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I narrowed my eyes at him, already predicting what he was going to say. ‘Go on.’
‘You and Jack get on very well, from what I can see. He’s always talking about you when he comes to visit.’
I pulled at the hem of my blouse, running the satin fabric between my thumb and middle finger. ‘Is he?’
‘He said you went to the theatre together. That he had a good time.’
‘He had a spare ticket, that was all. Anyway, his girlfriend was in it.’
Clive widened his eyes. ‘What girlfriend?’
‘Nathalie her name is. She’s an actress.’
‘No, no, no,’ said Clive, shaking his head. ‘I’d know if he had a girlfriend. You must have got the wrong end of the stick, my dear.’
‘I don’t think so. I saw them out drinking together the other night.’
‘There’s no rule against going out for a drink with someone, is there?’
‘Course not. But, you know, they looked … together.’
‘Oh, here we are. The man himself,’ said Clive, looking eagerly over towards the entrance to the ward. ‘Jack! Just the man we wanted to see!’
My heart immediately began thumping so hard it felt as though it was pulsating in my throat. What was he doing here at this time, he usually came much later? I’d thought a Saturday afternoon would be a safe bet.
‘This is a nice surprise,’ he said, looking as though it was anything but.
‘I am honoured to have both of you here at the same time,’ said Clive, chuckling. I hoped he wasn’t going to say anything about what we’d just been talking about, the situation was embarrassing enough as it was. I hadn’t seen Jack since he’d asked me to share the wine with him and I’d panicked and said no. I’d wanted to, more than anything, actually, but there was no point, was there? He had Nathalie, and I wasn’t going to get caught up in whatever they’d got going on. We thought we had a connection, but maybe it was nothing more than a casual, neighbourly friendship. There was no reason we had to go and ruin it by turning it into something it wasn’t.
‘You’re sitting up,’ Jack smiled at Clive, pulling up a chair next to mine.
‘Jack,’ he said, looking maudlin. ‘You need to get me out of here.’
Jack nodded sympathetically. ‘It won’t be long now, Clive.’
‘I’m going crazy,’ he added, lowering his voice. ‘The noise is off the scale. Last night somebody died down there. One minute he was in that bed at the end, and the next they’d pulled the curtains round his bed and carried him out in a body bag.’
I swallowed, trying to get the image out of my mind. I’d been doing well up until now, but this new information was threatening to tip me over the edge.
Jack looked at me and smiled reassuringly.
‘Ooh, what’s this?’ asked Jack, picking up the Greenhill Lodge brochure and leafing through it. ‘Looks like a nice place.’
Clive tutted loudly. ‘Haven’t you two been listening to anything I’ve been saying?’
I squeezed Clive’s arm before turning to Jack.
‘I picked up some information for Clive. Just in case,’ I said. ‘No pressure.’
The last thing I wanted was to push Clive into anything. With Nan, it had been a process. It had taken her months to bring herself to open the brochure and even then she came up with every excuse under the sun as to why moving into a home wasn’t a good idea. And then it had taken her ages to get used to things and settle in.
‘We were having an interesting conversation just now, weren’t we, Rebecca?’ said Clive.
I shifted in my seat. He wouldn’t.
‘Were we?’
‘We were wondering why you haven’t got a woman in your life? Or a man,’ he added quickly. ‘If that’s what you like. It doesn’t matter if you do, of course—’
