‘When you lose a partner in your seventies, people assume that you’ve been together for ever, but it wasn’t like that for Bert and me,’ Ivy told her quietly. ‘I was married to someone else before Bert, you know. And I suppose I was happy enough. At least, I thought I was. I never knew any differently until he died. Then I met Bert and I realised what I’d been missing for all those years. What I had with Bert was—’ She broke off, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. ‘Well, let’s just say it was the fairy tale. And you don’t imagine that you’re going to find that when you’re sixty.’
Lucy bit her lip and felt a lump building in her throat. ‘It must be so hard for you. And you didn’t have that long together.’
Ivy gave a wistful smile. ‘I would rather have lived one day with a man I truly loved than a lifetime in a lesser relationship. And we had ten years together.’ Ivy sniffed and made a visible effort to pull herself together. ‘Some people go through life and never know what true love and passion is. At least I wasn’t one of those. But it’s hard, being without him. I see him everywhere. In the garden, in the living room…’
Lucy slipped an arm around her shoulders. ‘Has your daughter been to see you?’
‘Oh, yes, she’s very good.’ Ivy sighed and managed a smile. ‘She wants me to go and live with them.’
‘And will you?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ivy said slowly. ‘Maybe. I’m not sure. They have young children, so I can’t believe they’d really want me there. And I’m not sure if I want to leave the house. The memories are everywhere, and it hurts, but I’m not sure that I want to be without it.’
Lucy nodded. ‘Well, don’t make any sudden decisions.’
‘No.’ Ivy shook her head and looked at Lucy. ‘You’re a kind girl, coming to visit an old thing like me when I know you’re busy.’
‘I’m not busy,’ Lucy lied, ‘and I was going to come yesterday but I was caught up helping with an accident on the coast road.’
‘I can imagine that the roads are lethal at the moment,’ Ivy observed. ‘Was anyone hurt?’
Lucy gave a little shudder as she remembered the events of the day before.
‘A motorcyclist, but hopefully he’ll be all right. Dr Whittaker’s youngest son happened to be passing, fortunately, so he was well cared for.’
‘Young Joel?’ Ivy’s face softened. ‘He’s a lad, that one. More girlfriends than I’ve had hot dinners, and no sign of settling down with any of them. He gives his mother grey hairs. But he’s a nice boy.’
Boy?
There was nothing boyish about Joel Whittaker, Lucy reflected ruefully when she finally picked her way along the icy pavement to her car.
He was all man. Every handsome inch of him.
And it came as no surprise to learn that he was lousy at commitment. In her limited experience, all men were.
She made her way back to the surgery and was soon involved with her patients, checking blood pressures, taking bloods and offering a variety of health-related advice.
It was early afternoon and Lucy had just finished syringing an old lady’s ear when Joel tapped on her door and strolled in.
‘I just called the hospital about Millie Gordon. Your diagnosis was spot on. Kawasaki disease. Frankly, I’m impressed.’
‘Oh.’ Lucy blushed, flustered by the look of admiration in his blue eyes.
He was a doctor, she reminded herself firmly. No different from Nick or Michael.
Which was utter nonsense, of course. Joel was about as different as it was possible to be.
Since she’d me
t him she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind, and the effect he was having on her worried and puzzled her. Today he was wearing a pair of dark, well-cut trousers and a midnight-blue roll-neck jumper which brushed his dark jawline.
Was it just because he was so good-looking?
Millie’s mother had said that he was the nation’s heartthrob. Was she just suffering from a normal female reaction?
Lucy licked her lips and tried to keep her mind on work. ‘So is she very poorly?’
Joel dropped into one of her chairs and hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his trousers. ‘I spoke to the paediatric registrar and she said that Millie’s doing OK, considering. It was lucky that she asked to see you rather than wait for an appointment with one of us doctors.’ He breathed out heavily. ‘If she hadn’t done that and there’d been a delay…’