‘This is nice.’ She stretched her legs out in front of her, smiling. Clearly she was attempting to disarm him before she started on the next onslaught. He wondered briefly if she knew how much damage her smile could do to a man.
The lights from the street outside were sliding across her face, giving it an almost ethereal quality and it was an effort to stop himself from staring at her. Alex was even more perfect than when he’d first met her. Or maybe he’d just become more of a connoisseur of perfection and learned how to appreciate it better.
He pressed the control button and the glass partition behind the driver’s seat slid upwards. Not that the driver probably cared two hoots about their conversation, but the gesture wasn’t lost on Alex and her cheeks reddened.
‘What happened?’ It was probably something stupid—she’d lost her phone or met an old boyfriend on the bus. But Leo had learned the hard way that hoping for the best didn’t always mean that the best was going to happen. He had to be sure.
She ignored the question. That usually annoyed him, but Alex did it so blatantly that the assertive twist of her mouth was enchanting.
‘I want to thank you. For standing up for me... I mean the charity. And our aims.’
‘That’s what a good host does.’
‘I know. But it doesn’t always happen, and... Thank you. You’re a very good host.’
People said that all the time, but on her lips the compliment warmed him. Despite that, he still hadn’t forgotten what he wanted to ask her...
‘What happened? On your way home.’
‘I had an accident. I lost my phone.’
‘What kind of accident?’ Something tingled at the back of Leo’s neck. That instinct, honed over years of listening to people, told him that whatever she was about to say next was important.
‘I got off the bus and crossed the road...’ She paused for a moment, as if the memory was a difficult one.
Leo was trying not to put two and two together and make four. Hoping that the almost inevitable conclusion wasn’t the right one, this time.
‘And...?’
‘I was knocked over by a car. Drunk driver. I woke up in hospital and my phone was... I don’t know where it was. It was gone.’
A great wave of horror seemed suspended above his head, just waiting to crash down on him. ‘This was...’ He couldn’t even say it. His finger twitched, gesturing towards her right leg.
‘Yes. My right foot and the lower part of my leg were completely crushed. The only way I’d ever be able to walk again, or be pain free, was for them to amputate below the knee.’
The full horror of it washed over him in a suffocating wall of guilt and remorse. ‘Alex... I’m so sorry. If I’d known...’
‘You couldn’t have known.’
All he could think about was the trail of small events which had ended in this one great one. If he’d only done just one thing differently...
‘I should have seen you home.’ He remembered that he’d offered and that she’d told him no. If only he’d insisted. If they’d even just argued about it, and she’d missed her bus and had to wait for the next one...
‘What would you have done? There were witnesses and they said that the car swerved right across the road and hit me. There was no getting out of the way.’
‘I might have helped...somehow.’ Anyhow. If all he could have done was just hold her hand, then he would have done it with every ounce of his strength. But he hadn’t been there for Alex, and then six months later he hadn’t been there for his brother either. The thought seemed to be literally eating at him, taking great chunks of his flesh and leaving him quivering with shock.
Her gaze searched his face. ‘You would have put me back together again? That was beyond anyone.’
He couldn’t answer. Didn’t have words to tell her how sorry he was—for all she’d been through, and for his part in it.
‘Do me a favour, eh?’ Her voice was soft and he felt her fingers brush his arm. Clawing him back from the memories that swirled in his head.
‘Yeah?’ Anything.
‘I’ve given up on the what if because the past can’t be changed. I prefer to concentrate on what is.’ She shot him an imploring look. ‘Please...’
It was an effort to smile, but if Alex could do it so could he. ‘You’ve got it.’