‘It was a lovely surprise, unexpected. Did you know she was coming?’
‘I had no idea.’
‘How was it for you?’
‘Seeing her again?’ He shrugged. ‘I’m glad she’s here, for you.’
‘You did good, getting in touch with her. I know it must’ve taken a big swallow of pride.’
‘I couldn’t do anything else, Barney.’
‘What did you do, tell her I was at death’s door?’
‘Hardly, what makes you think that?’ When Barney moved to get comfortable Harvey grabbed a cushion from the sofa and wedged it behind his back. ‘Better?’
‘Much. And the reason I ask the question is because she was pretty upset when she got here.’
‘She’s been away a long time.’ But when Barney gave him a look that told him he wasn’t buying it he added, ‘I didn’t exactly give her many details in my message. It was a rush job, I knew it had to be done.’
‘And you wanted to punish her.’
He opened his mouth to deny it but couldn’t. ‘She should be grateful I even got in touch.’
‘She hurt you, I know she did.’
‘Ancient history.’
‘Is it?’
‘I hardly cry myself to sleep over her, Barney.’
‘Are you hanging around when she comes back this evening?’
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. But I’ll be staying here tonight.’ He held up a hand to stop any argument. ‘You’re not staying in this house on your own when you’ve just come out of hospital. And I’ve already put sheets on the spare bed upstairs.’
‘Good job my room is on the ground floor, I suppose. At least I won’t have to attempt the stairs myself.’
‘We need to get you moving around a bit.’
‘Not today, son, not today.’ He closed his eyes then, feeling full with food, content to be home.
Maybe with Melissa around for a while they’d be able to convince Barney that this fall was a bump in the road and not an insurmountable roadblock. Barney’s lack of interest or enthusiasm for getting back to normal was hard enough for Harvey to see, but for Melissa? It would be punishing, because to her it must seem like she’d lost the Barney she knew and loved all over again.
Chapter Four
Harvey stayed away from Barney’s house last night until he was sure Melissa would’ve left for the evening and by the time he got there Barney was asleep, so he crept up to bed without having to face the inevitable rundown of what they’d talked about and what she’d been up to in her absence.
Harvey had taken leave from his job as a loft fitter for the rest of this week to be around for Barney but he was still following up on existing jobs and when Barney made it clear that he was hovering too much this morning after he’d fixed him a decent breakfast, Harvey had nipped out to walk Winnie and drop some plans from his employer over to the bakery. The owners, sisters Celeste and Jade, lived in the cottage directly behind, which had its own lane to access it winding round to The Street from a smaller road on the other side of the Heritage Inn. The cottage was more of a house, proportion-wise, and had a decent-sized loft space they wanted converting into two rooms and a bathroom, so today he could finally show them the drawings and discuss the next steps.
Back at Barney’s place now he held a box of glazed doughnuts aloft as he stepped in through the open back door. ‘For the patient.’
‘Sugary rubbish.’
‘They’re from the bakery, compliments of Celeste and Jade.’ In exchange for a full progress report on the patient, of course.
‘Then you’d better bring them over.’
‘Are you sure? I can get rid of them if you don’t think they’re nutritious enough.’
