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‘Thanks for sticking with me. I really appreciate it.’
‘That’s what friends are for.’ His gaze dropped from her face, and he seemed to be examining a spot in the far corner of the room.
She’d said something but she couldn’t remember what. She could see it in his face. ‘What did I say, Lucas?’
‘You said you felt terrible.’ He shot her a grin. ‘To someone with my medical training, that was relatively obvious.’
He was deflecting the question. There was something. Then she remembered. ‘Oh, no. Lucas, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it, I was sick.’
His gaze met hers. ‘You were right.’
‘You couldn’t have known. How could you have been there?’ She’d woken in the night, after dreaming of the darkness of the Bangladeshi police cell. And she’d cried, asking Lucas why he hadn’t come to fetch her. Why he hadn’t been there.
‘I just wish I had been.’ He reached forward, brushing her hair from her brow in a motion of exquisite tenderness. ‘You need to rest. I’ll bring you some more water.’
‘Wait.’ She caught hold of his arm. ‘I’m so sorry, Lucas.’
‘Hey, stop that.’
‘No, really. You’ve looked after me and all I did was give you a hard time.’
A grin crept over his face. ‘Not exactly.’
‘What?’ She knew that look. ‘What else did I say?’
‘When I got you into the shower and switched the water on, you must have thought we were still on our way home because you gave a great big sigh and told me it was raining now, and that was all you needed.’
That wasn’t so bad. She remembered him putting her back into bed, and that she’d felt clean and cared for. Safe…
Oh, no. Had she dreamed it, or had she actually said it?
‘Nothing else?’ I love you? Maybe she had just thought the words and never managed to say them.
He shook his head slowly. ‘No.’ He picked up the empty glass from the bedside. ‘You were muttering a bit but I didn’t catch any of it. I’ll get you some more water.’
‘Thanks.’ She wasn’t going to admit to saying it, and Lucas wouldn’t admit to hearing it. Thea wondered whether that meant that it really had never been said. She leaned back against the pillows, too tired to think about anything any more. Just that Lucas had got her through the night.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Week Nine
LUCAS’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION was delayed by a week so that Safiya and her family could come. Thea arrived half an hour early, wearing a powder-blue dress, which complemented her hair and skin perfectly.
‘You’re early.’ She looked gorgeous.
She smiled, and his heart started to beat faster. ‘I have something for you.’
‘Come in.’ He stepped back from the doorway. Ava had already gone over to her grandparents’ to help prepare lunch, and he was alone in the house.
She was holding a package, wrapped up in bright paper. Whatever it was paled into insignificance in comparison to thirty minutes alone with her before they were expected at his parents’ house.
‘Would you like something to drink? Ava’s been experimenting with fruit punch.’ He walked through to the kitchen and opened the fridge door and she giggled delightedly. ‘Yeah, okay. She did quite a lot of experimenting.’
‘And which ones of these are yours?’ She surveyed the line of glasses, each topped with foil and each of them containing a different combination of fruit juices.
‘Since Ava’s not here, I’m blaming her for all of them. Although I’m quite pleased with that one.’
‘It’s separating out.’
