“It’s one of the side effects of being a doctor. You never know when your meal will be interrupted so you learn to eat quickly.” Susan finished the second bowl of soup and sat back. “That was amazing. Anytime you want to invite me to dinner, consider it a yes from me. I’ll call the hospital and tell them Ethan won’t be in over the weekend. Hopefully by Monday he’ll be well enough to call them himself with an update. You’re sure you’re going to be okay here?”
“Yes. I feel better now someone qualified has taken a look at him. I was worried.”
“He’s going to be fine. Don’t let him take advantage of you.”
Susan left half an hour later, leaving Harriet alone in the apartment with Ethan.
Madi was asleep.
Her own room beckoned, the bed waiting for her.
Instead, she walked into Ethan’s room.
His eyes were closed, but she could hear the faint rasp of his breathing.
She touched his forehead lightly and discovered he was still burning up.
She walked into his bathroom and dampened a washcloth. The bathroom was sleek and masculine, dark gray tiles broken up by an entire wall that was mirrored.
Everything was neatly ordered. Nothing strewn about the place, as it had been in her own bathroom when Fliss was living with her.
She placed the cloth on his forehead but this time he didn’t stir.
Telling herself that the meds would take time to work, she curled up in the chair near his bed.
If he was going to die, it wasn’t going to be on her watch.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ETHAN WOKE COUGHING several times in the night and each time Harriet helped him to sit up, forced him to drink fluids and did what she could to bring down the fever. She’d never seen anyone so ill. Despite Susan’s reassurances, she didn’t like leaving him on his own for long.
She tried sleeping on top of her bed with her door open so that she’d hear him if he called for her, but then she found she was listening out for him all the time and wondering if he was still breathing, so she gave up on that and made herself comfortable in the deep armchair in the corner of his room.
It was almost as comfortable as her bed, and she slept in fitful bouts, her mind hovering between wakefulness and sleep, conscious of Ethan within arm’s reach. It felt strange, this intimacy between two people who barely knew each other.
It was a long night.
Every time he coughed she fetched him drinks and tried to help him sit up. When he slept, she tried to sleep.
Morning came, the weak winter sun spilling diffuse light through the window.
Ethan didn’t stir and Harriet leaned closer to check he was breathing before going downstairs to make breakfast.
After a night of almost no sleep, her head throbbed and she felt as if she’d been hit over the head with a hammer.
Madi was waiting for her, tail wagging.
Deciding that she had no choice but to leave Ethan while she took the dog for a walk, she scribbled a note and left it by his bedside along with his phone.
The moment she stepped outside the apartment the cold hit her, driving away the smothering fog of sleep.
She wrapped her scarf more tightly round her neck and huddled deeper into her coat.
The city was oddly silent, all sound muffled by a fresh layer of snow.
Worried about Ethan, she kept the walk as short as she felt was fair on Madi and when she returned to the apartment Ethan still hadn’t moved.