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Mimi took a deep breath, as if she was suppressing the urge to solve the problem by killing him and taking his car keys. ‘I’ll make it work, Rafe. I can’t sit this out; I’ll go crazy at home.’
There wasn’t even a decision to make. Turning down any assistance, let alone that of a trained paramedic, would be reckless at a time like this. ‘Happy to have you along. I’d appreciate the help.’
That was that, then. There was a lot of unresolved anger between them, but if they could put that aside this could work.
They stood for a moment staring at each other and then Mimi broke the silence.
‘Look, this is difficult, but we could make it a lot easier.’
‘Yeah, I guess we could. I’d like that...’ Rafe remembered not to call her Mimi this time. That was just the kind of thing that might shatter this unstable truce.
‘We’ll make a new start, shall we?’
Pretend that none of it had ever happened? That he hadn’t loved her and then left her, and that resentment wasn’t colouring everything they did now. It was a tough prospect, but if that was what it took... It was, in fact, an opportunity. If there was unfinished business between them, then maybe now was the time to finish it for good.
‘Yes. Okay, I’d like that. New start.’
* * *
Mimi felt better now that she’d had a chance to wash her face and comb her hair. She folded Rafe’s sweater, making a conscious effort not to bury her face into its softness, trying to catch one last trace of his scent. This was hard.
She stuffed the sweater into a bag, dragged her jacket on and marched out into the rain. He was sitting in the car, waiting for her. Her colleague. The one she’d slept with once upon a time, but that had been a mistake and it was all finished now.
‘Ready?’ She settled herself into the front seat of the car.
He nodded, turning the radio down until it was just a gentle beat, swallowed up by the drumming of the rain on the windscreen. ‘Yep. First one’s near Shillingford. We’ll have to go through Eardwell.’
Her home village. ‘Yes, that’s the best way.’
‘You want to call in on Charlie?’
‘He’s... I spoke to him a few minutes ago. He says everything’s okay.’ Mimi wished that Charlie would accept her help a little more readily, but she knew better than to fuss.
‘How’s he doing?’
‘A lot better. He plays in a wheelchair basketball team now.’
‘Sounds as if he’s a great deal more independent.’
‘Yeah. As time went by we all learned how to make that happen.’ The cottage that she and Rafe had rented, just across the road from Charlie’s place, had been a factor in that. Close enough to help, without crowding her brother. When Rafe had said he was moving, to take up a new job and be closer to his mother, he’d known full well that Mimi couldn’t abandon Charlie and follow him.
‘I don’t suppose he’s got a spare flask he can lend us. If he could fill it up with coffee it would be even better.’
She couldn’t help but smile. Rafe and Charlie had always got on well, and it seemed that Rafe still cared about her brother enough to find an excuse to pop in and see whether he was all right. ‘You want a sandwich as well?’
‘Sounds good. Call him and tell him we’re coming.’ Rafe swung the car out of the hospital car park and on to the road.
* * *
Rafe drove the familiar route, which he’d used to call the road home. He hadn’t reckoned on it being quite so hard. When he stopped outside their cottage, it looked just the same as it always had, the white render gleaming pale in the pouring rain like a ghost from his past.
‘You’re still here?’ He tried to make the question sound as casual as possible, as if there hadn’t been a time when he had dreamed about walking back to that door every night.
There was a slight pause, as if she was weighing up whether it was all right to answer. ‘Yes. I bought the place.’
‘Mrs Bates died?’ The elderly woman who had owned the cottage had gone into a nursing home and her family had rented the property out.
‘Yes. Four years ago. The family didn’t want the cottage and decided to sell, so I put in an offer.’
