So she’d noticed. Alex couldn’t help smirking. ‘You think I’ve lost a bit of weight?’
She made a thing of eying him up and down. She was teasing, but her gaze made his stomach tighten with apprehension. When she grinned, it felt as if a warm wave was washing over him.
‘You’re in good shape, Alex. But you’ll probably need a proper suit for these functions that Sonya was talking about.’
Alex sighed. ‘Yes. Probably.’
‘How many suits did you have when you were a child?’ Marie homed in unerringly on the exact reason why Alex never wore a suit.
‘Oh, about a dozen, all told. New ones each year.’
‘That sounds excruciating.’
‘It was.’
But he was doing things on his own terms now. Marie had told him that, and she wasn’t going to underestimate him by reminding him again. In the silence he could feel her presence pushing the memories back and turning his gaze forward.
‘You’re right. I’ll order two new suits; that old one probably doesn’t fit me any more.’
She nodded. ‘You’ll be your own kind of excellent and glorious. What about some striped socks to match?’
Alex chuckled. His father would have blown a gasket at the thought of his wearing striped socks with a suit. Or with anything else, for that matter. Having to be excellent and glorious suddenly didn’t seem so bad.
‘Okay. Striped socks it is. You can choose them.’
* * *
The clinic’s first week was reassuringly busy. Marie and Alex had agreed on a ‘walking around’ approach, to see how things were going and to iron out any teething problems, and they took turns with it. One dealt with patients and any urgent paperwork, and the other simply walked around the clinic, visiting all the different departments and talking to people.
It was working well—the staff were encouraged to talk about any difficulties they had, and the clinic’s clients were beginning to know that either Marie or Alex would always be somewhere in the building if they wanted to chat.
‘Hi, Terri. How are things going?’ Marie saw a young mother with whom Alex had been working approaching her.
Terri’s older child had been born with spina bifida, and although surgery had closed the opening in her spine, the little girl had been left with weakness in her legs and needed a specialist exercise regime.
‘Good, thanks. This place is an absolute godsend.’ Terri beamed at her. ‘All that travelling we used to do to get to a hydrotherapy pool for Amy, and now we can just walk around the corner.’
‘You’re enjoying your swimming?’ Marie grinned down at Terri’s eight-year-old daughter and Amy nodded.
‘I’m going to swim too.’ Five-year-old Sam had been walking next to his sister’s wheelchair, hanging obediently onto the side of it. ‘I’m going to be a really good swimmer, and then I can help Amy.’
Terri grinned. ‘It’s great for both of them. We couldn’t afford the time to take Sam to a class as well, but the hydrotherapist says she’ll book Amy’s sessions at the same time as the junior swim class, so Sam can swim too. Usually he just has to sit with me by the pool.’
‘That’s great.’
It was exactly what the clinic was for. Helping whole families to cope. Terri was looking less tired than she had when Marie had first met her.
‘What’s that?’ Sam had left his sister’s side and was standing on his toes, peering through the window into the courtyard.
‘It’s our garden. If you’ve got time, you can come and have a look.’
Marie shot a questioning look at Terri and she nodded. Opening the door, Marie let Sam into the courtyard and he started to run around, stopping in front of each planter to look at the flowers.
Terri parked Amy’s wheelchair next to the water feature, so she could reach out to touch the plants around it. Then she sank down onto a nearby bench.
‘This is lovely. I could stay here all day.’
Sam and Amy were amusing each other, and Terri gave a satisfied smile.