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Some he’d had a refresher with at the surgery since he’d come back, but quite a few remembered him from school. It was the right age group, most of them with young families. He could have had all those things too, if things hadn’t gone pear shaped with Becca. Now it was unlikely to ever happen.
A shriek from the playground pulled him away from a conversation with a girl from his class at primary school whose name escaped him. She turned to scan the children.
‘It’s Gabby Walters. Not one of mine, thankfully.’
‘Gabby?’ Morgan muttered a hasty excuse and sprinted across to the group gathered by the climbing frame, his heart pounding from more than the exercise.
Gabby was surrounded by the time he got there and he shouldered his way through. ‘I’m a doctor.’
She was sprawled under the flying fox with a fresh cut on one cheek and a dazed look in her eyes. ‘Morgan? You came.’ Her smile squeezed his heart.
‘Of course I came. Someone has to patch you up when you find out you don’t have wings.’
Stretching her arms out she looked at them. ‘I don’t? That’s disappointing.’
He examined her swiftly while Sabine shunted the rest of the children away. ‘We might have to put a Band-Aid or two on some of these scrapes.’
Sabine turned back as she guided one particularly curious child away. ‘The first aid kit is in the room behind the tuckshop.’
Scooping up Gabby, Morgan carried her back to the school building, aiming for the tuckshop. He needed to let Becca know what was happening.
For a moment he thought she wasn’t there, but the clatter of dishes told him where she was. ‘Becca?’
She poked her head out of the large pantry. Her eyes widened as she recognised Gabby. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘Just a bump and some scrapes.’
Gabby wriggled in his hold. ‘I’m okay. Morgan’s going to put on a Band-Aid.’
Becca seemed lost for a moment and a flash of resentment came and went on her normally unreadable face as she silently acknowledged Gabby’s preference. ‘If you’re sure you’re okay, I’ll keep going here and then find Edward. It’s pretty much done for today.’
Morgan nodded, glancing around at the rapidly emptying school yard. Most people seemed to be going home as there’d been enough parents working to finish the project.
The first aid room was well-equipped and it only took a moment for Morgan to find what he needed and start cleaning up the scrapes on her hands. Fortunately, her jeans and long-sleeved pullover had protected her knees and elbows from receiving more than a few bruises.
‘I hate being clumsy.’
Morgan lifted her onto his lap. ‘It’s okay. I remember your mother was always covered in bruises when she was a child. She seemed to bump into something or trip down the steps regularly.’ An unease shifted something in his gut. ‘I remember the last time I saw her she had a bruise on her cheek. From running into the door of one of the kitchen cupboards. That’s what she told me, anyway.’
Sharp as a photograph he remembered the scene. Dan standing by the sink and Becca rummaging in the freezer for an icepack, hair dishevelled and the buttons on her top undone.
He’d walked in unexpectedly and the two had split apart as if they had something to hide. Becca had mumbled something about her step-cousin checking her eye for damage but the smirk on Dan’s face had made her out a liar. All the hints Dan had been trickling in his ear for months had coalesced and he’d known there was something more between them than simply being step-cousins. The moment Becca had left the room to get changed, Dan had been in his ear. He shouldn’t have listened. Shouldn’t have acted on the vicious words that had broken something inside him. Because of that, he’d lost Gabby. Lost everything. Lost Becca.
Gabby dabbed her cheek with a sterile dressing pad, examining the blood with a ghoulish interest. ‘Aunt Bea said Mummy wasn’t nearly as clumsy since Dan had his accident.’
‘Aunt Bea?’
‘You know, Dan’s mum. She died a couple of years ago. She got cancer the same as Nanna. Miss Harmsworth says they smoked themselves to death.’
‘Miss Harmsworth should mind her own business.’
‘That’s what Mummy says. All. The. Time.’
The signature eye roll was back and Morgan gave her a gentle shove off his knees. ‘You should be good to go now. Run next door and check in with your mother.’
He watched her limp across to the tuckshop where Edward was waiting, eating a bright green cupcake. The lad handed a blue one to Gabby who wolfed it down with the appetite of the young. She was bouncing back quickly.
Morgan didn’t feel quite so carefree. He’d had a sudden insight into the past and he didn’t like what he was seeing.
