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‘Okay.’
‘Okay,’ he echoed thoughtfully, watching as the group gathered themselves together, offering him a selection of nods, smiles and even a tentative farewell wave or two.
These kids to whom Evie meant so much.
Gathering up as many of the cards and gifts as he could, he began the first of several trips to his office. He’d load them into the car later. At least it might give them a distraction. Something else to talk about other than the inevitable after today.
It was only as he entered with the final armful that he heard Evie’s voice behind him, in the corridor.
‘Max?’ Her hazy tone filled him with emotions he didn’t recognise. ‘What are all those?’
‘Gifts for you. They were dropped off today,’ he answered honestly. ‘I’ll bring them home at some point and you can look at them when you’ve rested. Today’s check-up must have taken it out of you.’
‘Yeah, I’m pretty beat,’ she agreed sheepishly.
‘Then I guess it’s a good job I anticipated this and brought you special fuel to keep you going until we get home and eat.’
With a flourish, he produced a muffin from his pocket, unsure whether she would remember.
‘White chocolate and raspberry. You remembered?’
He had expected confusion at worst, a laugh of recognition at best, but he hadn’t been prepared for the intense look she suddenly shot him. A look that told him she’d already fast-forwarded past their impulsive encounter that very first evening and to the five nights that had followed. And the flush that leapt to her cheeks, the way her eyes rapidly dilated, convinced him that X-rated images were flicking through her head. The same X-rated images that were now flashing through his brain.
His body tightened in primal resp
onse.
He coughed, trying to clear his head. The white-chocolate muffin was supposed to have made her chuckle. A thoughtful gesture. Yet now he couldn’t seem to shake this electric charge from coursing around his whole being.
‘I’ll go and get Imogen from the crèche.’ He didn’t want her wandering through the main hospital exposing herself to any number of germs or viruses. ‘Take the car keys. I’ll meet you in the car.’
The conversation with the surgeon had brought up the physical side of their relationship again, and it didn’t look as though either of them were going to be able to contain it, now it was out there.
The sooner they gave into it, the better.
* * *
‘Is everything okay, Max?’
Since she’d discovered Max really did still want her the way she wanted him, she’d been unsuccessfully striving to ignore the way the atmosphere felt as though it were fizzing around them. Their conversation had been stilted on the drive home, even though they’d both been trying. Perhaps too hard.
Whilst Imogen had been awake they’d had common ground to talk, but now she’d gone to sleep, with just the two of them, it was back to strained politeness. Not what she’d expected after the fun of their exchange in the nephrologist’s office. It felt as if they were taking two steps back for every step forward.
‘Those gifts you saw me with earlier, they were from a group of your former patients, your so-called troubled teens,’ he announced suddenly.
The conversation starter took her by surprise.
‘Really?’
‘Well, I say teens, but one of them looked more like she was in her twenties. Long dark hair, self-harm scars on her inside forearms?’
‘Sally came to hospital?’ Evie fought to keep her tone light. ‘With which others? Why didn’t you tell them to wait?’
‘Sally,’ he mused. ‘I didn’t know. I never asked her name. And I certainly wasn’t going to suggest they wait for you—you’re still too vulnerable for that many visitors. Remember—no confined spaces, no peak-hour transport, no big welcome-home party.’
‘I know. How was Sally, then?’ Evie changed the subject. ‘Still doing well?’
‘Yes, according to her.’ He drew his lips into a thin line. ‘But she’s no longer one of your patients. Not since you gave up your position and moved away.’
