“Do you like the phone, Laine?”
“The phone is amazing…”
“Then it’s yours, my treat.”
“But I…”
He doesn’t let go of my hand. “Laine, I want you to listen to me, can you do that?”
I nod. I could listen to him forever.
“Sometimes in life you have to let people take care of you. Sometimes you have to accept that people want to help, want to be there for you. Not people like Kelly Anne, who care only for themselves and their own selfish pursuits, people who want to treat you nicely. You deserve to be treated nicely, Laine. I don’t think you really know what it’s like to be cared for, not properly.”
“My mum, she…” I’m ready with the excuses again, but he silences me with a sigh.
“I want to take care of you, Laine. Will you let me?”
Those flutters in my tummy again. I don’t know what to say. I stare at him open-mouthed.
“If this is all too much, if you really don’t want me to be there for you, you only have to say. I’ll book you into a hotel while the work is being done on your house. You can take the clothes, and the toiletries, and the phone, and I’ll drop you there and make sure I keep my distance. You won’t ever have to see me again, not if you don’t want to. I can just be the kind stranger who helped you when you needed a friend. If that’s what you want.” He squeezes my hand again. “You only have to say the word.”
I stare. Mute. This terrible panic in my heart, a feeling of dread at the thought of him dropping me at a hotel and walking away.
“Laine?” he prompts, and I find the words.
“No!” I say, and my cheeks are burning. “Please. That’s not what I want. I want to stay with you. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I slam my mouth closed, searing with embarrassment, but he doesn’t seem to care. He doesn’t seem to care at all.
“Phew,” he says, and pretends to wipe the sweat from his brow. “You had me worried for a second there.”
His eyes are kind and bright, and I see him afresh, all over again. He really is perfect. The most perfect man I’ve ever met.
“I had to check,” he says. “I had to make sure I wasn’t railroading you into something you didn’t want.”
“You’re not,” I tell him, and I just come right out and say it. “I can’t believe this is real. I can’t believe you’re real. Things like this… they don’t really happen… not for me…”
“Oh, it’s real,” he says, and his eyes twinkle. “Now, let’s go and pay for that phone.”
I don’t argue with him this time.Chapter SixNickThe phone is in Laine’s lap as we drive back to mine, her fingers tracing the edges as though she’s trying to convince herself its real. She keeps looking my way. Fleeting little glances that melt my heart.
“Have you lived alone a long time?” she asks as we pull in through the gates.
I nod. “A while.”
“Do you get lonely?”
“Not anymore.” I meet her eyes as I park up on the gravel.
“I get lonely,” she says. “Got lonely.”
“Your mum goes away often?”
“All the time.”
I ask her the question I’ve been putting off. The one that defies all my sensibilities.
“Do you have anyone, Laine? A boyfriend or someone special…”
She shakes her head and I feel a stupid rush of relief.
“Do you?”
“No,” I say.
She nods.
We take her bags in from the car, and I come back for the box of her old belongings.
The new phone is quickly forgotten as she turns her attention back to Ted. She tries to push his stuffing back into his broken body, and once again I feel the strange weight of responsibility.
I like it. I like that feeling a lot.
I dig out a needle and thread from my utility drawer, and she hands him over without question and perches herself on the arm of the sofa as I get to work. Her eyes don’t stray from my fingers as I attach a tatty old leg back at the tear. My stitches are small and careful, making sure I line up the seams just so.
“Wow, you can sew,” she says, and I feel the gentle wash of relief as my work holds up to scrutiny. “You really can fix him,” she says. “I knew you would. I knew it.”
Her faith is like golden honey. Her smile is from the heart.
I fix Ted’s legs, and his arms follow easily enough. I take a breath before I line up his head, and his glassy eyes stare up at me as I stitch him up so carefully.
“Good as new,” I say as I hand him over.
“Better than new.” She hugs him tight. “He’s very grateful.” She giggles. “And so am I.”