LITMIR.BIZ

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holes in the lids.’

      The lights were on in the house and Luke said, ‘Sue will still be up.’ He sent a wary glance in her direction. ‘She’s busy packing. Do you want a word?’

      ‘Yes, why not?’ she said as all her forebodings came back to the surface, and they both went upstairs to Sue’s room.

      ‘So you are off to France, Luke tells me,’ she said after the two women had greeted each other.

      ‘Yes,’ Sue replied, looking perkier than she’d been in weeks.

      ‘And the boys aren’t going with you?’

      ‘No. I don’t want them to miss school.’

      ‘So you’re leaving Luke to see to things while you’re gone.’

      ‘Yes. He says everything will be fine.’

      ‘I’m sure he does.’ She gave her friend a swift kiss on the cheek and said, ‘Have a lovely time, Sue. Maybe when you come back you’ll be a little nearer to facing a future without Gareth.’

      Forlorn once again, Sue whispered, ‘I hope so.’

      Having looked uncomfortable while the conversation was taking place, Luke spoke into the silence that followed and said, ‘I’ll run you home, Megan.’

      As he went to find his car keys Megan knew she couldn’t leave Sue like this. Putting her arms around her, she said gently, ‘It can only get better. You’ve been at rock bottom, the way now is upwards. I’ll do what I can to help Luke while you’re away.’

      * * *

      ‘So?’ Luke said as he drove up the hill towards her cottage. ‘Am I still in trouble now you know that Sue is definitely going to France?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I really don’t know. I was ashamed back there because I wasn’t being as supportive as I should. Yet I still feel that you are letting me down by taking on this huge burden of responsibility.’

      ‘So you feel that nothing has changed since our few heated words in the lunch-hour.’

      ‘Yes and no. I’ve had a lovely time mothing with you and the boys, and presume you delayed telling me that Sue was almost ready to leave because you didn’t want to spoil things.’

      ‘Correct, and spoil things it has, hasn’t it?’

      She didn’t reply to that. ‘I can’t think straight,’ she said wearily as he pulled up in front of the cottage. ‘I ought to be praising you for your kindness and tolerance instead of complaining, but I can’t. I’ll see you in the morning, Luke. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.’

      He quirked a dark eyebrow in her direction and commented wryly, ‘It can hardly be worse, can it? I may as well tell you the whole thing where Sue is concerned. She’s flying out of Manchester tomorrow at ten o’clock in the morning, and before you ask, no, I have not offered her a lift to the airport. A taxi will be picking her up. She needs to be there at least two hours before the flight, and if I took her it would make me late for morning surgery.’

      ‘By all means feel free to let me know that I’m selfish and opinionated,’ she said tightly as she got out of the car. ‘Goodnight, Luke.’

      * * *

      He did not want it to be like this, Luke thought grimly as he returned to Woodcote House. He wanted to get to know the student from way back, who was now a country GP. When he’d agreed to stay with his sister and keep an eye on the boys, the last thing he’d anticipated had been being left in complete charge of them and the business almost as soon as he’d arrived in the village.

      He also hadn’t expected that an old attraction was about to rekindle. Life with Alexis had made him loth to get involved in another relationship, but now he wasn’t so sure.

      Back at the cottage Megan was admitting to herself that part of her annoyance was pique, because in the kind of life that Luke was planning for himself in the weeks to come, there wasn’t going to be much room for her.

      * * *

      He was there before her the next morning and she wondered if he was trying to prove a point.

      ‘Did Sue get off all right?’ she asked, making no comment on his early arrival.

      ‘Yes. She’ll be killing time at the airport by now, I would imagine.’

      ‘And the boys?’

      ‘Breakfasted and on their way to school, and if you’re going to ask if I’ve washed the pots and made the beds, the answer is no. The breakfast things went into the dishwasher and, wait for it, I asked Sue to find me a cleaner and a housekeeper. So bedmaking will be part of her duties.

      ‘She didn’t tell me that she’d found me both, until late last night, and I did wish she’d mentioned it earlier. It would have made you feel less uncertain of me if you’d known, wouldn’t it?’

      ‘Yes, possibly,’ she said flatly. ‘Who are they?’

      ‘I haven’t met them yet, but the cleaner is Connie, and according to Sue she was grateful for the extra hours. The other person is someone called Rebekah Wainright. She’ll be working from twelve until six each weekday. Hopefully she will be there when I get home this evening so that we can introduce ourselves. But the main thing is that she’ll be around when Oliver and Owen come home from school. The last thing those two young ones need at the present time is coming home to an empty house.’

      ‘I know Rebekah Wainright,’ Megan said. ‘She’s a friend of Aunt Izzy’s, and a good soul. I’m glad for both our sakes that Sue sorted all that out before she left.’

      It was another dawn, another day, she thought. If she’d known yesterday what he was telling her now, she wouldn’t have got herself in such a state. Now it was her turn to make a peace offering and, smiling across at him, she said, ‘Last night I told Sue I would do all I could to help while she was away, but I was in an awkward position, torn between my commitment to the practice and the problems of a friend. I hope you’ll forgive me, Luke.’

      ‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ he said quietly. ‘I let my longing to make life easier for Sue and the boys make me forget what I’m here for. And with regard to that, Megan, ten minutes to go and it will be time for the Riverside Practice to swing into action.’

      ‘How do you manage to be so good-humoured all the time?’ she asked as she perched on the corner of her desk and flipped through the mail. He didn’t answer and when she looked up his face was thoughtful.

      ‘It’s because I’m content, I suppose. I’m here in this beautiful place with those I care about. When we knew each other before I was not at my best. I was at the tail end of a divorce and disillusioned with womankind in general. But I’m over all that. Ready for new beginnings, and coming here is one of them.’

      ‘I see. Was that why you took such a dim view of the Valentine I sent you?’

      It was out, she thought. She’d done the thing she’d been dreading and was waiting to hear what he had to say.

      He shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that. My first reaction was amazement when I found it on my desk amongst an assortment of others. For a few seconds I was flattered, until it dawned on me that it might be a joke. I remember that I handled it badly.’

      ‘They were all doing it,’ she said hastily, ‘and I thought I’d join in. It was a stupid thing to do, I’m afraid.’

      ‘Think no more of it. I’d forgotten it.’

      It was a lie, of course. He hadn’t forgotten it, or her. But she wasn’t to know that and instead of being relieved to have cleared the air Megan was wishing she’d never mentioned it. She’d presented Luke with the opportunity to let her see she meant nothing in his scheme of things.

      When she went to make a quick

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