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‘It’s so good of you. The hospital’s been wonderful with Andrew, but his usual doctor won’t be there at the moment and the Urgent Care Centre...’
Leo nodded. ‘I know. They do a great job, but sometimes you have to wait a bit. This is a lot easier for him.’
‘Yeah.’ Marion nodded.
It was a great deal easier. Andrew hardly seemed to notice Leo’s gentle and thorough examination, nor did he protest when he was left alone for the X-rays to be taken.
‘Looks fine to me...’ Leo had reviewed the X-rays and confirmed that there was no fracture. ‘I’m going to give you a support for your ankle, and I’d like you to wear it for a week or two until your ankle’s strong again. But after that you’ll be as right as rain. So I expect to see you at the training session in a couple of weeks, when I visit.’
‘Can I ring you up when you’re on the radio?’ Andrew seemed to have given up on the question about going home now that it seemed likely he was just about to do so.
‘Yes, if you want to. You have to have your mum do it, though. What do you want to talk about?’
‘Your car.’
‘Nah, no one’s interested in that. What about your training sessions with Alex?’
‘Maybe.’
Marion nodded. ‘We’ll call. I listened to the programme on Monday when we heard that Alex was going to be on.’
Leo turned. ‘What did you think?’
‘I thought it was great. It’s really good that you’re giving this some airtime. I wish we’d known sooner; I could have told more of my friends about it.’
Alex quirked her lips downwards. ‘It was all a bit last-minute. We weren’t the first choice.’
His gaze found hers, and suddenly it seemed as if he was talking only to her. The way he spoke to his listeners, as if each one was the only one. ‘Alex stood in for us when someone else let us down. She’s made everyone realise that we made a big mistake in not asking her first.’
She tore her gaze away from his, refusing to believe what he’d just said. It was just Leo making the best of things.
‘I think you’re being nice...’ And she didn’t particularly want him to be nice. She wanted the businesslike Leo who didn’t tear at her heart whenever he turned his blue eyes onto her.
‘I’m never nice.’ He picked Andrew up, switching his attention back onto the boy. ‘Come on then. Time to go home.’
* * *
He’d been able to do little enough for Andrew, simply called in a few favours to make things easier for him. But when they’d got back to the school, and the boy had given him a high five before his mother took him off home, it had warmed Leo. It was sometimes the little things that were the most rewarding.
‘Thank you.’ He was alone with Alex now, walking towards the car park after managing to catch the last ten minutes of the training session.
‘You’re welcome. Must be very difficult when the kids get hurt like that. They’ve already had a lot of trauma to contend with.’
‘Yeah. Some of them take it in their stride, but others... Sometimes the ones you need to watch the most are the ones who just go quiet.’
‘That’s my experience too.’ He wondered whether he should mention that Alex seemed to have gone quiet on him, but wasn’t sure where to start.
He decided to try an experiment. ‘Did you see the report in the papers this morning?’
‘No.’
Gotcha. Her voice was bristling with discomfort, and she hadn’t even asked what report. Leo stopped to face her and she pretended not to notice and kept on walking.
‘Fast-track,’ he called after her and she turned slowly.
‘What?’
‘Fast-track. I ask you to come along to a drinks party, you say no and then I’m in the paper, leaving with Evangeline Perry...’
