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‘Thanks.’ That might be true, but it wasn’t helping.
‘At least we know to test the boyfriend now. If he is infected we have the chance to catch it early. And it might have been a little melodramatic, but Ava and her friends did the right thing.’
‘I’ll tell her that when I get home. In fact, I’ll call her right now.’
Thea gifted him with a wonderful, glittering smile. ‘I’ll let you do that. I’m just going out to the drinks machine.’
Lucas found himself rubbing his arm, where the tattoo lay under his shirt, as he watched her go. He’d put it there as the one permanent reminder of the woman he’d loved and then lost through his own selfishness. Now it was different. A reminder that he hadn’t just messed up his own life but hers as well. A reminder that he shouldn’t do so again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Week Six
‘HOW DID IT go with Ava last night?’ Thea asked the question as soon as the Monday morning meeting was finished and they were sitting at their desks, facing each other.
Lucas shrugged. ‘Oh, you know. She’s a teenager. I’m apparently a fatal flaw in an otherwise pristine stratagem.’
‘She said that?’
‘Yeah. She’s developing quite a line in carefully considered insults. I blame the debating society.’
Thea chuckled. ‘Good girl. So which part of the pristine stratagem did you manage to disfigure?’
‘Don’t you start. Safiya told her that we were going to talk to her mother this morning. She thought that I might give the game away.’
‘And I suppose you told Ava that it would look pretty fishy if we refused to talk to Safiyah’s mother, let alone being completely unprofessional.’
‘Yes, I did. Then I said that you’d undoubtedly rip my tongue out if I said a word out of place, and offered her ice cream.’
‘And the ice cream worked?’
‘Yep. I stopped off on the way home and got some Rocky Road.’ Lucas grinned at her. ‘I find that forward planning’s the key.’
She returned his smile, and the room suddenly lit up. It did that every time. ‘I prefer toffee fudge…’
‘Yeah, I know you do.’ The memory slammed him in the face. Toffee fudge ice cream, a hot day and Thea lying naked on his bed. Of all the times they’d eaten ice cream together, that had to have been the best. And probably the messiest.
He tried to put the memory back where it was supposed to be, somewhere in the portion of his brain that was not designed for access at random moments. Still it lingered faintly, like a cool summer breeze playing around his cerebral cortex.
‘So are you ready to go?’
‘In a minute.’ She was tapping away at her computer keyboard. ‘I’ve just got to quickly send my notes from the meeting off to Michael.’
* * *
Before she’d left the office, Thea had slung a bright silk scarf over her dark jacket, its indigo shades making her hair seem even more golden than usual. Lucas had complimented her on the way she looked and she’d blushed a little.
‘Dr Coleman. Welcome to my home.’ Safiya’s mother opened the front door with a self-possessed smile.
‘Thank you. And, please, call me Thea.’
‘What a lovely name. Mine is Amina.’ Amina led the way through to the sitting room and Thea sat down in the chair that she selected for her.
‘What a beautiful room.’
Amina nodded in acknowledgement. When Lucas had visited briefly to collect Ava, he’d never seen this room anything other than spotless, unlike his own living room, which sometimes showed signs of wear and tear, produced by one teenager and one busy doctor.
They went through the preliminaries of tea, and Thea pronounced her delight at the home-made biscuits. She asked how Safiyah was, as if this were a social call, and nodded solicitously at Amina’s answer. Then, as smooth as silk, she moved on to the business in hand.
