Doctor On Her Doorstep

Adam turned away from the window and followed her through to the sitting room. ‘So, do we get to haggle over the rent now?’

She’d rather he didn’t. That way he had of quirking his eyebrow gave him an unfair advantage. ‘It’s seven hundred for the month. I’ll stock the fridge up for you.’

‘You will not. Seven hundred pounds is daylight robbery, this place is worth twice that. I may have been away for a while, but I haven’t lost touch with London property prices.’

‘I keep the rent low so I can pick and choose who I have here. Anyway, you can’t haggle upwards.’

‘Why not?’ He lifted one eyebrow.

‘You just can’t. I won’t have it.’

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘Okay. Done.’ Adam reached into his jacket and brought out his wallet. ‘Would you like a deposit?’

‘Not particularly. The place is empty anyway.’

‘Fair enough.’ He picked his mug of tea up from the coffee table and took a final swig. ‘I’d better get back on the road, then, and leave you to get on with your supper.’

Jenna flushed. He’d noticed that she was already on her third chocolate biscuit and was regarding the packet pointedly. So what? She was on her feet all day in a busy A and E department, not sitting in a leather chair behind a swanky desk, and she worked up an appetite. And she might not have curves, but at least her figure owed nothing to silicone. ‘Thanks. I’ll see you in a week’s time, then.’

CHAPTER TWO

SUNDAY morning. Ten-thirty. Jenna should have been drinking tea and reading the paper, but instead she was studying the street outside. A car drew up and she twitched the muslin curtains back into place, stepping away from the big bay windows.

The bell sounded when she was halfway down the stairs. As soon as she opened the door, a four-year-old bundle of energy launched itself at her.

‘Hello, Ellie. Did you have a nice holiday?’ She nodded at Rob and crooked her finger at him. ‘Come in. You’ve got some explaining to do.’

Nothing was going to dent Rob’s good humour this morning or dim the violent hue of his Cornwall Surfers T-shirt. He followed Jenna up the stairs, replying indulgently to Ellie’s chatter, and flung himself into an armchair while Jenna fetched some juice, a pad of paper and a box of assorted pencils and crayons for Ellie.

‘Don’t give her that pad, Jen. She’ll only make a mess of it.’ Rob was looking at the thick, white cartridge paper that Jenna had put in front of Ellie.

Jenna nodded at Ellie, who was smoothing her hand across the pad. ‘You’re never too young to be able to appreciate the texture of nice paper.’ She bent and tore one of the thick sheets from the pad, clipping it on to a board for Ellie, and selected a soft pencil from the box. ‘Here you are, sweetie, try using this.’

Rob rolled his eyes. ‘Well, if she turns out to be the next Picasso, then I suppose we’ll have you to thank. Look, sorry about the mix-up last week.’

‘We managed.’ Jenna walked through to the kitchen to make some tea and Rob followed her. ‘You might have told me, though.’

‘Well, it’s a bit tricksy, you know how these things are.’

‘No, not really, not until you tell me.’

‘Okay, well, Adam’s a decent bloke. One of the best people I’ve ever known, in fact, but he’s not had it easy these last eighteen months. I’ve been trying to find him somewhere to stay where he can have some peace and quiet, get back on his feet.’ Rob shrugged. ‘Tactfully, you know?’

Rob was no good at tact, he usually left that kind of thing to Cassie. ‘Which explains all that cloak-and-dagger stuff in your email.’

‘Yeah.’ Rob brightened. ‘Yeah, that’s it.’ It wasn’t it at all. There was a whole list of other questions that sprang to mind.

‘So he’s not staying with you and Cass?’

‘No. We offered, of course, but he says that we’ve no room. And what with Cass being pregnant and everything …’ They both jumped as the doorbell went. If that was Adam, he was early.

‘Can you get the intercom?’ Jenna reached up into the kitchen cabinet for another cup. ‘And don’t worry. He’ll be fine here, and I’ll keep an eye on him.’

‘Thanks, Jen.’

Rob disappeared out of the kitchen and Jenna gave the teapot a swirl, even though she’d already done so once, and dumped it down on the tray. It would have helped if she knew what on earth she was meant to be keeping an eye out for, but Cassie would be a much better bet than Rob when it came to straight answers.

The commotion in the hallway indicated that the object of her speculation had arrived and that he was being greeted by both Ellie and her father at the same time, the child squealing with laughter and demanding a hug.

Jenna popped her head around the kitchen doorway. He was a picture of health and good humour, tanned, taller and broader than Rob and grinning as he lifted Ellie up so she could fling her arms around his neck. No trace of whatever it was that Rob was so concerned about.

‘Hello, there.’ His head jerked upwards as Jenna spoke.

‘Hi.’ He came forward, still carrying Ellie, who looked as if she was going to have to be prised away from him with a crowbar. ‘I hope we’re not crashing in on your morning.’

‘Not at all. Welcome back.’ She held her hand out to him, and he took it, his touch cool, measured. He seemed to be less careful about keeping his distance now that he was not alone with her, and held on to her hand for one moment too long before Jenna pulled hers back again.

‘Where is my present?’ Ellie was demanding now, beating her hands against his shoulders.

‘In a minute, honey. We’ll just collect the keys from Jenna and get out of her hair first.’ He was smooth, she’d give him that. Perfect poise. Nothing but easy charm.

‘I’ve just made tea.’ Jenna waved him into the sitting room. ‘And Ellie’s been doing some drawing, I expect you’ll be wanting to see that. Let her open her present here if she’d like to.’

When she brought the tea in, Ellie was already working on the package that Adam had given her. Pink paper on the outside, a pretty bow and layer upon layer of paper underneath, firmly bound with sticky tape.

‘Hope it lives up to all this anticipation.’ Rob was making no move to help his daughter as she whooped with delighted frustration, trying to rip the parcel open.

‘Me, too.’ Adam too was letting Ellie get on with the task of unwrapping her present unaided. ‘So how was the holiday? Catch any waves?’

‘Fabulous. We were on the north coast, and the hotel was close to this great little surf beach, so I could go out first thing in the morning and make it back in time for breakfast.’

‘Nice one. You’ll have to come back to Florida soon.’ Adam accepted a mug of tea from Jenna, taking a grateful sip.

‘We will. You can sit on the beach with Cassie and the kids and I’ll show you how it’s done.’

‘Yeah, right, in your dreams.’ He shot a bright grin at Jenna. ‘Takes more than a hideous T-shirt to make a surfer. What was Cassie thinking, letting you go out in that?’

Rob laughed. ‘She reckons that if I go out in it then she won’t have to put up with it around the house.’ He ran his hand over the garishly coloured fabric. ‘What, don’t you like it?’

Ellie’s delighted squeal meant that Adam never did get to deliver his verdict. She’d reached the inside of the package and was holding up a string of beads.

‘Aren’t they pretty?’ Ellie brought the beads to Jenna to show her and when she examined them carefully she could see they were hand painted, each one different.

‘I got them in Mexico.’ Adam watched as Jenna carefully wound the beads around Ellie’s neck for her, nodding with approval. ‘You look beautiful, honey.’

Ellie was climbing up on the sofa, between Adam and Rob, to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the fireplace, and Rob tugged at her sleeve. ‘What else have you got, then, El?’ He gestured to the folded fabric that still lay amongst the ruins of the wrapping paper.

Ellie pulled the fabric out, turned it around a couple of times then held it up against herself, and Jenna caught a glimpse of colourful embroidery on a white cotton background.