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‘Harriet says yes.’
‘Great.’ Jed squeezed the boy’s shoulder with a gentle hand and glanced at Brooke. ‘Any chance of that coffee now?’
Did she have any choice? Marching back into the house, Brooke made coffee and handed him a mug with as much grace as she could muster.
‘That smells good. I don’t think I got a single thing to eat or drink last night.’ He sniffed appreciatively and settled himself on one of the kitchen chairs, grinning at Toby who padded into the room with an armful of plastic dinosaurs.
‘These are all mine.’ Toby let them all tumble onto the kitchen table and Jed blinked in amazement.
‘That’s quite a collection. Which one’s your favourite?’
‘My giant triceratops.’ Toby handed it to him solemnly and Jed inspected it carefully, his handsome face serious.
‘He’s great. I didn’t have anything like this when I was your age. Where did he come from?’
‘Mummy bought him for me.’ Toby beamed and Jed glanced towards her, an odd expression on his face.
His scrutiny made her uncomfortable and she scrabbled around in her brain for something neutral to talk about.
‘So—did you have a busy night?’ Brooke knew her voice sounded stilted but she couldn’t help that. Maybe if they talked about work they might be able to temporarily shelve their differences. ‘What happened to Fiona?’
‘Yes, I
was very busy—courtesy of having no junior staff—and Fiona was part of the reason.’ Jed dutifully examined each dinosaur in turn, lining them up on the table until there was barely room for the coffee-mugs.
Brooke poured Toby a glass of milk and handed it to him. ‘You had to section her?’
‘As you predicted.’ He rubbed his eyes and smothered a yawn, taking the last dinosaur from Toby. ‘Ah, I recognise that one. Tyrannosaurus. Scary meat-eater.’
Brooke leaned against the fridge and watched him. ‘So what happened with her?’
He shrugged. ‘Her platelets dropped and that was that really. We had to get the baby out, particularly with her history.’
Brooke pulled a face. ‘I bet she was stressed.’
‘Actually, she wasn’t that bad.’ He took a mouthful of coffee. ‘I think by the time I had to break the news to her about the section she’d already had time to get used to being in hospital and she’d started to trust us.’
‘And was the baby OK?’
‘Gorgeous. Bouncing boy. They were thrilled.’ He smiled at the memory and her heart did a strange flip. No wonder she’d behaved so rashly with him—what woman wouldn’t?
‘I’m pleased.’
‘Yes—it was a good outcome.’ He rubbed the bridge of his nose with long fingers, clearly tired. ‘And then, to add to the workload, Jane Duncan decided that she wasn’t going to hang onto that baby any longer and I ended up sectioning her, too.’
Brooke frowned. ‘How many weeks was she? Thirty-three? How’s that baby?’
‘In Special Care, but doing all right, according to Sita,’ Jed told her, subduing a massive yawn. ‘I’d better go and get some sleep. I’ve managed to persuade Robert Peters to cover for me so I’m off until tomorrow morning.’
‘You’re going home?’ She realised suddenly that she didn’t even know where he lived. ‘Have you rented somewhere round here?’
‘I have a house.’ He finished his coffee and put the mug down on the table. ‘I had it built years ago as an investment but I let it out as holiday accommodation until the end of last year.’
‘You’ve had a house here for years?’ She frowned and shook her head. ‘I don’t understand. Do you come from round here, then?’
‘I was born and brought up just down the road in Grasmere,’ he told her, leaning back in his chair and stretching his long legs in front of him. ‘My parents still live there and my older brother is close by, too.’
‘I didn’t realise…’ She put her coffee down, untouched. ‘And that’s how you know Sean Nicholson?’
