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‘Well, heisa grumpy old sod, but I think it’ll be all right,’ Finn replied, reaching for his own coffee.
‘You?You own this place? You don’t just work here?’
There was admiration in Finn’s smile, and even though he represented everything I knew I disliked in a man, something peculiar happened in the region of my stomach.
‘I’d forgotten how sharp you are. Not much gets past you, does it?’
To be perfectly honest, that he’d managed to place me at all was a complete surprise.
‘I’m amazed you remembered me,’ I said, cringing a little because that sounded horribly like I was fishing for compliments. Just to make sure he knew there was nothing remotely flirtatious going on, I reached up and removed my sunglasses. There are women who cry prettily, whose eyes don’t disappear into red, puffy pockets of flesh when they’re upset. But I’m not one of them.
‘It’s hard to forget someone who takes such an instant and visceral dislike to you,’ Finn said smoothly. ‘I was enormously impressed. Most people need much longer to decide I’m a complete dick. But you got there almost immediately. You definitely left an impression,Jenny.’
‘Gemma,’ I said with a flicker of a smile, because this time I knew the slip had been deliberate.
*
The sun was slowly shifting, casting elongated shadows on the pavement beyond the window. I checked my watch. The ward sister had politely suggested that while Hannah was undergoing the various tests she needed, I might like to take a walk for an hour or two. As a journalist, I’d been diplomatically ejected from enough places to know when I was being booted out. And yet I’d resisted leaving Hannah alone, especially as William still hadn’t returned any of the urgent messages I’d left for him.
‘I’ll be fine,’ Hannah had said, which would have been easier to believe if her complexion hadn’t been the exact same shade as the pillow beneath her head.
‘Come back in two hours,’ the sister had advised, her hand pressed gently against the small of my back. With the skill of a nightclub bouncer, she steered me away from Hannah’s bed.
‘I’ll reach William,’ I promised my friend as I walked with reluctance towards the exit.
‘And did you?’ asked Finn now. I had no idea how he’d managed to extract the entire story of the day’s events from me so easily. Presumably there was still more journalist than barista running through his veins. Either that or I was so overwrought, it had taken only the slightest glimmer of interest to get me to spill my tale to a total stranger. Which, in effect, was what Finn was. I mean, it wasn’t as though I knew the man. And the history we did have wasn’t exactly comfortable.And let’s not forget thatwhat you did know of him, you didn’t particularly like, Past Me took pains to add as a reminder.
My phone pinged and I lurched towards it, my fingers clumsy as I hurriedly opened the message.
‘William’s at the airport,’ I said, a small, shaky smile – the first I’d allowed myself in hours – curving my lips.
‘That’s fantastic news,’ Finn said, and although he didn’t know Hannah and William from Adam, he did sound genuinely delighted. ‘What time will he get here?’
I scrolled back through the message. ‘His plane doesn’t land until nine, so I suppose the earliest he’ll be at the hospital will be ten thirty.’
I sighed.
‘Hey, but at least he’s on his way,’ Finn said.
I nodded, still finding it hard to reconcile Mr Glass Half Full with the man I’d quietly disliked for years. Either I’d read him wrong when we first met or he really had changed out of all recognition.
I glanced again at my watch. ‘I should get back to Hannah and let her know the good news,’ I said. I hadn’t been away for as long as the hospital had asked, but every minute that I wasn’t with her felt like an act of betrayal.
‘Feel free to stay here for as long as you want. I’m not chucking you out.’
The offer produced my second smile, this one less of a surprise to me than the first. I glanced beyond Finn towards the display of confectionery at the counter. ‘Actually, if they’re not already spoken for, could I buy the rest of those cupcakes from you? I’d like to take something back for the staff on the ward, as a thank you.’
‘Of course,’ Finn replied easily. ‘I’ll box them up for you.’
And then in a move that made my breath catch oddly at the back of my throat, he reached across the table and patted my hand. It was an innocent gesture, companionable rather than intimate, but when Tasha unexpectedly emerged from the back office, I snatched my hand back as though it had ventured too close to a flame. My cheeks felt warm as I met the gaze of Finn’s colleague, slash employee, slash something else that was really none of my business.
‘There’s a phone call for you,’ she told him, her eyes dropping for just a moment to the tabletop. She’d surprised me on two counts: by still being here, and by looking less than pleased about Finn’s hand resting briefly on mine.
‘Can you take a message?’ he asked.
She shook her head, her blonde pony swishing like the tail of an agitated palomino.
‘You should probably take it. It’s the solicitors.’
