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‘She’s good, aren’t you, Hopey?’ Ben replied, upping his bouncing. ‘We’ve just got back from the village. And we’ve had a nice bath, so I thought we’d give you a ring to see how your day has gone before we head to bed. Are you having fun?’
‘Fun?’ The word came out with more of a hitch than she’d planned. Most people probably wouldn’t have noticed such a small inflection, but Ben wasn’t most people. He spotted everything. And they may have split up, but Holly knew that didn’t stop him from worrying about her.
‘What happened? It was waterskiing, wasn’t it? I knew it was dangerous. I was going to tell you it was dangerous, but I didn’t want to be overbearing. You had an accident waterskiing, didn’t you? Is that what the bruise on your head is from?’
‘No, that was at the airport. And I did not have an accident waterskiing,’ Holly said forcefully.
A look of relief washed over Ben.
‘Thank goodness.’
‘I did, however, have an accidentafterwaterskiing.’ She switched the camera around so he could see her swollen ankle. Somehow it looked even worse on the screen, the bruises even brighter than in real life. ‘I slipped after getting off the boat.’
‘Have you iced it?’ Ben’s face was a crinkled mass of concern. ‘And kept it raised? You should keep injuries like that raised, you know. And take some anti-inflammatories.’
‘It’s iced, it’s raised and Evan has gone to the shop for some painkillers.’
Ben’s frown was still in place as he nodded, although he was no longer bouncing Hope, all his attention on Holly.
‘What about a doctor? It could need an x-ray.’
‘She’s going to be fine.’ Without warning, Jamie appeared and placed her hands on Holly’s shoulders. ‘She did it on purpose so she gets an entire luxury villa to herself rather than having to spend the day walking.’
Holly's lips twisted into a smile.
‘When she says it like that, it really isn’t that bad at all.’
Despite the pair of them trying to lighten the mood, Ben’s concern lingered. For a second, Holly regretted telling him, but it was better this way. If she’d kept it hidden, he would have found out when she got back, and then he’d accuse her of keeping things from him, which was something they didn’t do. Or rather, she didn’t think they did that. This news about his relationship with Georgia meant Holly wasn’t quite so sure as she had been.
After blowing a kiss at the phone, Jamie disappeared and joined the others, leaving Holly to continue the conversation.
‘Look at it this way: I’m injured now. It’s happened. You don’t have to worry any more.’
‘We weren’t worrying about you,’ Ben said unconvincingly.
‘So.’ Holly was keen to move the conversation on. ‘What about you two? Any exciting plans for tomorrow?’
Ben shook his head as he recommenced his bouncing.
‘I’ve got to work tomorrow,’ he said. ‘But on Wednesday, we’re going to the animal park, aren’t we? They’ve got rhinos, and otters, and even a sloth you can walk right up to.’
‘Not close enough to touch, though?’ Holly was momentarily distracted by the thought of Hope grabbing hold of a giant sloth.
‘No, not close enough to touch.’
‘Good, then that sounds like a lot of fun.’
She wanted to ask if this was where Ben was going to introduce Hope to Georgia. A nice day at an animal park felt like the perfect venue, but she could hardly pretend she wasn’t bothered if she was the one who mentioned it.
‘I should let you get her to bed,’ she said, breaking the stream of thoughts spiralling in her head. ‘I don’t want to mess up the night-time routine.’
‘We were just going to have our last bottle, weren’t we?’
Holly stared at the screen, wishing she could give her daughter a bed-time hug. She hadn’t even been gone a day, but it still hurt.
‘I’ll get your mum to give you a ring tomorrow,’ Ben said. ‘I’m dropping her off fairly early.’
‘Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m going to be going anywhere.’
