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‘Uh? Yeah, I think it is. We’ll take it back to the office for him.’ Euan took the bag and feeling its weight unzipped it. ‘Ah! Look what I found.’ He pulled out two bottles of beer. ‘Want one?’
‘Seems churlish to let them go to waste.’ Sam sat down on the steps next to him, watching as he gave the top of each of the bottles a sharp, expert tap on the stair rail then pulled the caps off.
‘How do you do that?’
‘Just hit it in the right place. Not too hard, but quite firmly... Then, if you twist the cap just right, you don’t cut yourself.’ He glanced at his hand, where a droplet of blood was forming. ‘On the other hand, sometimes you do...’
‘Want a hanky?’
‘Nah. It’s okay...’ Euan looked as if he was about to put his finger into his mouth to stem the flow of blood, and then thought better of it. ‘I think I’d rather bleed than poison myself.’
‘Come here.’ Sam pulled her handkerchief from her pocket and folded it, winding it around his finger and tying it tightly. ‘You can put some antiseptic on it when we get back to the house.’
His lips quirked into a smile. ‘Yes, ma’am.’ He held the bandaged finger up. ‘Are you the very last person in the world who carries a cloth hanky?’
‘Probably. Just as well I was here, eh?’
‘Who knows what might have happened?’ Euan grinned and picked up one of the bottles, laying it against her cheek before he put it into her hand.
Sam gasped. ‘Still pretty cold.’
‘Mmm-hmm.’ His smile was making her tremble. Heat and cold. Who knew what he could do with those two elements if there was nothing to separate his imagination from her naked skin?
He picked up the other bottle, dangling it thoughtfully between his fingers. ‘We made some pretty good progress this weekend.’
‘Fabulous progress. I never thought that so much could be done in such a short time.’
‘You get enough people working together and you can do almost anything. Move mountains, jump tall buildings...’ Euan was chuckling now.
‘Jumping tall buildings is child’s play. Remaking a human life is real super-hero stuff.’ Euan was always so appreciative of what others did. Sometimes he forgot his own contribution to all of this.
He looked at her, nothing but questions in his eyes. ‘Super-heroes save everyone. That’s part of their remit.’
Marie. The phantom of the woman that he hadn’t saved squeezed in between them, her broken life pushing them apart. ‘Just because...’ Sam sighed. Marie was like a blurred photograph, ephemeral and unknown. It was difficult to get to grips with something you couldn’t even see properly.
She took a sip from her bottle to moisten her dry throat. Loosened the messy plait that snaked over her shoulder, combing her hair out with her fingers and shaking her head.
He caught his breath, and when Sam looked up at him his face held all the promise of a kiss. For a moment she was drawn back towards him, and then doubts seemed to crowd in again and he shook his head.
‘I’m no miracle-worker. I’ve failed in the past, and while I’ll try not to do it again, I can’t be sure that I won’t.’
‘Marie?’
A flash of defiance, and then he nodded. ‘Yeah. Maybe I could have helped her, but I didn’t. I was too...’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t know what it was that stopped me.’
‘You were too close to her, perhaps.’
He took a long swig from his bottle. ‘Didn’t that make me the one person who should have helped?’
‘You’ve been telling me for the last week that families and friends give one kind of support. That successful rehab requires a commitment from the individual, and structured, professional support.’
‘And you think that lets me off the hook?’
‘I think...’ Sam wasn’t sure that she was equal to this, but she had to try. ‘I don’t know how to reason you out of this, Euan. But it doesn’t seem fair to me that someone who’s done such a lot, who’s made such a difference to so many lives, should feel so guilty.’
‘But...’ He was shaking his head, as if she didn’t understand.
Enough of this. ‘There’s no but about it. I might not have your training and experience in these things, but that doesn’t give you a monopoly on being right. Relationships take two people. None of us is solely responsible for what happens, and you don’t have to carry that weight alone.’
