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‘I just don’t understand. She only tripped. She just tripped over the jump leads. How can she be in surgery after tripping?’
‘Hadn’t she just replaced the battery after breaking down a couple of days ago?’ Mack took her hands in his.
‘Yes, no. I don’t know. No, she didn’t.’ She looked down at their hands, their fingers entwined. ‘I thought she was going to.’
‘I’m going to get some coffee. Susan, do you want to come with me, and we’ll grab everyone one?’ Alex pushed himself out of his chair.
‘Yes, I’ll come and help.’ Susan rubbed Poppy’s shoulder as she passed.
Poppy couldn’t do this. Every time she heard someone approaching, she’d jerk her head towards the door and take a juddering breath, before realising it was just a nurse or doctor walking past. She couldn’t just wait, worrying every time someone came near.
She shook her head. ‘Don’t worry about me. I’m going to pop back to the cottage and get some things for Flora. I can’t hang around waiting.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Mack spoke, his voice soft.
‘No, don’t worry.’ She just needed some time alone, some time to process it all. ‘Can you stay? Let me know if you hear anything? Please?’
Frowning, Mack nodded. ‘I can give you a lift back. You’ll ring if there’s any news, won’t you, Percy?’
‘Of course I will.’ Percy glanced up before looking back down at his hands, tightly clasped in his lap.
‘No, it’s fine. Honestly. I just need a bit of time.’ Poppy shook her head. She didn’t want to upset Mack by turning his offer down, but she needed the space to process what had happened.
‘I’ll give you a lift.’ Ginny stood up and pulled her car keys from her pocket. ‘I can feed the dogs whilst you’re getting the bits Flora will need.’
‘Thanks.’ Poppy nodded, grateful of Ginny’s offer before turning back to Mack. ‘Thank you for offering though.’
28
Poppy sank to the bottom stair of the cottage and pulled out a crumpled receipt. She smoothed it in her hand, trying to read the list that she and Ginny had scribbled down on the way over. Things Flora would need for her stay in hospital.
She placed her elbows on her knees and laid her head in her hands, pushing the pads of her forefingers against her temples in an attempt to soothe the tension headache pounding against her skull. Everything had happened so quickly. One moment she and Ginny had been chatting in the top paddock, the next they’d been chasing the ambulance through the streets to Trestow General Hospital. How did a perfectly normal day change so quickly? She couldn’t make sense of it.
Her phone rang in her coat pocket, a shrill tring in the silent cottage.
Pulling it out, she answered quickly, not wasting time looking to see who it was. ‘Hello?’
‘Poppy, it’s Ben. Everything okay? You sound kind of…’
‘Ben?’ Ben. Why was he ringing? She needed him off the line. She needed to keep her phone free in case Mack rang with news from the hospital. ‘Ben, I can’t talk at the moment.’
‘That’s okay. It’s only a quick one. I’m off out in a minute, anyway.’
Poppy clenched her jaw. She could hear laughter in the background. Davina.
‘I really can’t…’
‘I’ll cut to the chase, then. I’ve pulled the house from the market. We’re… I’m staying put. I’ll buy you out.’
‘What?’ He’d pulled the house from the market?
‘Yep. Great news, isn’t it? We can wrap things up pretty quickly this way. Of course, with my job I won’t be able to pay the asking price, but I’ll message you over my offer.’
‘Offer?’ He was going to give her an offer? She couldn’t do this. Not now. ‘I need to go.’
Pulling her mobile from her ear, she ended the call, and stared at the now-blank screen. He was moving in with Davina. Not only that. He was moving Davina into their home. Her home. That’s what he’d been going to say, wasn’t it?We’re staying put.He must have meant Davina and him.
She shook her head. This wasn’t the time to be thinking about Ben and Davina. This wasn’t the time to be thinking about the house. She was here for a reason, and she didn’t have long. Both she and Ginny needed to get back to the hospital before Flora came out of surgery.
