CHAPTER16
‘You shattered, love?’
Beth assumed that the fact she had fallen face first on to the bed might have been a small indication, but she groaned in agreement anyway.
‘Want me to rub your leg?’
Beth groaned again and Paul lifted her skirt, rubbing from the thigh down, something he had gotten quite adept at over the past few years. Her thigh was almost completely numb on one side, but the cramps and the spasms still caused her enough pain to stop her in her tracks occasionally.
‘Dinner was great,’ he remarked. ‘Do you think Erin cooked it herself or got a chef to rustle it up?’
Beth laughed, the sound muffled by her face planted into the pillow.
‘I mean, it’s very possible she’s gotten better,’ Paul continued, ‘but do you remember that corned beef hash monstrosity she made that one weekend? My stomach still hasn’t recovered.’
Beth, still chuckling, turned on to her back. ‘I’m going to say she made it. Her husband was a chef, right? She must have learned something from him, surely.’
Beth had read about Scott Flynn’s death in the newspaper. Car crash, dead at forty-three. He ran a successful film and TV catering business, but the only reason he made the paper was because of Erin.
‘I should have tried harder to contact her when he died,’ Beth said as Paul proceeded to work his way down to her calf. ‘I mean, a card and flowers via her agent… She probably never received it. If I’d known she still lived here…’
‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ he said, ‘You’ve had a lot on your plate. You know better than anyone that shit things happen to good people. You’re here now.’
‘True. And I’m very glad. Glad to be with Erin again. And this place is beautiful.’
He agreed.
‘Especially this bedroom. Are the floors heated or are my feet just hot from the nerve damage?’
Paul laughed. ‘They’re heated.’
‘Oh, thank God. And also, wow!’
Paul leaned in and kissed his wife.
Although Beth hoped that losing someone so suddenly was a type of grief she’d never have to endure, she couldn’t help but think about her own kind of grief. She was grieving the loss of herself.
