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He bent over, stabbing the phone with his finger and redialling. He was so close, one hand on the arm of her chair, and, although she was staring at the phone, the curve of his bicep nudged into her peripheral vision. But all he seemed to care about right now was that Carys hadn’t answered her phone.
The line connected and Alex heard the sound of breathing. Leo smiled into the phone.
‘Hey, Carys. Thought I’d lost you for a moment there. Are you still okay to talk?’ His voice was friendly, like a concerned big brother.
‘Yes... Sorry...’
‘No problem. I know this is hard for you. Alex is with me now, and I think it would be great if you two talked a bit.’
‘I’d like that...’ Carys’s voice quavered down the line.
‘Hi, Carys. Alex here. Thanks so much for getting in touch with us.’
‘Alex...’
Carys sounded as if she was crying now, and Alex leaned in, closer to the phone.
‘I was wondering if I could tell you a bit about myself.’ Carys didn’t answer and Alex’s gaze found Leo for a moment. He nodded her on. ‘Okay. I lost my right leg below the knee when I was nineteen, in a car accident. It’s a lot to cope with, isn’t it?’
‘I feel as if...all the things I wanted to do...’
‘Yeah, I know. I felt like that too. And everyone says that you can still do them, but they don’t know how hard it is, do they?’
‘No. I keep falling flat on my face.’
‘Has your physiotherapist taught you how to fall without hurting yourself...?’ Alex almost didn’t notice that Leo was moving away now. She concentrated hard on the phone, listening for Carys’s reply.
* * *
Leo scrubbed the towel across his head and flattened his hair with a comb, then reached for his clothes. Dark trousers, a dress shirt. He’d leave the bow tie until later. Slipping on his socks, he picked up his shoes without even inspecting their shine, and walked back into the sitting room. Alex was still talking to Carys.
He hung back for a moment, just listening. Alex was articulating all of the feelings that Carys had told Leo about, letting her know that she wasn’t alone. Just the right balance of understanding and hope. Somehow it touched him, in a way that he’d felt nothing could ever touch him again.
‘I’m worried about my dad. He was driving, and we had an accident.’
Alex’s face was fixed in an expression of intense concentration; she was staring at the phone. ‘And how do you feel about that?’
‘I keep telling him it’s okay and it wasn’t his fault, but he doesn?
??t listen. Last night I heard him and Mum arguing again, and he was crying.’
Leo almost choked. Carys hadn’t told him that, and if she had he wouldn’t have known what to say. Because last night, sweating hard in the gym, he’d found tears in his eyes, thinking about all the what ifs that Alex had told him he shouldn’t think about. He walked silently over to his seat by the window and sat down.
‘Carys, it’s really good that you’re talking about this. Does your dad talk to anyone?’
‘I don’t think so. He and Mum are divorced.’
‘Okay. I’m going to suggest something, and I want you to tell me if you think I’m on the right track. You’ve got a lot to cope with at the moment, and you can’t help your dad as well. But there are lots of people who can. We have a families group, and they’re really friendly. Might he come to something like that?’
‘No, I don’t think so. He says that he’s okay, and that I’m the only one who matters now.’
‘Well, I disagree. I think that both you and your dad matter, a very great deal.’ Alex shot Leo a glance. Just one moment, but it seared through him, as if she were talking to him, not Carys.
‘I asked him if he’d bring me to one of your meetings, the ones you were talking about on the radio yesterday...’
‘And how does he feel about that?’
‘He said it sounded like a great idea. But... I don’t know if I can do all the things that you do...’
