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‘And you’re getting out while the going’s good?’
‘Yeah. Something like that.’
She smiled, and Jamie felt relief flood through him. They’d said the words, but her real acceptance of his apology was in her smile.
‘I want you in that chair. Right now.’ She pointed to the seat on the other side of her desk, where Jamie had set up his laptop to work.
Jamie swallowed hard. That was rather more costly than the price of a few flowers, but then Anna had never shied away from difficult. It was the least he could do. He sat down, expecting her to retreat to the other side of her desk, but she pulled up a chair and sat beside him.
‘Jon’s not the only one who needs a bit of help, is he?’
‘I’m dealing with it.’
‘I can see that.’ Her lips quirked into a half-smile. ‘How do you reckon that’s going? On a scale of one to ten...?’
Messing up with Anna had made him realise two things. He couldn’t just forget about what Jon had done, and he cared for Anna. Right now the level of pain and confusion he was feeling was off any scale he could think of.
‘I haven’t made much of a start. Nought out of ten would be pushing it.’
‘You’re here. You’re helping your brother. That’s huge, Jamie, and I think that entitles you to at least a five.’
‘That’s generous of you.’
Anna took a breath, regarding him for a moment. Jamie didn’t really want to know what she was thinking, but he didn’t get to duck away from anything right now.
‘What did you argue about? You and Jon?’
‘It was... I guess in the past isn’t going to wash, is it?’ So many of the kids he dealt with talked about things that were in their pasts that still held sway over them now.
‘No. I think you know the reasons why not. Whatever this is, it’s tearing you up and you need to talk about it. If not to me, then someone else, but I really want to help.’
Jamie took a deep breath. ‘When it happened, most of my family insisted on taking sides. Caroline was so furious with Jon that she wouldn’t even speak to him. I hated it, and I reckoned that if I never spoke about it then they’d come round eventually. I didn’t want our argument to rip the family apart, but it did.’
‘Caroline’s here now.’
‘Yes, but it took me a while to convince her to come. I don’t want you to think less of Jon, the way my family did. You’re his surgeon, he needs you.’
‘We practise medicine without fear or favour, Jamie. You know that. Anyway, I was Jon’s surgeon. I’m not any more.’
‘I just didn’t want you to feel a conflict.’
‘I don’t. I know exactly where I stand. You’re the person who matters to me, and if you ask me to make no judgement then I’ll do my best to respect that. I might have an opinion, but I won’t allow it to change the way I act.’
The sudden warmth in his chest almost made him choke. He mattered to Anna. Maybe she’d been giving Jon a little extra attention for his sake, and the thought made his accusations seem even viler.
‘It’ll stay between you and me?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, of course. Between friends and in the strictest confidence.’
Jamie leaned back in his seat. Suddenly this felt like the safe place where he could admit to his feelings, without making the situation worse.
‘Thanks. I’d like that.’
CHAPTER SIX
WHATEVER IT WAS, it was bad. But she’d told Jamie that she wouldn’t judge and so she should just listen, and take whatever he said at whatever value he chose to give it.
‘It was Christmas, nearly three years ago. Jon had landed back in the country the previous week, and he was staying at a hotel five minutes from my parents’ place. I went up there the day before Christmas Eve with my fiancée, and Caroline was going to drive over with her husband and children on Christmas Day. The idea was that we’d be close, without giving my mother all the extra work of having house guests for a week.’
