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“I am, honestly.” I kept nibbling my way through the tray of food. “They said I can go home soon. The doctor will give me an idea tomorrow morning.”
“That’s good. I expect Noah won’t be allowed to see you there, either.”
I put the fork down and looked at her. “Gwen, spit it out.”
She looked at me, eyes wide with faux innocence. “Spit what out?”
“Whatever you’re trying to say. Just say it.”
“Oh, all right. You’re too smart for me.” She sighed. “He’s worried about you, Blondie. He’s losing his bloody mind, and I’m going to batter him senseless if he doesn’t stop coming to my house and eating all my food. He even brings that great lout of a dog of his. Have you seen him? He’s got the turning circle of an artic lorry and keeps knocking my vases over with his whacking great tail.”
The image made my lips twitch into a smile. “I’ve met him once.”
“Then you understand! Honestly, the boy is beside himself. Jamie and your dad told him you were fine, but I don’t think he’ll believe it until he sees you or hears it for himself.”
“I don’t want to see him.”
“I understand after what you went through, but—”
“It’s not about that,” I said softly. “We didn’t leave things well the last time we spoke, before this all happened, and I’m just not ready to see him yet.”
Gwen softened, and she scooted the big leather chair over so she could rest her hand on mine. “Lottie, dear, I know. He told me everything when I threatened to smash my biscuit jar over his head.”
My lips trembled as I met her gaze. “Everything?”
“If you mean everything about his idiot girlfriend, then yes.” She paused. “He didn’t tell me as much as he did rant the whole lot out, but then I whipped him with my newspaper, and he stopped shouting at me.”
That was quite the visual.
“You coming back here after all this time was always going to be hard. For both of you. And don’t mind me, but neither of you handled it the best. Especially not Noah.” She snorted. “You best believe I had a word with him when he told me what Kayla had said to you at his house.”
“Oh, no. You didn’t tell him to control her, did you?”
“I did not. I told him that if I ever heard her speak to anyone that way, I’d knock her out with my newspaper, then I hit him to make my point.” Gwen sniffed. “And that there was a reason his family didn’t like her, and if he stayed with someone who could be so mean when unprovoked, then it said a lot about whohewas, too.”
“I shouldn’t have gone over there. I knew she had a problem with me.”
“Enough of that.” She tapped my fingers lightly. “Her problem with you is not your responsibility, Charlotte O’Neil. That was a problem for her and Noah to work through, not you two, especially when she hadn’t bothered to talk to you to find out where you stood. She assumed, and she made a right arse out of herself in the process.”
I looked down at her winkled fingers resting on mine. Her short, shocking green nails were a stark contrast to my slightly longer chipped pink ones.
“It doesn’t matter now,” I said. “Now Declan’s murder is solved, I can’t see a situation in which I’ll be anywhere near Noah, so she can be happy with that.”
“I doubt that very much,” Gwen said. “This is far from over.”
“I’m not interested in getting in the middle of their relationship, Gwen.”
“Oh, pish. One doesn’t just get in the middle of someone else’s relationship. You have to be let in, and if you’re let in, it’s because there was already a gap for you to fit.”
I met her eyes. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that it would do you some good to talk to him.” She patted my hand again and sat back. “Now, I know you don’t want to see him, so here.” She rummaged in her scarlet bag and pulled out a piece of paper, then slowly unfolded it and set it on the table in front of me. “At least tell him you’re okay. He hasn’t cost me this much in food since he was fifteen.”
I looked at the bit of paper. It had his number scrawled on it crookedly, and I stared at the string of numbers for a moment.
“I do know that not everything is as it seems.” Gwen stood up, nudging one of the cooler bags out of her way, and I turned my attention back to her. “And I’m going to give you a piece of advice, whether you want to hear it or not.”
That meant I probably didn’t.
