ He seemed to brighten a little, and lifted his briefcase onto his desk, opening it and withdrawing two plates, wrapped in a dishcloth, followed by a couple of glasses.